Iranian-American analyst Lisa Daftari reveals – Latest News
As an Iranian-American political analyst who has devoted my profession to exposing the regime in Tehran, I do know firsthand the hazards of talking out in opposition to the Islamic Republic.
I reside in Los Angeles — home to largest group of Iranians outdoors the nation itself — the place I’ve handled threats for more than twenty years.
For these of us who’ve spent years telling the reality concerning the regime, the sensation is acquainted. They need us to know they’re right here.
Protesters in opposition to Iran’s present regime collect outdoors of SoFi Stadium forward of the World Cup match between Iran and New Zealand on June 15 in Los Angeles. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post
In 2006, after transferring to LA, a man I believed to be an operative of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) adopted me on foot by way of Westwood Village.
When I seen him, I ducked into a native store and walked the aisles for a jiffy earlier than he left.
In a extreme hacking attempt a few years in the past, my web sites, e-mail and social media accounts had been all taken over. On one other event, I used to be emailed the hyperlink to a web site on my birthday that includes my pictures and describing me a Mossad agent.
Hackers additionally accessed my images and despatched photos of me in a bikini to my husband’s e-mail. I understood precisely what they needed me to take from that — they may entry my non-public life. They knew who my husband was and how to succeed in him.
That is how intimidation works when the goal is 1000’s of miles from Iran. The menace reaches a member of the family. The individual exposing the regime’s abuses has to spend time recovering accounts and serious about what else has been compromised.
A professional-government supporter holds an Iranian national flag whereas standing beneath a giant banner depicting a symbolic image of a younger man, described as one of Iran’s “self-sacrificing” forces, in downtown Tehran on Thursday. NurPhoto through Getty Images
These threats have led me to work intently with the native FBI, and brokers have performed routine patrols round my home as a result of they acknowledge I’m a goal.
I obtain nonetheless threats each day on my X and Instagram accounts, however the expertise started long earlier than I made a profession of reporting on Iran.
When I used to be an undergraduate at Rutgers, a menace arrived in my scholar mailbox, written with letters cut out of a magazine.
The message was that they might get me. I used to be president of the college’s Iranian membership.
Then got here the heavy-breathing messages on my dorm room answering machine.
Eventually, the person threatening me approached me in individual. We acknowledged him as somebody who had volunteered for our Nowruz gala, our Persian New Year celebration. I understood him to be an operative of the IRGC.
I’ve been on the regime’s radar for a few years. Long earlier than I made a profession of reporting on Iran, I understood how far its intimidation may journey.
A protester holds an ‘Islamic Regime, Terrorist Regime’ placard in Park Lane during a march in opposition to the Islamic Republic and in assist of Reza Pahlavi, the Crown Prince of Iran, in London in February. SOPA Images/LightRocket through Getty Images
I bear in mind recording footage at a widespread café in Westwood Village during the World Cup. Iranian Americans lined their faces as a result of they feared repercussions back in Iran. Even watching a soccer match got here with a calculation about who would possibly see the footage and what may occur afterward.
That is what I considered once I learn Iran International’s newest report about a platform the Islamic Republic is selling to determine its opponents abroad.
The platform, referred to as Alaj, asks people to report Iranians overseas whom it considers threats to national security, in accordance with Iran International. The platform’s web site additionally publishes names and images, generally alongside national identification numbers and household info, the outlet stories.
Iranian state media declare the platform has recognized and monitored 1,600 people, together with 600 recognized by way of public submissions. The marketed penalties embody freezing property and withdrawing entry to consular and citizenship companies.
The regime is telling Iranians that leaving the nation doesn’t finish its authority over them. Speak freely overseas, and it’ll search for one thing it might probably nonetheless take from you.
Demonstrators supporting regime change in Iran march during a rally in Richmond Hill within the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada, on Feb. 28, 2026. Anadolu through Getty Images
Those of us who work on Iran acknowledge the message. They need us questioning who’s watching and whether or not somebody we have now welcomed into our group is reporting back.
The uncertainty does some of their work for them. An individual who worries about showing in a {photograph} could determine to remain home from a protest. A possible source could stop answering a journalist’s calls. The regime advantages each time somebody decides talking out is simply too dangerous.
Inside Iran, authorities have already put public informants to work by way of technology. UN investigators documented the use of the Nazer app, which lets vetted members of the public report girls for violating necessary hijab guidelines
Iran International stories that Alaj additionally permits the IRGC to ask people to determine citizen journalists and opponents online.
The similar strategy now reaches past the border. Everyone turns into a potential informant, and the individual being watched is meant to regulate his or her conduct accordingly.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian is seen during the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. Bloomberg through Getty Images
Beijing has helped provide the technology behind Iran’s surveillance capabilities. In 2023, Reuters, citing Wall Street Journal reporting, reported that merchandise from the Chinese surveillance company Tiandy had been offered to IRGC models.
For journalists and researchers overlaying Iran, the threats additionally arrive by way of seemingly routine skilled contacts. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International’s Security Lab documented an Iranian state-backed phishing marketing campaign utilizing faux convention invites to focus on people engaged on Middle East points, with some victims’ e-mail accounts compromised.
The hazard extends properly past stolen passwords. In March, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) seized 4 web sites it stated had been linked to Iran’s intelligence ministry. The web sites, DOJ stated, facilitated hacking and intimidation, together with death threats in opposition to dissidents and journalists. Publishing details about a goal may be half of making ready an assault or scary that individual into silence.
This is the regime’s tender conflict in opposition to people who expose it. The strain reaches into Western nations and challenges their capacity to guard free speech on their own soil.
People participate in a demonstration in opposition to the regime in Iran in central Berlin, Saturday, April 11, 2026. dpa/image alliance through Getty Images
For Iranian Americans in LA, the suitable to criticize Tehran must be as secure as the suitable to criticize Washington. Nobody ought to have to wonder if attending a group occasion will put a relative in Iran at risk. An American college must be a place the place a scholar can lead an Iranian membership with out being threatened by the federal government her household left behind.
American authorities ought to examine people who accumulate info for intimidation campaigns and pursue these answerable for threats. We need to take these stories critically, and technology firms ought to protect proof when their companies are used to focus on dissidents.
Tehran needs the people exposing its abuses to determine the associated fee is simply too high. It needs Americans to just accept that its attain extends into our communities.
We must be making it clear to the regime whose legal guidelines apply right here.
Lisa Daftari is a overseas coverage analyst and media commentator based mostly in Los Angeles.
