Reformer in exile: Scholar says Iranian people reject regime’s ideology and terror tactics

Mohamad Machine-Chian knows firsthand the perils and risks of being a journalist in Iran.

Machine-Chian, now a senior researcher at the Center for Governance and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh — which is supported by the Pittsburgh Network for Threatened Scholars — is one of the architects of liberal reforms in Iran. A journalist as well as a scholar, his prolific writings challenge the post-revolution economy of the Islamic Republic.

While he is not connected to Iran’s reformist political parties, he identifies as a “reformer.”

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That doesn’t sit well with the government of the Islamic Republic.

“Iran is probably one of the worst places to be a journalist or a critic in general,” Machine-Chian told about 20 attendees at a June 24 event hosted by StandWithUs and moderated by Julie Paris, the organization’s MidAtlantic regional director. “As long as you end up with the status quo, you’re fine.” But the situation changes “as soon as you point out something, disagree on something.”

Before fleeing Iran in 2021, Machine-Chian was targeted by the regime for his writings, he said, “but I knew exactly what I was doing, and I knew the risks. So in a sense, I deserved it. I knew the consequences. I did it anyway.”

He described the oppressiveness of the regime, noting many Iranians “are getting into trouble even though they have done nothing wrong. Our women, for example, they’re under all sorts of pressure from the regime. … I can tell you, they make your life miserable. They do anything and everything to discourage you from the simplest things.”

For example, he said, “you receive text messages with the address of your parents’ home to tell you that we know exactly where they live — and not for criticizing the Supreme Leader or something, for criticizing a policy, a policy that is being discussed by the politicians of the Islamic Republic. So that is the tolerance threshold of these people.”

While he declined to offer specific details of the tactics used against him, he acknowledged that he was questioned by government officials.

“Compared to other journalists, compared to other critics, actually, I was one of the most successful in the sense that I never received any prison sentence,” Machine-Chian said. “And I was writing for almost 20 years. So actually, among Iranian critics, probably I have seen the least amount of cruelty from the regime.”

A ‘dual life’
The culture of the Iranian people, he stressed, differs markedly from the ideology of the regime that governs them.

“There is, unfortunately, a dual life,” Machine-Chian said. “There is your private life in the institution of family, of friends,” not too different from the social life of Americans. “Iranian culture in general is very tolerant.”

But public life is different.

“In the public life, you have to adhere to the exact proscriptions of the ayatollah, and the ayatollah’s whim knows no bounds,” he said. As a result, people “get in trouble for the most random things. … For example, if your heels are one inch too high — things like that. If you’re wearing a bad combination of colors — the morality police has, of course, discretion, and they take advantage of that discretion. And these are cruel people, of course. So this is a part of our daily lives.”

For years, Machine-Chian explained, “Iranian people tried to put up with all of that cruelty and everything. It got really hard to live like that, and it is still hard to live like that. So people started to push the boundaries. Women started to wear their scarves a little back, and a little more and a little more. And this makes, of course, the regime very uncomfortable, and they try to fight it. So there is a constant war going on in the Iranian society against the Islamic Republic.”

While official Iranian reports indicate that about 37% of Iranians support the regime, Machine-Chian said that other surveys show that support is actually in the single digits.

Because support of the electorate is low, he said, the regime maintains control through “ruling by fear.”

Opposition voices are suppressed, he said, making it difficult for Iranians to get accurate information. Journalists who have escaped Iran thus try to stay connected with those living under the regime.

Iran and Israel at war
Turning to the recent war between Israel and Iran, Machine-Chian said that the Iranian government was “turning against their own people.”

“This is unique about the Islamic Republic,” he said. “They shut off internet during the time that people were trying to leave cities like Tehran. And Tehran is a large city. We’re talking about 11 to 13 million people, and so imagine millions of people are trying to leave the city. They need to have access to information to know what’s going on, road navigation and everything.”

It was the Israeli government, he said, that tried to notify Iranians to leave certain areas so they would be safe.

“In the past 15 to 20 years, Israel has done more than 20 operations inside of Iran, all surgical, virtually no collateral damage to any civilians,” he said. “And Iranian people know this, and believe and appreciate that.”
During Operation Rising Lion, Israel “could have destroyed Tehran,” he said. “They didn’t do that. And again, people notice. People understand.”

Rejecting terrorism
Iranians also understand the dangers posed by their government’s support of terrorist groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, Machine-Chian said.

“They disapprove morally,” he said. “Of course they disapprove. Because what’s the result? What are we gaining by doing this? What else but pain and misery and fire and death of innocent people comes out of these groups? Nothing, really.”

There’s also a “financial argument” against Iran funding these groups, he said. “You’re sending billions of dollars, at the very least, to these groups,” while Iranians are having a difficult time providing for their families.

Because funding terrorist proxy groups is so unpopular, he said, the government “no longer really defends it or talks about it,” he said.

Following Hamas’ brutal invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Iranian regime attempted to force Iranian civilians into the streets to express support for Hamas, Machine-Chian said. The attempt was a “failure.”

“To be honest, for me it was painful that nobody in the free world was talking about this,” he said. “Iranian newspapers received a directive not to print any pictures from Tehran, because nobody was in the demonstration in Tehran, and they did their best. They organized concerts in the streets. So basically, there was music to come to the streets. People consciously decided not to show up. So if you look at Iranian newspapers … they had to print Paris and Istanbul, and that was disheartening.”

Despite the current state of the government of Iran, Machine-Chian remains optimistic about the future and the ability of the Iranian people to “build a free society.”

“The values of liberty, values of the free society, are already popular inside of Iran, and the people, time and again, have tried to actually dictate with blood and tears to get rid of our dictators,” he said.

“What gives me hope is that political Islam is already bankrupted, already rejected by everybody, according to the biggest surveys we’ve had,” he said. “Political Islam basically is finished. We don’t really have to do anything in order to get rid of bad aspects currently plaguing Iran.”

It’s just a matter of getting rid of the harmful political institution “to have a normal country and be a respectable member of the international community. And that is my hope, to be honest. I want Iran to be a normal country like any other, and stop doing stupid things.” PJC

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.