Hezbollah has a hidden hand funding its operations (Image: Getty)
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was born out of the fevered dream of Iran’s 1979 revolution, tasked with safeguarding the Supreme Leader and defending the new Islamic Republic.
But what began as an ideological guard dog has since transformed into something far more sinister—a sprawling, unchecked empire that operates with impunity, not just in but across the .
This is no ordinary military institution — it is a calculated machine of terror. While brutalised entire religious and ethnic communities, it gave the IRGC the perfect pretext to expand its own Shia influence across the Middle East, under the guise of fighting Sunni terrorism.
While ISIS wreaked havoc, the IRGC embedded itself in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, now a theatre of war once again for .
Both the IRGC and ISIS deployed terror, sexual violence and human trafficking as weapons. What the Western world has failed to grasp is that these tactics — rape, enslavement, and human exploitation — are not mere collateral damage of war but a deliberate strategy employed by both ISIS and the IRGC. Sexual violence is wielded to erode family structures, instil fear, and lock entire populations in a cycle of trauma and silence.
Men and women alike are subjected to these horrors, ensuring no one escapes the IRGC’s grip. Entire communities, crippled by shame, are too fearful to resist.
At the heart of the IRGC’s operations lies a quiet yet calculated form of colonialism — one unlike the traditional empires of the past. Iran’s ambitions, spearheaded by the IRGC, are cloaked in a religious and ideological guise. The goal is not merely to conquer territory, but to spread the revolutionary ideology of Khomeinism, a radical interpretation of Shia Islam. The IRGC seeks to position Iran as the ideological centre of a global Islamist movement, with the Supreme Leader as its vanguard.
Under this banner, the IRGC has systematically extended its influence across the Middle East, destabilising states, creating militias, and embedding itself within foreign governments.
The IRGC’s strategy is a perverse mixture of political manipulation, military intervention, and economic coercion — all designed to weaken sovereign states and bring them under Tehran’s orbit. This is not the result of accident or opportunism, but rather a slow, deliberate form of covert colonialism that has been decades in the making.
Take , for instance. There, the IRGC’s most infamous creation, Hezbollah, has transformed from a militia into a state within a state, effectively controlling Lebanese politics. In Iraq, the IRGC backs armed groups that operate outside the control of the central government, holding the country hostage to Iranian interests.
Iranians mourn Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (Image: Getty)
In Syria, the IRGC props up the Assad regime, embedding itself into the very fabric of military and political institutions. In each case, the IRGC’s hand is unmistakable: it builds parallel institutions, funds proxy militias, and exercises control over key elements of the economy, leaving behind a legacy of chaos, destabilisation, and subjugation.
No discussion of the IRGC would be complete without addressing its cynical and intimate relationship with global terrorism. The IRGC, particularly through its elite Quds Force, has long been a patron of terror, funding and arming groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. It is not simply an ideological ally to these organisations — it is their lifeline.
For the IRGC, terrorism is not an unintended consequence of geopolitical manoeuvring, but a deliberate instrument of policy. Through these proxies, Iran sows instability across the region, ensuring that no government is strong enough to resist Tehran’s influence. Terrorism, in this context, is not an end in itself, but a means to project Iranian power, undermine its enemies, and expand its imperial reach.
The IRGC’s methods are not limited to military interventions and support for terrorism. There is a hidden layer to its dominance — the use of sexual violence and human trafficking as tools of oppression.
For years, the West has naively viewed the IRGC as a natural antagonist to Sunni extremists like ISIS. But the violence unleashed by ISIS, particularly its use of sexual slavery and mass violence, mirrors the very tactics the IRGC itself has used to subjugate populations.
At the core of this strategy lies the brutal, unspoken reality of sexual violence — weaponised by the IRGC to crush dissent, terrorise communities, and cement its control.
In every region where the IRGC has entrenched itself, sexual violence follows. This is not a byproduct of war—it is a deliberate tool of subjugation, designed to break the spirit of communities.
Sexual violence, historically used as a weapon in war, has become part of the IRGC’s arsenal. The aim is simple: break the individual, fracture the family, and silence the community. It is a form of psychological warfare that devastates not only the victims but their entire families, creating cycles of shame, silence, and submission.
In conflict zones under IRGC influence, sexual violence is used to terrorise and dominate. Women and men, often held captive or under the control of militias loyal to the IRGC, are subjected to horrific abuses. These acts are not arbitrary; they are part of a broader strategy to break the will of entire communities.
Through the violation of women, the IRGC sends a message to local populations: you are owned, your resistance is futile. Trauma, as any psychologist will attest, is not just a personal affliction — it becomes a communal and generational wound. The scars of sexual violence do not heal easily; they are passed down, embedding cycles of self-destruction, fear, and hopelessness.
The IRGC’s understanding of this dynamic is not accidental. By normalizing sexual violence, it locks entire communities into submission, ensuring that the psychological impact of trauma ripples through families, weakening any potential for rebellion.
Human dignity is stripped away. Entire communities are silenced, their shame serving as the bars of their prison.
In Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, women and men have been subjected to systemic sexual violence at the hands of militias loyal to the IRGC.
But the IRGC’s use of sexual violence does not end with war. The organisation has also built a dark empire of human trafficking, profiting from the exploitation of vulnerable populations. In the chaos of war-torn regions, the IRGC has facilitated the trafficking of women, children, and men, selling them into sexual slavery and forced labour.
It is this hidden empire that truly reveals the IRGC’s nature. Its imperial project is not simply a matter of geopolitical dominance — it is a regime of human misery, built on the broken bodies and shattered lives of the vulnerable.
The time for naivety is over. The IRGC is not simply a regional power broker, nor merely a military force defending Iran’s borders. It is a modern empire, built through terror, violence, and exploitation. It has used ISIS as a convenient foil, allowing itself to expand under the guise of fighting terrorism while committing its own atrocities. It has weaponised sexual violence and human trafficking as tools of domination, ensuring that those under its rule remain too broken to resist.
The IRGC’s empire must be exposed for what it is—a brutal, calculated regime of terror and exploitation. Only by confronting this reality can we begin to dismantle the machinery of oppression that has kept so many in silence. It is time to bring the IRGC’s crimes into the light, hold it accountable, and free the communities it has enslaved. The stakes are too high for us to remain silent.