‘Yes, I am threatening you’: Iran’s regime quietly spreads chaos in an unprepared West

The Tehran regime harasses dissidents across the world, leaving no stone unturned in an effort to quash opposition. Meanwhile, governments do little to help, writes Borzou Daragahi

The stream of threats and intimidation has had an impact (AFP via Getty)

Medis is still not sure what exactly triggered the operatives of the Iranian regime to target her with such vehemence. One day she was one of numerous hardworking Iranians living as an immigrant abroad. The next day the 35-year-old Europe-based doctor and outspoken activist was receiving dozens of emails a day, threatening her with murder and rape. Her phone was flooded with menacing calls, including video messages from men holding up knives.

Then there was the random Iranian stranger approaching her and calling her a “whore” at a market in the European capital where she lives. And the phone calls by regime enforcers to her elderly parents in Iran, urging them to shut their daughter up, or else. “They told my mom, ‘We’re going to do something to your daughter so brutal that you won’t even recognise her corpse’,” says Medis, asking that her last name not be published for fear for her own security and that of her family.

What’s worse, authorities of the EU government where she lives all downplayed her concerns, and offered her no additional protection. “I am scared when I go out. I was forced to move and found a place that is close to the metro to limit the time I am out on the street. I don’t go out alone.”