Working and praying for Iran’s democratic future

Late in 1978, Daniel Dana, then a law student at the University of Paris, watched with growing worry as the Islamic Revolution loomed in his home country, Iran. It was just three months before the revolution toppled Iran’s monarchy, and the movement’s exiled leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had moved to a suburb of Paris. When Dana criticized Khomeini at a gathering of his supporters, an angry mob attacked the student, and the French gendarmerie arrested him for disturbing the peace.

Five years later, on Sept. 21, 1984, a car forced Dana’s Volkswagen off a narrow road near Paris, sending it over a cliff. He suffered spinal injuries and spent nine months recovering. It wasn’t the last time he faced danger from his activities opposing the theocratic-run Islamic republic: As leader of a paramilitary youth movement, he was sentenced to death in absentia three times by Iranian leaders.

Now 80 years old, Dana, an expert on comparative constitutional law, remains active in the Iranian opposition. Each week, he provides updates to the Iranian community in exile on current events in Iran, explaining, for example, the differences between the Iranian constitution of 1906/1907 and the current Islamic constitution. He has written dozens of books and papers explaining why Islamic ideology has been destructive for Iran. He believes that his writing has contributed to a shift in mindset, especially among the younger generation in Iran. One day, he says, Iran will become truly democratic.

“I am 100% sure that the regime will fall soon,” Dana said.

Many Iranians, both inside the country and across the diaspora in exile, oppose the Islamic regime. After 47 years of political Islam, they long to be free, and they support Israeli and U.S. efforts to topple the Iranian government. While the ongoing military campaign against Iran has given them renewed hope that change may be near, many Iranian dissidents in exile have already been waging their own campaign against the Islamic republic. They have spent years raising awareness of the regime’s crimes, encouraging fellow Iranians within their homeland and abroad, and working toward what they see as Iran’s inevitable democratic future.

Average Iranians are broadly believed to oppose the ruling regime, although the government is quick to suppress dissent. A poll of Iranians leaked last year found that 92% were dissatisfied with the country’s state of affairs. Ramin Parsa, an Iranian pastor living in Israel, noted that 70% of Iranians living in Iran are under age 40. “They heard from their parents and grandparents how Iran used to be a free and prosperous nation and have had enough of the oppression they grew up with,” he said.

Iranians take pride in their rich cultural heritage, which predates the Islamic republic by millenia. They are highly educated and identify more with their Western friends and allies than many of their Arab neighbors. Many revere King Cyrus of the sixth century B.C. as a foundational figure of their identity, recognizing his role in early concepts of human rights, including the liberation of the Jewish people. According to Dana, the Arab invasion 14 centuries ago destroyed Persian culture, setting Iran on a new trajectory.

Dana converted to Christianity in 1990 when he lived in Australia. He says that after Jesus appeared to him in a dream one night, he started studying the Bible and concluded it held the answers he’d been seeking all his life. In July 1990, while living in Jerusalem, he founded the PLIM Peace and Love International Movement to foster friendship between Iranians and Israelis. Dana calls Iran and Israel “twin sister nations” with a 2,700-year bond.

Another dissident, human rights activist Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay, fled to Canada with her family after her father was imprisoned, tortured, and nearly executed under the regime. As Afshin-Jam learned more about human rights abuses in Iran, she felt compelled to act. She successfully campaigned for the release of a teenage girl who faced execution for defending herself with a knife against sexual assault. In 2007, she co-founded Stop Child Executions, a nonprofit working to protect minors on death row in Iran. Following the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, she co-founded the Iranian Justice Collective to support the country’s path toward democracy. The network has grown to include more than 100 Iranian diaspora groups and hundreds of advocates coordinating efforts for change.

Afshin-Jam said that decades of political Islam enforced by a theocratic system has led many Iranians, particularly younger generations, to develop negative feelings toward Islam and to reject the fusion of religion and state power.

“The overwhelming demand I hear is for freedom of belief, the right to practice religion, or not, without fear or state imposition,” she said.

Afshin-Jam believes that her community’s advocacy has caused international perceptions to shift. Governments have sanctioned Iranian officials, listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, and removed Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She said there’s a growing understanding that most Iranians want complete regime change. “This regime does not represent their beliefs, aspirations, or future,” she said.

Another dissident is 47-year-old Marziyeh Amirizadeh, a Christian arrested for her faith and held in Evin Prison for 259 days in 2009. For leaving Islam, the regime sentenced her to death by hanging. In prison, she experienced unsanitary conditions, relentless interrogations, and psychological pressure to renounce her faith. Authorities released her after international pressure, and she eventually moved to the United States.

An advocate for persecuted Christians, Amirizadeh believes God allowed her to experience the brutality of the Iranian regime firsthand so she can help fight it. Her activism, she says, has helped build trust among audiences seeking reliable information about Iran despite the propaganda coming from Iranian leadership. Many now turn to her platforms to verify news and check what they read on mainstream media for credibility.

“Unfortunately,” she said, “this Islamic regime, through its so-called reformists, has not only deceived Iranians for many years but has also misled Western politicians and suppressed the true voice of the Iranian people.”

Over the years, the Iranian diaspora has worked to prepare for the future of Iran after the downfall of the Islamic regime. The National Union for Democracy in Iran, an Iranian American organization, recently created an emergency plan aimed at preparing for a democratic transition and reintegration into the international community. Its stated goal is to help build a “responsible and prosperous nation” once political change occurs.

Meanwhile, as activists outside of Iran advocate for change, other transformation comes from within. Dana estimates that between 8 million and 10 million Iranians have declared faith in Christ, unusual for an Islamic country. He believes that out of around 50 Muslim-majority countries, Iran will be the first to reject Islam as the state religion.

Pastor Reza Safa, a former Muslim and director of TBN Middle East, said he has heard Iranians cursing Muhammad on social media and watched footage of tens of thousands of Qurans washed down a river north of Tehran. Out of 75,000 mosques, he said, 50,000 are reportedly closed because of nonattendance.

“The Iranian people have tasted 7th-century Shariah law and they want freedom,” Safa said.