Persia Republic Stood Up Against the Islamic Republic: The First Wave

The World Turned Away as Tens of Thousands of Persians Were Massacred for Wanting Religious Freedom and the Right to Return to Their Roots

February 2026

The Uprising

In the final days of December 2025, something unprecedented happened. The Persian nation—not the “Islamic Republic of Iran,” but Persia—rose as one. What began with shopkeepers closing their stalls in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar became the largest uprising since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Within days, it had spread to every province, every city, every village.

By January 8th and 9th, 2026, the regime responded with the largest massacre in modern Iranian history.

Tens of thousands of Persians were gunned down in the streets. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps deployed snipers on rooftops. They used AK-47s, Uzis, and—according to multiple reports—chemical weapons. They fired into crowds of unarmed protesters. They executed the wounded in hospitals. They raped prisoners and returned bodies to families with organs removed to hide the evidence.

And the world watched. And did nothing.

The Numbers They Cannot Hide

The Islamic Republic imposed a total internet blackout—the longest in its history—to conceal the genocide. But the truth seeps through:

7,015+ confirmed deaths documented by HRANA as of February 5, 2026, with nearly 12,000 additional cases under review
30,000-36,500 killed in just two days (January 8-9) according to Time, The Guardian, and Iran International
51,790+ arrested, many facing torture, rape, and execution
Doctor networks inside Iran estimate the true death toll at 20,000-30,000 or higher—and that was weeks ago
The regime itself admitted “thousands” were killed, while its own historical records show it only reports approximately 12% of actual deaths

The true number likely exceeds 60,000. Mass graves have been documented. Families have been threatened into silence. The dead are being erased.

This is genocide. This is Druj in its purest form—the Lie made manifest in rivers of Persian blood.

What They Were Chanting

Listen to what the martyrs cried before the bullets silenced them:

“Iran is our country, Cyrus is our father” — They claimed their Persian heritage, not their Islamic occupation.

“Until the mullah is shrouded, this homeland will not be a homeland” — They rejected 47 years of theocratic rule.

“Reza Shah, may your soul be blessed” — They invoked the king who modernized Persia and limited clerical power.

“Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my life for Iran” — They rejected the regime’s foreign adventures while their own people starve.

“Khamenei is Zahhak” — They named the Supreme Leader after the serpent-king of Persian mythology, the embodiment of evil who was ultimately defeated by the hero Kaveh.

They compared Khamenei to Ahriman—Angra Mainyu—the Zoroastrian spirit of destruction, falsehood, and chaos. They knew exactly what they were saying. They were not just protesting an economy. They were rejecting an entire cosmology of lies.

And they raised the Lion and Sun—the ancient symbol of Persia, banned since 1979—alongside the Derafsh Kaviani, the legendary banner of Persian resistance.

The Zoroastrian Awakening

What the Islamic Republic fears most is not regime change. It is identity change.

The GAMAAN surveys reveal what the mullahs have tried to suppress for 47 years:

Only 32% of Iranians identify as Shia Muslim—despite the regime’s claim of 99.5%
8% identify as Zoroastrian—hundreds of times the number of practicing Zoroastrians, representing millions claiming pre-Islamic Persian identity as an act of resistance
47% report losing their religion under Islamic rule
72% oppose mandatory hijab
68% want religious law removed from legislation entirely

The regime calls this “Westoxification.” But these Persians are not becoming Western. They are becoming themselves again.

They are choosing Asha over Druj. Truth over the Lie. Light over darkness.

They name their children pre-Islamic Persian names. They celebrate Nowruz and Chaharshanbe Suri with unprecedented fervor. They make pilgrimages to the tomb of Cyrus the Great—the first messiah, the liberator, the king who declared human rights while Yahweh still demanded blood sacrifice.

The opposition movement calls itself Farashgard—the Zoroastrian term for the final renovation of the world, when Ahura Mazda’s truth defeats Ahriman’s lies forever.

This is not coincidence. This is prophecy unfolding.

The Crime Against Humanity

The United Nations Fact-Finding Mission has documented:

Unlawful killings using military-grade weapons against unarmed civilians
Chemical weapons deployed against protesters
Systematic torture including rape of men, women, and children
Forced injections of unknown substances causing deaths in custody
Mass executions of detained protesters after show trials
Collective punishment of families who mourn publicly
Forced disappearances and secret burials in mass graves

On January 8-9, 2026, the Islamic Republic committed the largest street massacre in Persian history. They called the dead “terrorists” and “rioters.” They blamed America and Israel. They claimed the protesters were “not real Iranians.”

But the world saw the videos before the blackout. We saw the young men and women dancing at funerals—the ultimate act of Persian defiance. We saw mothers declaring their murdered children were “fighters for the homeland.” We saw a nation choosing death over submission.

