One month after the arrest of Mahsa Amini by the morality police in Tehran, followed by her death three days later, an unprecedented protest movement continues to shake the country. The demonstrations have already left more than 200 dead and the State could increase the repression even more. But Iranians’ frustration with political and religious power is too strong to refrain from risking their lives on the streets.
A protest movement has shaken Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, on September 16. She died three days after being arrested in the capital, Tehran, by the morality police for violating the Islamic Republic’s dress code for women, and especially what is considered “proper wearing of the veil” in the country. The state explains her death due to a medical condition prior to her arrest, a version that her family rejects, stating that she was beaten during her detention.
The protests in the country are unprecedented due to their form and duration. They are not only taking place in Tehran, but also in many parts of the country and especially in the Kurdish areas. Also, the movement enters its fifth week and does not waver despite extremely violent repression by the authorities.
If women were the trigger for the protests, rejecting the mandatory use of the veil, the movement is also embodied in adolescents and young people who face the guns of the Iranian authorities to demand the end of the Islamic regime.
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A women’s protest movement “unimaginable a few weeks ago”
When Mahsa Amini’s death became known, many women identified with her. In Iran, the morality police was created in 2005 to enforce Islamic morality and “proper” dress laws, which were introduced after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In recent years, it has grown more strict, scrupulously policing women and sometimes arbitrarily and violently detaining those who do not comply with the code. Any Iranian woman could have been Mahsa Amini.
“Women have been everything in this revolution because of the outrage caused by the death of Mahsa Amini, they have experienced the pressure in the streets and all the insecurity caused by the morality police, they have experienced abuse by the State, which it settles in his body and in his private life,” explains Catalina Gomez, correspondent for France 24 in Tehran.
After Amini’s death, women courageously mobilized against being forced to wear the hijab and seeing her body scrutinized by the police. Women protested with acts of civil disobedience, removing their veils and burning them in public, cutting their hair, chanting slogans or walking in western clothes in the streets. “It was unimaginable, a few weeks ago, to see women defy the regime in such a way,” explains Sara Saidi, a Franco-Iranian journalist and former correspondent in Tehran.
Quickly, the movement with the slogan ‘Woman, life, freedom’ spread to all parts of the population and the country, bringing together women and men, young and old, as well as people from all social classes. The compulsory veil became the symbol of domination of the Islamic regime over the whole society.
According to Sara Saidi, it is the first time that such a protest movement has been sustained for such a long time, which she says is due to the way it has developed. The authorities have to stop not only the crowds demonstrating but also small groups of protesters divided across the country. In addition, there have been isolated acts of civil disobedience, critical groups on social media, increasingly powerful VPNs (virtual private networks) to circumvent censorship, and acts of hacking by computer experts.
The blood spilled during the social outbreak
The Iranian regime is known for its brutal repression of social movements, something that was illustrated once again in these demonstrations. According to the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights, more than 200 people have been killed since the start of the protests, including at least 23 children.
“We Iranians who are abroad look with anguish and admiration and also a form of pride, it is incredible to see images of young people of 15 or 16 confronting the security forces,” Saidi confesses.
During the demonstrations against fuel prices in 2019, the repression was even more violent, leaving hundreds of deaths in just 10 days. “We know what the regime is capable of and we know that repression can increase,” explains the journalist. Within the population, some rumors resonate that the power could resort to foreign militias to stop the marches.
But despite the fear of repression and death under the bullets of the security forces, the Iranians reached a point of no return. Both the lack of freedoms, the obsolete religiosity of the regime or the worrying economic conditions motivate them to continue on the streets.
An economic situation that leaves few opportunities for young people
Inflation and unemployment are mixed with social demands in the demonstrations against the regime.
Since 2016, prices have multiplied by three and almost reach European levels while wages have not increased. Many Iranians can’t make ends meet and highly educated people end up in low-paying jobs due to a lack of opportunities. Young people want a different future and want a good job.
The economic situation is double-edged in these protests. On the one hand, the population can maintain pressure on the government by calling for a general strike and blocking some essential sectors such as transport or oil. But on the other hand, you need to work and probably won’t be able to keep manifesting indefinitely. The regime perhaps hopes that the movement will lose its intensity little by little.
Little chance of change within the Islamic Republic
The essence of the Iranian regime is linked to Islamic ideology and the moral rules it dictates. To transform them would be to question the nature of this power, therefore, it is very unlikely that the regime enters into a logic of negotiation with society.
Since the 1979 Revolution and the creation of the Islamic Republic, the regime has done everything to stifle protests, control the population and censor information. And the Iranians are locked into the ideology of the Republic, as they express in the demonstrations.
However, the consequences of the protests are uncertain. Predictably, the Islamic regime will try to stay in power for as long as possible. Although the older generations, who knew 1979, no longer have hope in the Revolution and the young openly call for a regime change, it remains to be seen to what extent their calls can shake the pillars of the theocracy.
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