I was only five when I first saw a man hanged in public. The city square was crowded. It was in front of my father’s workplace. The condemned was accused of street-level drug dealing. I saw his family wailing, scratching their faces, collapsing as the noose was tightened. That image has never left me.
Today, as an Iranian living in Australia, I speak freely. I moved to this country seven years ago and was silent for three years, but ever since I chose to speak up I can no longer return home. If I did, I would likely face the same fate.
I’ve spoken out against the regime. I’ve organised rallies in support of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. I’ve carried Iran’s old flag – our true flag, the one with the lion and sun – at those rallies and at vigils alongside Jewish Australians in Sydney. And I’ve spoken publicly, including on a Quillette podcast, about why I stand with Israel and why I support its war on the Iranian regime. That podcast has also sparked backlash – from the pro-Palestinian crowd, from leftist activists and from pro-regime Iranians who live freely in the West while doing the clean-up work of a brutal dictatorship.
Why does it provoke so much ire to see Iranians and Israelis standing together? The answer lies in the way hatred has become a political instrument.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is not a normal government. It is a theocratic mafia, propped up by terror, built on exporting hatred. Since 1979 it has funded and armed proxies – Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad – while crushing dissent at home. Its leaders chant “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” not because of any strategic logic but because this hatred is what justifies their power.
And when they see Jews and Persians embracing each other in peace, it threatens the foundation of that power.
I didn’t grow up hating Jews or Israelis. My family were not political. But in school and across the media we were bombarded by anti-Israel propaganda. Every morning we had to line up like soldiers and chant “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.
Afternoon TV programming for kids was sandwiched between news from Israel at war, showing its opponents as poor, defenceless, suffering victims while portraying Israelis as monstrous, inhumane, geared-up soldiers. Every year the state-managed charity program would start, under the name of “festival of emotions”, by showcasing war-torn areas of Palestine and Lebanon, collecting money.
Little by little I learned this was not genuine. Though we did not have access to outside media, often I would hear from my parents and other people that all this was a scam. The internet was almost non-existent until 1995, and up until 2005 it was exclusive to dial-up services. At the same time online censorship started and became much stronger as time went on.
Accessing outside information meant breaking through state digital censorship. I had to learn how to use VPNs, to hide browsing information and my identity. The more I learned, the more I realised we had been lied to. The regime wants us to hate Israel, the West and our own history because when you are driven by hate your brain is controlled by those who own the narrative. They perpetuate that hate to keep that control.
In October 2023, I stood with a small group of fellow Iranians at a rally in Sydney’s Town Hall. We were there in solidarity with victims of the Islamic Republic regime, namely Armita Garavand, who was killed for not wearing a hijab, and families of Israeli victims and hostages taken on October 7.
We held our flags and signs that read: “Iranians stand with Israel.” We chanted against terrorism. And we were shouted at, smeared as child-killers and accused by the leftists, including other Iranian refugees and asylum-seekers who opposed our political viewpoints, of supporting genocide.
A year before that, during Woman, Life, Freedom protests, we were told by leftist activists not to wave our flag because “it would cause division”. But I did not give in and I never will. I won’t apologise for standing with the people who were massacred that day: babies, the elderly, entire families.
I understand why the regime fears Israelis and Iranians uniting. It upends the script. Iranians are supposed to hate Israel. Jews are supposed to fear us. But in reality many Iranians support Israel. We see it as a nation that defends itself, that has resisted the same enemy we are fighting: Islamist totalitarianism.
We have a long shared history. Jews have lived in Iran for millennia. Our crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, visited Israel in early 2023. He was warmly received by the people and the officials. Many of us consider him the only true alternative to the Islamic Republic.
I support the return of monarchy in Iran, not as nostalgia but as a political model that offers stability. Monarchy isn’t inherently oppressive. Our ancient system, restored as a constitutional monarchy, could offer the counterweight we desperately need against political Islam. But none of this matters if people in the West keep pretending Iran’s regime is a victim.
Some argue that concern about Iran’s nuclear ambitions is just a repeat of the Iraq weapons of mass destruction debacle. But unlike Iraq in 2003, the Iranian regime has made its intentions perfectly clear: it doesn’t just want nuclear weapons. It wants to use them to secure its Islamic caliphate forever, or annihilate another country if threatened. That’s not a secret. It’s doctrine.
I’ve paid a price for speaking out and breaking the dominant narrative. I will never see my home again so long as this Islamic Republic regime is in place. I’ve made peace with that. What I haven’t made peace with is the complicity of those who demonise us – those who would rather smear Iranian dissidents and Israeli victims than confront the real source of suffering in the Middle East: the Islamic Republic regime in Iran.
Danial Taghaddos is an Iranian dissident and political commentator based in Australia. He is co-founder of the Meheran Foundation, an organisation dedicated to the revival of Iran’s constitutional monarchy. This article was co-written with Zoe Booth, who is content director at Quillette.
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