For more than four decades, the Islamic Republic has confronted a persistent challenge that it has never been able to eliminate: an organized resistance committed to ending clerical rule and establishing a democratic alternative in Iran.
This distinction is increasingly important as Iran experiences repeated waves of popular unrest. The protests of 2009, 2017-18, 2019, 2022, and particularly 2026, demonstrated the depth of public anger toward the regime. But they also raised a critical question for anyone assessing Iran’s future: What happens when spontaneous public anger encounters a government prepared to use overwhelming force?
The answer depends in part on organization.
THE HANGING OF AN IRANIAN ACTIVIST EXPOSES A REGIME AT THE END OF ITS ROPE
The Iranian opposition is often portrayed abroad as a collection of dissidents, activists, and diaspora groups. That description overlooks a significant reality: There is an organized resistance operating inside Iran, with networks capable of surviving one of the most repressive security systems in the world, and even growing.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran is a coalition of democratic opposition groups and individuals. Its principal and largest constituent organization is the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran. The distinction matters because the Resistance Units operating inside Iran are affiliated with the PMOI/MEK.
These resistance units are not simply another name for street protesters. They are part of an organized network whose members operate under conditions in which association with this movement can lead to arrest, imprisonment, or even execution.
That makes their persistence significant.
The Islamic Republic has spent decades attempting to destroy the MEK. The organization and its supporters have endured mass executions, imprisonment, intelligence operations, and a sustained campaign of demonization. The 1988 massacre of political prisoners remains one of the most notorious examples of this repression. Some 30,000 political prisoners were executed, with the MEK activists as the principal targets.
The repression has continued into the present.
Following the nationwide protests of recent years, Iranian authorities have arrested and executed protesters and activists accused of supporting organized opposition. The regime has repeatedly portrayed affiliation with the MEK as a security offense and has sought to prevent young Iranians from establishing contact with its networks.
Yet, the resistance units have continued to operate and significantly grow.
Their activities are designed to challenge the regime’s claim that it has absolute control over Iranian society. They have displayed symbols of resistance, distributed messages, encouraged acts of defiance, target centers of repression, and sought to keep opposition to the regime visible even when open demonstrations become impossible.
This is important because authoritarian governments are particularly vulnerable when spontaneous protest and organized resistance reinforce one another.
A demonstration can be suppressed. A network is harder to suppress.
A government can shut down streets, arrest demonstrators, restrict the internet, and deploy security forces. But an organization that has learned to operate clandestinely can preserve continuity and prepare for the next opportunity for mass mobilization.
That is precisely why the existence of the resistance units deserves greater attention in Washington.
The Islamic Republic has treated the MEK as a serious threat for decades. Tehran has devoted extensive political, intelligence, security, and financial resources to discrediting and suppressing the organization. The persistence of this campaign is difficult to reconcile with the argument that the organization is politically irrelevant.
The NCRI provides a political framework for the broader resistance. It is a coalition seeking to replace the Islamic Republic with a democratic, secular, and republican system. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect for the transitional period, has articulated a 10-point plan calling for free elections, political pluralism, freedom of expression, separation of religion and state, equality for women, protection of minorities, an independent judiciary, and respect for human rights.
Ultimately, however, Iran’s future must be determined by Iranians themselves. The purpose of recognizing an organized resistance is not to predetermine the outcome of a future election or to substitute an external power for the Iranian people.
It is to recognize political reality.
Washington has often approached Iran primarily through the institutions of the Islamic Republic: its government, security forces, nuclear program, regional proxies, and diplomatic representatives. These remain important. But a strategy focused exclusively on the regime can overlook the forces developing beneath it.
That is a misguided omission.
If the Islamic Republic enters a major political crisis, the decisive factor may not simply be the size of the demonstrations. It may be whether there are organized forces capable of sustaining resistance, communicating with the population, and helping transform mass unrest into a political transition.
This is where the resistance units become strategically important.
They represent an organized presence inside Iran that has survived decades of repression. Their existence means that the country’s opposition cannot accurately be understood solely through the lens of spontaneous demonstrations or diaspora politics.
There is, in other words, a structure beneath the street.
For policymakers in Washington, recognizing this reality does not require choosing Iran’s future government. It requires taking seriously the organizational dimension of the struggle against the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian people have repeatedly demonstrated that they want change. The question is whether the forces capable of helping bring that change about are being properly understood.
They should be.
TRUMP TALKS PEACE WHILE TEHRAN HANGS PROTESTERS. DON’T SIGN A DEAL WRITTEN IN BLOOD
Iran’s resistance is not merely an event that appears when people take to the streets. It is an organized struggle that has survived repression for decades, and is striving to bring about the change.
And that may prove decisive when the next major uprising comes.
Nasser Razii is an Iran-born independent analyst and writer based in London. Over the years, he has worked extensively with British and European parliamentarians on issues relating to Iran, human rights, and democratic governance. He is also associated with the democratic Iranian opposition and has been actively engaged in advocating a democratic, secular, and non-nuclear future for Iran.