Shirin Ebadi: The Iranian government will fall sooner or later

Shirin Ebadi called the Islamic Republic's government unstable and the continuation of the current situation in Iran unlikely. While opposing foreign interference, this prominent lawyer called the return of sanctions a factor justifying the unrest by the Iranian government.

According to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian people will rise up against the Islamic Republic’s regime. “Today’s conditions cannot last,” the lawyer and human rights activist said in an interview published in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine on Tuesday, September 11. “The current situation is like a crooked wall that could collapse at any moment.”

According to Ms. Ebadi, although the current crisis has not yet reached large-scale proportions, “it is becoming more widespread every day. The rial is losing its value catastrophically and Iranians are living in fear and anxiety.”

The prominent lawyer, who herself was forced to leave Iran, also said that under the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, economic conditions have worsened, as has the human rights situation in Iran over the past five years. According to Ms. Ebadi, more than a thousand, perhaps two thousand, people are in prison in the country for political reasons, accused of spreading lies, espionage and acting against national security.

Shirin Ebadi says the main reasons for widespread discontent in Iran are economic problems, corruption and financial abuses of public funds, and a growing class divide. According to UNESCO statistics, Iran has the highest number of elite and academic emigration in the world.

The human rights activist adds: "I have no doubt that the Islamic Republic will one day cease to exist. This situation is not sustainable." In this interview, Ebadi also opposed changing the government through foreign intervention.