The Iranian regime has been after her for decades now. She has spent most of her life speaking out against the Islamic Republic's abuses, and was once jailed for 24 days in one of Iran's worst prisons. Darya Safai knows a thing or two about this regime and its ideology, which she thinks is inherently anti-Western.
It's out of luck that Belgian MP Darya Safai was in California with her family, when less than 48 hours ago she received a call from the Belgian security services warning her not to travel to Turkey, where she sometimes holidays with her family.
Since Darya fled the regime in 2000 and came to Belgium to reinvent her life as a dentist and a politician, she made a promise to her family and children not to give up the fight. She's used to being harassed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). "They told me there was a plan to kidnap me. That the Islamic Republic of Iran wanted to abduct me from a third country and take me back to Tehran," she told The Brussels Times.
The threat wasn’t entirely unexpected, but its escalation was unprecedented. Now, as a sitting member of the Belgian federal parliament, she has become a target again – this time, not just of intimidation, but of what could be considered hostage diplomacy, on European soil.
Safai believes the plot is retaliation. Just days earlier, the Belgian parliament passed a resolution she authored, calling on the European Union to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. For the regime in Tehran, that was apparently too much.
This is not just about Darya. It’s a message to all Western critics. What if the plot to kidnap her had succeeded? "That would be the end of my life. It would be prison. Torture. Execution. I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it, this is not only an attack on an Iranian woman. It’s an attack on democracy itself. I am a democratically elected MP. If they can try to kidnap me, what comes next?" she adds.
The IRGC and Iran’s global network
For Safai, the threat is operational. She describes the IRGC not as a rogue unit, but as a transnational militia with deep roots across the Middle East and beyond. Organisations like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, militias in Iraq, Syria, even Afghanistan – are all part of Iran’s strategy to turn the region into a war zone
She points to Tehran’s support for Russia, and attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea. "This regime thrives on chaos. The longer we pretend diplomacy can fix it, the more emboldened they become." She adds.
But Safai’s central plea is political: The EU must list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation; and she's deeply critical of past Western responses: "When Iranian people filled the streets after the killing of Mahsa Amini, Europe stayed silent. When Belgium returned a convicted Iranian terrorist in a prisoner swap, we didn’t even demand the release of Belgian citizens held in Iran. The people saw that. They felt abandoned."
Safai is now unapologetically secular, and she draws a sharp line between Islam as faith and political Islam as ideology. She warns of growing Islamist influence in European cities as well. But she remains resilient and defiant. She believes Iran's people are ready for a democratic, secular Iran. A new Middle East.
Menawhile, The Halle-Vilvoorde Office of the Public Prosecutor is set to launch an investigation into the alleged plans by the Iranian regime to kidnap her, and it remains to be seen where that investigation will lead the authorities.
