The Iranian American community ranks among the most successful, educated, and civically engaged immigrant groups in the United States.
Yet despite their achievements, they have remained deeply connected to their homeland and focused on one of Washington's most persistent foreign policy problems: the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Today, that challenge is entering a critical phase as an aging dictatorship confronts unprecedented internal crises and a restive population determined to reclaim its future.
For more than four decades, Tehran has ruled through repression.
Three years ago, the regime's leaders faced a nearly existential crisis in the Mahsa Amini uprising when millions demanded fundamental change.
Some Western observers assumed that calls for freedom would fade once security forces crushed the protests.
In reality, the 2022 revolt was part of a series of nationwide uprisings that began in 2018, continued in 2019, and then erupted in 2022 — each broader and more determined than the last.
The Iranian people's persistent calls for human rights and basic liberties in 2025 points to a simple truth: the discontent on the Iranian street is deep and wide; another countrywide rebellion is not a question of if, but when.
Iranian authorities seem to understand this better than anyone.
Their response has been to intensify repression, issuing politically motivated death sentences against ordinary citizens — even women and seniors — to instill fear.
Among the starkest examples is Zahra Tabari, a 67-year-old woman recently sentenced to death for allegedly supporting the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
Such actions do not convey strength; they expose the regime's growing panic.
Against this backdrop, representatives of Iranian American communities from across the country will gather in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 15 for the first national Free Iran Convention.
Their message is clear: the time for a democratic transition in Iran is approaching, and the United States must be prepared.
This vision was spotlighted last month in Europe when Iranian youth activists highlighted the democratic roadmap advanced by Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), who herself deemed the ruling theocracy "weaker and more decayed" than at any time in its 47-year history.
Rajavi's Ten-Point Plan calls for a secular republic, free elections, gender equality, protection for minorities, peaceful regional engagement, and the dismantling of Iran's nuclear weapons program.
It's a blueprint not only for regime change, but for long-term stability in the Mideast.
The NCRI's credibility is rooted in decades of sacrifice.
The PMOI — the coalition's principal member — opposed both the Shah and the clerical regime and has paid a staggering price, including the massacre of roughly 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, most of them PMOI supporters.
Today, its network of Resistance Units inside Iran continues to mobilize civil disobedience and sustain hope for change despite lethal risks.
Washington has a stake in this moment.
As Iranian Americans rally behind a democratic alternative and the regime shows increasing vulnerability, U.S. officials should recognize the organized opposition's growing capacity and legitimacy.
They should also listen to the Iranian American community's policy recommendations for supporting Iran's democratic forces and empowering the Iranian people to reclaim their country.
While global attention has drifted since 2022, the struggle inside Iran has only become more concentrated.
Tehran's escalating executions, mass arrests, and crackdowns signal fear — not confidence. A new uprising is likely, and when it erupts, history will not look kindly on those who hesitated.
Beyond its domestic brutality, the Islamic Republic sits at the center of an increasingly dangerous authoritarian axis linking Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing.
Iran's drones have fueled Russia's war in Ukraine; its missile and cyber capabilities threaten U.S. interests and allies; and its deepening strategic alignment with China — including defense and economic cooperation — signals a long-term effort to counter American influence.
Meanwhile, Tehran's terrorist proxies — from Hezbollah and the IRGC in Syria and Iraq to the Houthis in Yemen — form a regional network designed to undermine U.S. partners, threaten global maritime commerce, and destabilize the Mideast.
These efforts are reinforced by an advancing nuclear program that continues to shrink Tehran's breakout time and expand weaponization capabilities, raising the specter of a nuclear-armed theocracy empowered by great-power backing.
For U.S. policymakers, this is not simply a human-rights issue — it's a core national-security priority.
Weakening Iran's ruling clerics and supporting a viable democratic alternative would deal a significant blow to the Iran-Russia-China alignment, disrupt Tehran’s proxy architecture, and reduce the long-term cost of containing a hostile regime with nuclear ambitions.
A democratic Iran aligned with the West would transform the geopolitical landscape of the Mideast for a generation and weaken the authoritarian coalition challenging the international order.
As the Free Iran Convention 2025 convenes, American officials would be wise to pay attention. Supporting the Iranian people's democratic aspirations — and applying greater pressure on their oppressors — can help accelerate the fall of one of the world's most brutal regimes and open the door to a free, democratic, and peaceful Iran.
Ivan Sascha Sheehan is a professor of Public and International affairs and the associate dean of the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore. The views expressed are the author’s own. Follow on X @ProfSheehan. Read more of Ivan Sascha Sheehan's reports — here.