The mullahs in Tehran are in a blind panic. Haunted by the spectre of another nationwide uprising, the Iranian regime is rushing through one of the most repressive pieces of legislation in its history. Dressed up as the “Countering Intelligence Service Infiltration” bill, this so-called “anti-infiltration” law is nothing more than a charter for mass intimidation, a desperate attempt to choke the last remaining freedoms of Iran’s embattled people.
First unveiled in July, the bill is being railroaded through parliament at breakneck speed. The regime’s tame media outlets, like Khabar Online, have described it as a safeguard against foreign espionage. In truth, it is designed to criminalise normal life, to silence journalists, muzzle academics, censor artists, and drive a wedge between Iranians and the outside world. It is legislation written in fear.
The so-called “anti-infiltration” bill grants the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) sweeping new powers over every sphere of civic life. Any student who dares accept a scholarship from a foreign university must now obtain prior approval from the MOIS. Journalists are forbidden from speaking to foreign media without clearance through a new intelligence portal. Even the simple act of sending a photo abroad could lead to years behind bars if it occurs during a time of “unrest.”
This is not about espionage. It is about absolute control. The mullahs remember only too well the furious street protests of 2022 and 2023, when millions of young Iranians, led by brave women, rose up to demand freedom. That movement shook the regime to its foundations. Now, rather than addressing the people’s grievances, Tehran seeks to bury them beneath layers of new repression.
The bill’s reach extends deep into Iran’s already battered civil society. NGOs, trade unions, professional bodies, and cultural associations will be banned from receiving any form of foreign support unless explicitly sanctioned by a secretive intelligence committee. Those who defy these draconian orders face imprisonment, closure, and lifelong bans from social activity.
Cultural expression fares no better. Films, books, and artworks that “depict Iran negatively” or “promote anti-Islamic culture” are to be outlawed. Even cooperation with UNESCO on global educational projects like the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda will become a crime unless rubber-stamped by parliament. This is cultural suffocation on a national scale.
Perhaps most chillingly, the bill categorizes “infiltration” into six degrees of severity, punishable by up to thirty years in prison. The definition of “infiltrator” is so broad it could encompass almost anyone who engages with the outside world, journalists, students, NGO workers, artists, or even ordinary citizens exchanging information online.
By handing investigative powers to the MOIS and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organization, and by routing all cases through Revolutionary Courts, the regime has obliterated any pretence of judicial independence. The law effectively blurs the line between dissent and treason. Combined with the recently ratified “Intensifying Punishment for Espionage” law, which reintroduces the death penalty for “corruption on earth”, the message is unmistakable: speak, write, or think freely, and you risk your life.
Iran’s brightest minds are already fleeing in droves. In 2024, more than 150,000 educated Iranians emigrated, a figure certain to rise once this bill becomes law. Universities will be paralysed by fear, journalists will retreat into silence, and NGOs will close their doors. The regime’s obsession with “infiltration” is driving Iran towards total intellectual and cultural isolation. This is not a defensive measure against foreign threats. It is a preemptive strike against the Iranian people, an act of legislative warfare intended to strangle civil society before it can again spark rebellion.
The international community cannot afford to look away. For too long, Western governments have tiptoed around Tehran’s atrocities in the name of diplomacy. As the regime accelerates its campaign of domestic terror, arrests dissidents by the hundreds, and executes protesters in the dead of night, silence from democratic nations amounts to complicity.
Iran’s rulers are not acting from strength but from weakness. They know that the spirit of revolt still burns among Iran’s courageous youth, the same men and women who chanted “Death to the Dictator” in the streets, who tore down portraits of Khamenei, and who risked everything for liberty. The new bill is the regime’s shield against that courage.
Every dictator’s downfall begins with fear, fear of truth, fear of ideas, fear of the people. The “Countering Intelligence Service Infiltration” bill is the purest expression of that fear. It seeks to criminalise knowledge itself. But repression cannot extinguish the human desire for freedom. From Evin Prison to the universities of Tehran and Tabriz, from the exiled journalists of London to the student activists of Mashhad, Iranians will continue to defy their oppressors. The mullahs’ laws may bind their bodies, but they cannot bind their will.
The world must stand with them. The people of Iran do not need our pity; they need our solidarity. It is time to expose the regime’s crimes, isolate its agents abroad, and support those who struggle for a democratic, secular, and free Iran. The mullahs may believe that new laws will shield them from justice. They are wrong. History is closing in, and no amount of repression will save them from the reckoning that awaits.
Struan Stevenson is the Coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change (CiC). He was a member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), president of the Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and chairman of the Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14). He is an author and international lecturer on the Middle East.
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