The calls have been heard, the alliance has been formed: More than 100 days after the death of the Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini - and the protests in the country that continue to this day - the most influential activists and politicians in exile have now joined forces, including some very prominent names.
Now there is hope for the movement:
For some time now, there has been a call in the Iranian diaspora for a united opposition - many activists abroad had been organising their resistance more or less on their own up to this point.
But the struggle against the regime, which has been in power for 44 years, is not possible alone. So it is all the more important and interesting that a unity has finally formed.
On New Year's Eve, ten well-known activists, human rights activists and celebrities announced their alliance with the message that "organisation and solidarity will make 2023 the year of victory for the Iranian people" and that freedom and justice will become a reality in Iran.
The exile coalition currently consists of former Crown Prince Reza Pahlevi (photo left), Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi (photo right., CC BY-SA 4.0 Nashirul Islam via Wikimedia Commons), women's rights activist Masih Alinejad, activist Hamed Esmaeilion, a dentist who has been involved in the opposition since losing his wife and daughter in the downing of Ukrainian passenger plane 752, actress Golshifteh Farahani, who is one of Iran's best-known cinema stars, former football star Ali Karimi, human rights activist Ladan Boroumand, actress Nazanin Boniadi, Kurdish oppositionist Abdullah Mohtadi of the left-wing Komala Party, and political scientist Ammar Maleki, who founded the Gaman polling institute.
The coalition's merger has been positively received by the majority of Iranians in social networks. In the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the German-Iranian political scientist Ali Fathollah-Nejad also sees this as an important step to increase the pressure on Western countries in particular. With the existing structure of Abdullah Mohtadi's organisation, support for the protest movement in Iran could be mobilised especially abroad. The opposition alliance focuses its tasks on strengthening and expanding its membership and on networking with opponents of the regime at home.
According to Fatollah-Nejad in the NZZ, the coalition wants to accompany and help shape the transition to secular democracy, but not take over any government office. Furthermore, he sees the coalition from exile as a response to cohesion in the country "It is clear to everyone that the goal is no longer to reform the system, but to abolish the Islamic Republic."