Fall of the Oppressive Regimes
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Three hundred years ago, famine spread among French peasants, who stormed their king’s palace. They were horrified by the sight of the magnificent crystal chandeliers and the silk-draped walls of the palace. In the Russian Revolution of 1917, Russians forcibly entered their ruler’s palace and looted its rare treasures.
In Africa, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Emperor of the Central African Republic, wore a diamond-encrusted crown valued at five million dollars. However, this wealth and injustice did not last long; his rule was overthrown in 1979. In the Philippines, President Marcos and his wife Imelda were ousted in 1986. In their palace, protesters found luxurious clothing, a thousand women’s handbags, and 1,060 pairs of shoes, which Imelda had turned into a shoe museum.
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The Romanian people rose up against the communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, who plundered the country’s wealth during his rule while his people suffered in poverty. In late 1989, protests erupted, backed by the military. Morale soared among the people, who besieged his palace, terrifying Ceaușescu. He was forced to flee through the palace’s secret passages and escape the city by helicopter with his wife. However, some peasants captured him and handed him over to the authorities, who held a swift trial for him and his wife that lasted only two hours, broadcast on television. He was sentenced to death on charges of crimes against the state, genocide, and the destruction of the Romanian economy. Before his death, he had built a palace with a thousand rooms. To construct it, entire districts in the capital, Bucharest, had to be demolished.
In Europe, the Serbian people overthrew the tyrant Slobodan Milošević in 2000 after subjecting his people to poverty. In Central Asia, despotic regimes emerged in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Upon the liberation of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, US forces discovered bags filled with millions of dollars and boxes of premium Cuban cigars in Saddam’s palaces, as well as those of his sons Uday and Qusay. These were found alongside crystal chandeliers, artificial lakes in the fifty palaces Saddam had built, private cinemas, and pools where dolphins swam.
After Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and fled in 2011, Libyans entered his palace, looted it, and discovered that Gaddafi owned gold-made pistols and sat on a gold sofa. They realized he had lived in a world of opulence, vastly different from their simple and impoverished lives. Within a few weeks, the revolutionaries found him and killed him.
In 2017, Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, was ousted in a military coup. His rule was characterized by corruption, torture, the elimination of political opponents, intimidation, electoral fraud, and economic destruction. The country suffered from hyperinflation, to the extent that the value of its currency collapsed, causing beggars to refuse to accept one billion Zimbabwean dollars. Such economic ruin turned graduates into street vendors. This is a terrifying reality, undoubtedly. Similarly, the Sudanese people overthrew Omar al-Bashir’s regime in 2019 due to its brutality and tyranny.
In recent years, Iranians have endured the hardships of a harsh life, marked by high inflation and unemployment rates. Protests against the regime quickly spread across cities throughout the country. Protesters burned government buildings, banks, and gas stations, causing widespread damage to public property. Citizens chanted slogans against the government’s performance and the religious establishment, calling out: “No to Gaza... No to Lebanon, Death to Palestine, Down with the dictator,” and “Leave Syria and Yemen alone, care for us.” They even chanted for the downfall of President Rouhani and the Supreme Leader, and burned images of religious leaders.
The assassination of Khamenei last February, followed by the killing of senior Iranian leaders, has weakened the regime. These events seem to echo those of 1978, which preceded the overthrow of the Shah. There is no doubt that the situation in Iran is currently dire. We have long said, with certainty, that no condition endures forever; something must happen. Will a revolution erupt that topples the regime?
