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Mahyar Mansouri was a political prisoner for a year under the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps regime.

The now-Melbourne resident saw things that you wouldn’t see in your worst nightmares.

This is why he has such admiration for the late Senator Lindsey Graham.

Also known as “Uncle Lindsey” among the democratic Iranian-Australian community, Senator Graham was a man known for his relentless pursuit of democratic values throughout the world.

The South Carolina Republican was elected to the Senate in 2002 and was a close political ally of President Donald Trump.

He died from a brief and sudden illness on July 11 at the age of 71.

“Lindsey Graham was great and iconic for us because he stood with our king, Reza Pahlavi. And that meant a lot for us,” Mansouri told The Daily Declaration at a memorial service outside the US Consulate General in Melbourne on 14 July.

“He supported Iranians and the diaspora, and the Iranians fighting in the streets in Iran.

“That meant a lot to us, and he was really optimistic about the future of Iran.”

Mahyar Mansouri was a political prisoner for a year under the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps regime. He has admiration for the late Senator Lindsey Graham due to his relentless advocacy for democracy around the world. Picture: Josh Spasaro.

Mansouri feared for his life while he served time as a political dissident under the IRGC regime, after demonstrating in the 2019 petrol protests, sparked by a surprise government announcement that drastically raised gasoline prices and introduced rationing.

“Me and my mother were prisoners in Iran,” he said.

“I spent one year in prison. It’s nothing that you can put in words. It’s mental and physical torture.

“You see things that you don’t even see in your worst nightmares.

“It was in 2019 after petrol protests in Iran. It was then that me and my mother were arrested.

“We’d been arrested a couple of times before that. But the one that concluded in my conviction, my mother got an eight-year sentence and I got six years.

“We were just for asking for our democratic rights.”

The 38-year-old said he was very fortunate to get out of prison alongside his mother.

“They told us, ‘You will be executed’. We were so lucky that we managed to get out of prison through bribing many people in government,’” he said.

“My sister and my father managed to find a person that you can bribe. They paid an enormous amount for me and my mother to get out of prison for just five days.

“And then we left everything behind and got out of Iran.”

Rise of Anti-Semitism in Australia

Mansouri is now worried about the direction this country is headed in with a series of antisemitic incidents in Melbourne leading to many Israeli-Australians now fearing for their lives.

Notable places of worship, including the historic East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation and the Adass Israel Synagogue in St Kilda East, have been firebombed.

And Jewish individuals, including rabbis and children, have been directly targeted on Melbourne public transport and in residential streets with Holocaust-related slurs and Nazi salutes.

Mansouri also fears for fellow Iranian-Australians who continue advocating for a return to democracy in their homeland after 47 years of IRGC rule.

“The way we’re heading, I’m really fearful for us Iranians who have lived under the rule of the Islamic regime and Sharia Law,” he said.

Graham ‘Understood the Brutal Nature of the IRGC’

The Mel-Iran advocacy group for democracy in Iran has also distributed flyers saying more than 36,000 Iranian civilians were killed by the regime over a two-day period in January 2026, with millions facing severe repression for demanding basic human rights.

Committee Member at the Australian Jewish Association, Shane Shmuel, said Senator Graham understood the brutal nature of the IRGC regime.

He added that a soft approach of reasoning from the Trump Administration in order to block the regime from having a nuclear weapon would never work, and that Graham was mindful of this.

“Lindsey knew, and even we knew. They understand only strength, unfortunately,” he told The Daily Declaration.

“And the Middle East is a different kettle of fish. We see it with the failure of our government here.

“They think diplomacy works. Diplomacy to them is a sign of weakness.”

Committee Member at the Australian Jewish Association, Shane Shmuel, said the late Senator Graham understood the brutal nature of the IRGC regime. Picture: Josh Spasaro.

At the 2026 Munich Security Conference, Graham said the IRGC, that great disrupter of peace in the Middle East region — in its quest for a global “master religion” — was at the weakest point it had ever been.

Also at the conference, the late Senator reaffirmed his support for the democratic-seeking people of Iran, who live in fear of political persecution, and urged the Trump Administration to continue its war effort to bring down the IRGC regime.

“I think he just represented democracy and fighting for one’s freedoms,” Shmuel said.

“It didn’t matter what country you were from or nationality you were, freedom was freedom.

“He applied that concept across every country from Ukraine to Iran to Israel.

“We heard that Munich speech and it wasn’t just a speech, it was how he delivered it like a true statesman and leader.

“It just meant so much.

“We lost a great statesman.”

You Do Not Negotiate with This Regime

Saeid Akeareour is an Iranian-Australian in Melbourne who believes his countrymen and women are still hopeful of regime change and a return to democracy in Iran.

He added that the Trump Administration wasted time attempting to enact a peace deal with the IRGC through a Memorandum of Understanding

“People are still hoping for regime change — that’s what they wanted. The people of Iran have felt excluded from the negotiations,” he said.

“People never believed in the negotiations with the terrorists. Terrorist countries and terrorist groups will never change. I think the only solution is to come up with regime change.

“People want regime change.”

Cyrus Saberi said all democratic-seeking Iranians in his home country and around the world would never give up in their collective push for freedom.

This is what Reza Pahlavi — the last Crown Prince of the former Imperial State of Iran and now exiled in Washington, DC — has relentlessly fought for.

“We always hope and we never, ever give up. We’ll keep fighting — that’s what our king says,” Saberi said.

“And that’s how we’ll get our country back.

“We don’t have a problem with Palestinian or Lebanese people. We just have a problem with Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups.

“We’ll keep fighting and we’ll never give up.”

Cyrus Saberi said all democratic-seeking Iranians in his home country and around the world would never give up in their collective push for freedom. Picture: Josh Spasaro.

Iranian People Will Continue Their Fight

Zinat Salarifar echoed these thoughts.

“Of course, we are exhausted. We see our countrymen and women in jail being tortured and raped,” she said.

“But we are strong and we never feel hopeless.

“The US has to push the IRGC out and weaken them. After that, our people can rise up and we can share our victory.”

Zinat Salarifar has faith the democratic-seeking people of Iran will rise up and celebrate a return to freedom after the US Administration topples the IRGC. Picture: Josh Spasaro.

And Seyed Modin, 21, left Iran at age nine.

He said the late Senator Graham was a constant voice for his countrymen and women who simply wanted a return to basic human rights and freedom of speech.

“Senator Graham was there when we didn’t have a lot of people listening to us. We’ve had a lot of people on the streets yelling and crying, screaming and dying,” he said.

“Everything was happening to them. The only one who heard us was Lindsey Graham.

“We thought ‘someone is actually listening to us out there’.

“He was dedicated as well. He was a good man.

“The US Administration will hopefully stay the course this time and finish them (IRGC) off. Then we can go back to our country.”

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Image via Wikimedia Commons.