I Will Shed No Tears for Ebrahim Raisi, the Butcher of Tehran

On May 19, the president of Iran was killed when his helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of his country. As a woman born in Iran, I feel not just a sense of celebration at the death of this evil man, but of relief. It is a feeling I share with a great many of my countrymen, and—in particular—countrywomen. To understand why, you have to know that Ebrahim Raisi—though robed by his brutal regime with the dignity of ‘President’—was a mass murderer responsible for atrocities and oppression in Iran and across the region. This is why he is known as the “Butcher of Tehran.”

Raisi, seen as a likely successor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, gained notoriety in the early days of the Islamic Republic. In 1988, as a young deputy prosecutor in Tehran, he was appointed to the “Death Commission,” a group responsible for the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners. The victims were subjected to sham trials that lasted mere minutes. Raisi played a pivotal role in these proceedings, deciding who would live and who would be sent to the gallows. One former political prisoner wrote that Raisi “clearly reveled in having power over life and death, and he wielded it freely in thousands of cases during that summer’s massacre. For those who have dealt with him personally, Raisi symbolizes the death of hope,” wrote former Iranian political prisoner Mahmoud Royaei.

As an Iranian-born Persian Jew, I know Iran—what the ayatollahs and their barbarous theocratic revolution have left of our once-proud land. When I was six years old, I escaped Iran with my family, underneath corn and burlap in the back of a hearse across the Pakistani border. I remember Iran after this dictatorship came to power, and I know how it treats its people: forcing medieval dress codes on women and forcing religious minorities into hiding through persecution, murdering dissidents, and exporting violence abroad.

The 1988 massacre is a dark chapter in Iran’s history, one that the regime has never officially acknowledged. Executed political dissidents were buried in unmarked mass graves. This period of brutal repression set the tone for Raisi’s career, establishing him as a loyal enforcer of the regime’s harshest policies.

The regime’s brutality is epitomized by its persecution of Iran’s long-suffering women and girls and the “women, life, freedom” movement that fights for their dignity. Many of the women who have participated in the protests or removed their compulsory hijabs have been raped and tortured by security forces. Many have been executed, often by being hanged by the neck from huge construction cranes in a grotesque mix of the medieval and the surreal.

The regime’s malevolence extends far beyond Iran’s borders. The ayatollahs’ Iran provides sophisticated weaponry, funding, and training to the murderous terrorist groups Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian Territories and Gaza, and the militias destabilizing Iraq and Yemen. In Syria, Raisi’s support for the totalitarian Assad regime was instrumental in prolonging the brutal civil war, not only sustaining one of the most repressive regimes in the region but also contributing to a humanitarian disaster, with hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced.

Raisi’s tenure was marked by blatant Holocaust denial and virulent antisemitism. In a 2022 interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” he infamously questioned the basic historical facts of the Holocaust, suggesting that “There are some signs that [the Holocaust] happened, but further research needs to be done to investigate it.” This statement was a stark reminder of the regime’s deep-seated antisemitism.

Raisi’s antisemitism was not limited to rhetoric. On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists—supported by Iran—invaded southern Israel and slaughtered 1,200 men, women, and children in a single day. It was the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, with many of the victims raped and mutilated.

Raisi’s unrelenting hostility towards Israel was a cornerstone of his foreign policy, reflecting the regime’s broader ideological commitment to the eradication of the world’s only Jewish state, with Raisi pledging to “destroy” the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv.

The reaction to Raisi’s death among Iranians was telling. Masih Alinejad captured the sentiment perfectly when she said, “On my social media, I see family members of those who were executed as a result of his orders cheering. People in Iran are celebrating; there are fireworks everywhere in different cities. They really see Raisi as an example of the whole system, of the whole regime.” This spontaneous outpouring of joy reflects the deep-seated resentment most Iranians feel toward the cruel and corrupt theocratic regime that has stolen their dreams.

Ebrahim Raisi’s legacy is one of unimaginable cruelty and unyielding oppression. From his early days, Raisi epitomized the worst of Iran’s theocratic regime. Nevertheless, many nations that should know better have expressed sympathy for his overdue demise, with the European Union sharing “condolences” on the death of this mass murderer. This compassion for such a killer is misplaced.

The death of Raisi is not the end but a pivotal moment in the struggle against tyranny in Iran. The world must support the Iranian people’s quest for freedom and justice. I urge everyone to support the “women, life, freedom” movement and the courageous Iranians who continue to risk their lives for liberty and dignity. Your voice can make a difference.

We will see in coming weeks and months whether Raisi’s death does the same for Iran.

Dr. Sheila Nazarian is a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, star of the Emmy-nominated Netflix series “Skin Decision: Before and After,” and host of “The Closet” podcast.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.