The Empire of Terror Podcast

history, government, news · EN

Welcome to an excerpt of Empire of Terror, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, written by Mark Silinsky and published by Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press. This is presented by Kensington Security Consulting, which brings education to national security. This excerpt comes from the introduction. In the early 1980s, many Western observers viewed the new government as a band of overzealous reformers who would moderate their rule once their fervor subsided. However, although the wholesale killings of the early years subsided, widespread repression continues, and the Guards remain the primary instrument of that subjugation. Today, Iranians under forty-five have little memory of Iran without the Guards. The Islamic Revolution established a new social order grounded in fundamentalist Islamic family ethics and values. In present-day Iran, there is little room for political, religious, or social deviation. A woman’s life is valued at half that