Angus Taylor’s claim that Iran is a ‘bad country’ erases the courage of those who resist the regime at all costs |
Recent remarks by the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, including comments describing Iran as a “bad country” and suggesting migrants from such nations may hold “subversive intent”, reveal a failure to differentiate between authoritarian regimes and the people forced to live under them.
This framing blurs the critical distinction between oppressor and oppressed while “othering” entire communities and obscuring the reality that many Iranians are actively fighting for freedoms that underpin democratic societies such as Australia; freedom of expression and belief, access to justice, bodily autonomy, and the right to live without fear of arbitrary detention or state violence.
Extending that judgment to the Iranian people is flawed.
Authoritarian systems do not reflect the will of their populations. Iranians do not freely choose their government, nor do they have meaningful avenues to hold it to account. Attributing the regime’s actions to its citizens misrepresents the nature of authoritarian rule.
There is no disputing the fact that the Iranian regime is repressive. It rules by coercion, suppresses dissent and has been responsible for systemic human rights abuses, ranging from arbitrary detention and torture to the targeting of women, minorities and its political opponents, often enforced through executions. If anything warrants unequivocal condemnation, it is the regime’s conduct.
But reducing Iranians to “bad” erases the courage of those who have resisted the regime at immense personal cost and misrepresents why people........