> What else do you need to know?

I do not base my beliefs in these matters on assumptions, I require proof. He may have been denied fair trial, but he may also have committed murder. He says he is innocent, but the court finds a different view; what more is there to say?

> She was not the first innocent to be cut down in the flower of her youth.

so how did she really die? Beaten? Strangled? Tortured? Heart condition? The details of the case matter because if people just protest on assumptions, they may not reflect the reality of the case (see George Floyd in the US who also had precipitating factors of substances in his body in addition to suffocation). That is, the upheavals and outcry could be based on a lie, and when a society accepts a lie as the basis for “change” they’ve already caused great harm.

> Sufficient and frankly a demanding reason to motivate any sensible human being

How about maintaining peace instead of agitating the authorities? There is so much worse that can result, innocents will die, violence will be unleashed in society, and what are the odds of success and who will repatriate the losses? Rebellion for the sake of rebellion is hardly a good reason.

Anyways, I don’t find sympathy with people who want to undress themselves. Who are in much better conditions than many worldwide. Not that the government is any better for its violence. But it is true some of the “protesters” also behave violently.

> We Iranians have made a determination. The Islamic Republic must go

Which “we”? To suppose to speak for the entire country, is quite presumptuous and silences voices that have not been amplified in popular media. Does “we” seek to impose their own power on the other people of Iran? Replicating the regime “we” sought to replace.

> whose heroic struggle you seek to diminish and discount:

I don’t believe taking off a hijab is heroic. This is a distortion picked up in social media, crafted by both internal and external influences that seek to paint a propagandistic narrative.

I can sympathize with innocent people being harmed and killed. I can sympathize with the anger at oppression. But I do not find sympathy in throwing a country into chaos and endangering countless lives, for little positive potential impact.

Who made you the representative of all Iranians? You represent only yourself.

As the previous author wrote, we know nothing about what really happened and the first victim in the information war between the West and Iran is the truth.

A much better question is who made Khamenei and I.R. “representative” of God and the Prophet and Ali and his sons.

This has absolutely -nothing- to do with the “West”. Those tropes do not work anymore. No amount of whataboutism will whitewash the crimes of I.R. against Iran.

What you just did is whataboutism.

You claimed "Iranians want X". I asked you who made you a representative of Iranians. You - of course - failed to answer and come up with a BS reply.

i have sympathy for human pain. i have several friends who have family in iran who are being persecuted for their beliefs, stripped of their rights, have their businesses destroyed, are denied access to university and are imprisoned if they share their beliefs with others. yet, none of them would resort to violence or condone others violence in their name. they believe and pray for a peaceful and constructive resolution to this ongoing conflict.

As with you and your captive family in occupied Iran, I too abhor violence. The young man executed was accused of violence, and the "confession" obtained under torture. It is indeed the inherent "violent" nature of I.R. that is a blight on the Iranian nation. This nature was manifested, in words and deeds, from the very day that this minority assumed control over the destiny of Iran.

As a member of Iranian diaspora, my deep conviction is that decisions regarding the removal of this national & spiritual abomination from Iran and its future political orientation are primarily in the hands of Iranians who have lived and continue to reside in occupied Iran. Per your stated personal family sketch, you should be well familiar with Bahareh Hedayati who addressed the issue of violence in context of revolution in her letter from Evin. She is not alone in declaring that there remains no possibility of reforming the abomination, and as you must know, she is merely one out of thousands of the best of Iranians who are now held, illegally, in dungeons of the occupying regime of the so-called Islamic Republic. If you wish to discuss the mechanics of revolution and what is or is not acceptable, it would be best to direct your thoughts to those quarters. As it is, your comment in HN casting shade using "violence" seems 'misplaced'.