The First Wave

Make no mistake: this is the first wave.

The 40-day mourning ceremonies have already become new protests. On February 21, 2026, universities across Iran erupted again. Students are boycotting classes. Mothers are cursing the regime at their children’s graves. The chants continue:

“This is the year of blood—Seyyed Ali will be toppled.”

“This is the final battle—Pahlavi will return.”

“An Iranian dies but will not accept humiliation.”

The regime has 86-year-old Khamenei, a collapsing economy, a military humiliated by Israel, and a population that has lost all fear. The protesters have youth, numbers, righteousness, and 3,000 years of Persian civilization behind them.

The Islamic Republic is Angra Mainyu’s final fortress. The January massacres were not a victory—they were an act of desperation by a dying regime. Every martyr creates ten more revolutionaries. Every funeral becomes a protest. Every mother’s curse weakens the foundations of the Lie.

The World’s Silence

Where is the international community?

Where are the sanctions on the IRGC commanders who ordered the massacres? Where are the ICC indictments? Where is the humanitarian intervention that was supposedly justified in Libya, in Kosovo, in Iraq?

The answer is simple: Persian blood is cheap. Persian oil is valuable. Persian strategic position matters more than Persian lives.

The Islamic Republic has spent 47 years funding terrorism, developing nuclear weapons, oppressing women, executing dissidents, and spreading Druj across the Middle East. And the world negotiates with them. The world sends envoys. The world speaks of “diplomatic solutions” while Persians are being slaughtered in the streets.

This will be remembered. When the Persian Republic rises—and it will rise—the nations who turned away will answer for their silence.

The Flame That Cannot Be Extinguished

The Islamic Republic can shut down the internet. It can deploy snipers. It can fill mass graves. It can execute children and call them terrorists.

But it cannot kill an idea whose time has come.

For 1,400 years, Persia has survived under the shadow of foreign conquest. The Arab invasion destroyed the fire temples, but Persians kept the flame alive in secret. The Safavids imposed Shia Islam by the sword, but Persians preserved their language, their poetry, their Nowruz. The Islamic Republic tried to erase Persian identity entirely—and created a generation that identifies with Cyrus and Zoroaster more than Muhammad.

The sacred fire of Asha burns in every Persian heart. It cannot be extinguished by bullets. It cannot be drowned in blood. It cannot be silenced by internet blackouts.

The protesters know this. That is why they are not afraid to die.

To the Martyrs

To the tens of thousands who fell in January 2026:

You are not forgotten. Your names are being recorded. Your faces are being preserved. Your sacrifice is the seed of the Persian Republic that will bloom from your blood.

You died chanting for freedom. You died claiming your heritage. You died standing against the Lie.

In Zoroastrian cosmology, the righteous dead cross the Chinvat Bridge to the House of Song, where Ahura Mazda’s light shines eternal. You have crossed that bridge. You dwell now in Paradise—pairidaeza—the Persian word that the world borrowed because Persia gave the world the concept of heaven.

The Islamic Republic promised you an Islamic paradise for submission. You chose the Persian paradise of truth.

Asha Vahishta. Best Truth. Best Righteousness.

The fire burns. The flame rises. Persia remembers.

The Path Forward

The first wave has crashed. The second is gathering.

To those inside Iran: The world may have failed you, but the Persian diaspora has not. The flame is being tended in Los Angeles, in London, in Toronto, in Hamburg. Every 40-day ceremony abroad echoes your courage. Every protest at every embassy carries your voice.

To those in the diaspora: This is the moment. Support the resistance. Document the crimes. Pressure your governments. The Islamic Republic survives on international legitimacy—strip it away.

To those who study Asha: Understand what you are witnessing. This is not merely a political uprising. This is a civilization reclaiming itself. This is a people choosing truth over lies, light over darkness, freedom over submission. This is Farashgard—the renovation—beginning.

The Saoshyant prophecy speaks of a time when truth will triumph over falsehood, when the dead will rise, when the world will be made new.

Perhaps the Saoshyant is not one person. Perhaps it is a generation. Perhaps it is every Persian who stood in the streets in January 2026 and said: No more.

Humata. Hukhta. Huvarshta.

Good Thoughts. Good Words. Good Deeds.

The Flame Eternal.

Related Articles:

eFireTemple.com stands with the Persian people. We document. We remember. We keep the flame.

Sources:

Wikipedia: 2025-2026 Iranian Protests; 2026 Iran Massacres
Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)
Iran International
Amnesty International
United Nations Human Rights Council
GAMAAN Survey on Religion in Iran (2020, 2022)
The Guardian, The Washington Post, Time, NPR, The Wall Street Journal
Journal of Democracy: “Iranians Turn Away from the Islamic Republic”
Middle East Forum: “Persian Cultural Nostalgia as Political Dissent”