Khamenei’s Regime Declares Total Surveillance: Every Iranian Now a Suspect
In a disturbing escalation of its police-state tactics, the Islamic Republic of Iran has openly admitted that citizens’ phone calls — including ordinary conversations with family members inside and outside the country — may be monitored. This declaration came straight from the head of the regime’s Cyber Police, Brigadier General Vahid Majid, signaling that no communication is off-limits in the Islamic Republic’s latest campaign to stamp out dissent.
This is not about “security.” It’s about control.
Fear of Uprising, Justified Repression
The timing is telling. With popular resentment still simmering after years of protests — from the 2019 fuel uprisings to the 2022–2023 Women, Life, Freedom movement — the regime is bracing for the next eruption. Rather than offering reform or loosening the grip, Khamenei’s ruling clique is doubling down: they see total surveillance as their only option for survival.
Rather than being on the defensive, the regime now feels justified and emboldened in tightening the screws. The fear of revolt is no longer something to be denied — it’s the excuse to implement full-spectrum digital repression. And this is just the latest example.
Repression by Design: A Pattern, Not an Anomaly
The regime's strategy follows a familiar and chilling pattern — using digital infrastructure and national “emergencies” as cover for silencing Iranians at scale.
Internet Throttling and Blackouts
Whenever unrest brews — whether during protests or amidst geopolitical escalation — the regime cuts access. Most recently, the internet was blacked out for over 12 hours, under the pretext of preventing cyberattacks from Israel. The truth? It was a deliberate act to preempt dissent and disable internal coordination.
This mirrors previous blackouts during major protest waves — especially in November 2019, when a week-long shutdown coincided with the massacre of over 1,500 protesters. The regime knows: no internet means no videos, no mobilization, no evidence.
The Nazer App and Facial Recognition Surveillance
In the name of enforcing the hijab and suppressing “social deviation,” the regime has deployed facial recognition systems, drones, and a mobile app called Nazer, which allows regime loyalists to report women for “improper dress.” Those identified face digital fines, car impoundment, and in some cases, imprisonment — all without due process.
Brutal Consequences for Protesters
The aftermath of the Mahsa Amini protests was a case study in regime violence. Over 500 Iranians were murdered, and more than 20,000 were arrested. Executions of protesters followed — some after sham trials, others in secret. This is the regime’s real digital legacy: not development or innovation, but surveillance, silence, and death.
The Psychology of Total Control
This is not a government responding to threats. It is a paranoid regime obsessed with preempting rebellion. The surveillance of phone calls is not just an invasion of privacy — it’s psychological warfare. It conditions Iranians to self-censor, to feel watched even in the intimacy of a family conversation. The message is clear: there is no safe space.
The Islamic Republic wants every Iranian to feel isolated, afraid, and under constant suspicion. Its tools may be modern, but its mindset is medieval: obedience through terror.
What we are witnessing is the normalization of tyranny under the guise of national security. The regime has collapsed intellectually, ideologically, and morally. But rather than face the reality of its failures, it is building a prison around 85 million people.
This is why the monitoring of calls is not just a technical issue. It is the latest expression of the regime’s fear of the Iranian people — a fear so profound that even a whispered word between relatives is seen as a threat.
From throttling the internet to deploying spyware apps to killing protesters in the streets, the regime is telling the world who it is. And Iranians — especially the younger generation — are telling the regime exactly what they think of it: they are not afraid anymore.
The Khomeinist regime fears its own citizens more than any foreign power. And it should.