In a striking development that reveals the Iranian regime’s enduring approach to its own population in times of crisis, a senior official in Masoud Pezeshkian’s government has called on citizens—especially young people—to form “human chains” around power plants across the country. The appeal has revived one of the darkest patterns in the Islamic Republic’s history: the use of civilians as human shields to protect strategic infrastructure and, ultimately, the regime itself.
Alireza Rahimi, deputy minister for youth affairs in Iran’s Ministry of Sports and Youth, made the call during an appearance on state television on Monday evening, as tensions rose over the Strait of Hormuz and the possibility of further escalation. His remarks were not viewed simply as emotional mobilization or patriotic rhetoric. Rather, they were widely understood as an attempt to draw civilians directly into the logic of confrontation and to turn them into a human buffer for facilities the regime sees as essential to its survival.
The call triggered sharp criticism because it does not stand apart from the regime’s long record of disregard for civilian life. The idea of using ordinary people as protective cover is not new in the Islamic Republic’s behavior. Its roots go back to the Iran-Iraq War, when authorities sent thousands of children and teenagers to the front in mass human-wave assaults. Many were effectively used to open paths and clear minefields with their bodies under the slogans of martyrdom and sacred defense. It was one of the most tragic features of that war: poor children and adolescents turned into expendable instruments in a conflict the regime used to consolidate its power and ideological legitimacy.
If in the 1980s the regime relied on religious fervor, poverty, and ideological indoctrination to send boys into fields of death, today it appears to be returning to the same underlying logic in a different setting: protecting the system and its infrastructure through the bodies of civilians. The rhetoric may have changed, but the core principle has not. The people are not treated as holders of rights, but as instruments to be deployed when the regime feels threatened.
This policy once again shows that the ruling system in Tehran does not view society as the source of sovereignty, but as a human reservoir to be mobilized—or sacrificed—when needed. For that reason, the call for young people to gather around power plants cannot be separated from a broader political logic in which the ordinary Iranian citizen remains secondary, while the absolute priority is the survival of the state apparatus.
In this context, it is unsurprising that the issue of “human shields” has previously drawn international warnings, including U.S. statements criticizing the regime for endangering civilians and using densely populated civilian areas for military-related activity. Yet the deeper danger lies not only in international reaction, but in the structural truth that becomes clearer each time the regime feels under pressure: instead of protecting its people, it seeks protection from them.
Linking today’s call to the Iran-Iraq War is therefore not merely historical analogy. It is a recognition of continuity in method. The same regime that once used children to clear mines is now asking young people to stand as physical shields around vital infrastructure. In both cases, the message is the same: the regime is prepared to put the Iranian people in danger in order to save itself.
For that reason, this episode is more than an isolated statement by a government official. It is another revelation of the ethical and political structure of the regime in Tehran and of its enduring willingness to place Iranians in the line of fire rather than bear the cost of its own choices and escalations. What is unfolding is not only evidence of political or security crisis. It is also fresh proof that the regime has not changed, and that it still treats the Iranian human being not as a value, but as a means.
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