President Donald Trump warned Saturday that the U.S. would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran fails to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, prompting Iranian officials to threaten retaliatory strikes against U.S. and Israeli energy and infrastructure assets in the region.
Iranian student warns ‘barbaric’ regime taking nation ‘hostage,’ executing civilians
People follow a truck carrying the flag draped coffins of Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, a spokesperson for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of his comrades Amir Hossein Bidi during their funeral procession in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 21, 2026.
Iran has increased executions and arrests across the country as the United States continues strikes in the Middle East.
Mooné Rahimi, a student and activist previously arrested by the morality police, said the regime is using fear tactics to hold the nation "hostage."
Rahimi said on "Fox & Friends Weekend" that Iranian civilians view the ongoing war as a desperate "rescue mission" from a regime that uses arrests and executions to maintain its grip on power."
This situation that is happening in Iran, they call it [a] rescue mission, especially the people inside Iran," said Rahimi, who left Iran several years ago and is now studying in the United States.
"This barbaric, brutal regime treats women in a very intense way. If there is a protester, a woman protester, in the street of Iran, they're going to arrest them, and they're going to put them in a jail and, at the end, they're going to hang them as they're doing it like those executions that are happening," she added.