Dr Arash Badakhsh of the University of Strathclyde has been unable to contact his family in Iran, something which has caused the award-winning researcher significant distress. 

Badakhsh told The Herald: “The blackout has caused extreme anxiety and a profound sense of helplessness.

“Not just for me personally, but for the innocent people inside Iran who are fighting a brutal regime with nothing but their courage. 

Dr Arash Badakhsh has spoken out against the ongoing protests. (Image: Supplied)

“I have had no contact with my family for over 60 hours — no internet, no landlines, nothing. I don’t know if they are safe, where they are, or if they are even alive. That silence is unbearable. It is exactly what the regime wants: to isolate, terrify, and kill without witnesses.

“From lived experience, this is a system built on cruelty and fear, capable of acts that are hard to comprehend unless you have lived under it.”

Badakhsh, who moved to Glasgow in 2022, earned a PhD at Jeonbuk National University in South Korea after leaving Iran at the age of 23.

The entrepreneur, who went on to found a climate-tech company in the UK, added: “I chose this country because of its stated commitment to human rights, rule of law, and freedom. That is why this moment matters so deeply to me.”

In response to the recent wave of protests, which began in response to the regime’s financial woes, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, Iran’s attorney general, has said that demonstrators would be treated “without leniency, mercy or appeasement,” according to Iranian media.

Azad added that “all criminals involved” would be considered an “enemy of God,” a charge which could result in death.

Data compiled by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) revealed that the death toll had risen to 538, although more are feared dead.

Protestors have called for the UK Government to proscribe the IRGC. (Image: PA)

Badakhsh noted: “There are approximately 114,000 Iranian-born residents in the UK — roughly the population of a city like Cheltenham. These are people who contribute to British society, economy, science, healthcare, and culture, and who are now watching their families be hunted in silence.

“The UK’s values matter not only globally, but to its own communities at home.”

There have been calls for the government to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s armed forces, as a terrorist organisation

Asked about the possibility of banning the organisation, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told Sky News: 

“It’s a very thorough process that the Home Secretary [Shabana Mahmood] would go through in determining whether to proscribe an organisation… I’m not going to second-guess the decisions of the Home Secretary on a matter as significant as this. 

“She will follow due process and won’t leave any stone unturned in looking at all the information that is available to her.

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Similarly, Badakhsh said the UK Government must do “more than issue statements” as protestors continue to take to the streets

He said: “If the UK’s commitment to human rights is meaningful, it should lead coordinated international action to protect protesters, apply maximum pressure on the regime, and ensure accountability for those ordering and carrying out violence. Silence or hesitation only emboldens further killings.

“It is deeply troubling that I have had to repeatedly email my elected representatives simply to ask for help. 

“When a government shuts down all communication — internet and landlines alike — it is not for security. It is to kill in silence. Anything less than calling that out is hypocrisy.”