The 22-year-old woman stepped out of the Tehran subway, her dark hair covered with a black scarf and her body features obscured by loose clothing, as the Capital City’s Guiding Patrol discovered her. They are members of Iran’s notorious ethics police, who enforce the conservative Islamic dress and behavior codes that have governed everyday Iranian life since the 1979 revolution, and new energised under a tough president who took office last year.
By their standards, Mahsa Amini was ill-dressed, which could mean something as simple as a loose strand of hair on her head scarf. They put her in a truck and drove her to a detention center where she would be rehabilitated. Three days later, on September 16, she died.
Now, after eight days of fury, excitement and street battles, the most important outburst of anger with the ruling system in over a decade, her name is everywhere. Iranian protesters in dozens of cities chanted “women, life and freedom” and “death to the dictator”, rejecting the theocracy of the Republic of Iran by targeting one of the Iranians. its most basic and divisive symbol – Sick Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei.
In several videos of the uprising that have gone viral on social media, women tore their headscarves and set them on fire in street fires, including in deeply religious cities like Qum and Mashhad. On one occasion, a young woman atop an electric cabinet cut her hair in front of a massive protest crowd. In another case, young women dared to dance naked in front of riot police.
Protesters at Tehran University chanted “Death to the dictator” on Saturday. “Death to the hijab! When will we have to endure such humiliation? “
Previous protests – linked to fraudulent elections in 2009, economic mismanagement in 2017 and fuel price hikes in 2019 – have been ruthlessly suppressed by Iran’s security forces and this time may not be different. However, for the first time since the founding of the Republic of Iran, the current uprising has linked wealthy Iranians from high-rise apartments north of Tehran with struggling market vendors in the country. south of the working class, and Kurds, Turks and other minorities with members of the Fars majority.
Analysts say the sheer diversity of protesters reflects Iranian grievances, from an ailing economy and outright corruption, to political repression and social restrictions – the which the Iranian government has repeatedly tried and failed to quell.
Shadi Sadr, a prominent human rights lawyer who has campaigned for Iranian women’s rights for two decades, said: “The anger is not just over Mahsa’s death but she should not have been arrested in the first place. head.
“Because they have nothing to lose,” she added, “they are standing up and saying, “Enough is enough. I am willing to die for a life worth living. ‘”
Information about the protests is still the best part. Internet access continues to be interrupted or completely blocked, especially on widely used messaging apps like WhatsApp and Instagram, making it difficult for Iranians to communicate with each other or share status updates. instability with the outside world.
But witnesses say the protests, which have spread to at least 80 cities on Saturday, were the most powerful, powerful and encouraging demonstrations they can remember, far more violent than the others. previous turmoil. Desperate to inflict damage on the major powers in the face of the inevitable crackdown, video circulating on social media and shared with The New York Times shows protesters setting fire to security vehicles and assaulted members of Iran’s widely feared paramilitary force, in some cases killing them.
The leak, after hours of delay, also suggests an escalating crackdown. Authorities responded to the protests with violence, including live fire and tear gas. Dozens of people died. The Committee to Protect Journalists on Saturday said at least 17 journalists had been arrested, including one of the first to report on Amini’s hospitalization, and the arrests of activists as well. growing.
With Iran’s economy in tatters and Ayatollah Khamenei in dire health, the government is likely to dig deeper rather than show any signs of weakness, analysts said. analysis said. But violence will buy time, they say, not lasting peace.
Mohamed Ali Kadivar, an Iranian-born sociologist in Boston, said: The regime’s top leaders always “say, ‘We won’t give in, because if we give in a little, we will. will have to make bigger concessions.” College studies protest movements in Iran and elsewhere. “Maybe they will push people off the streets, but because people want change, repression will not stop this. Even if there is a crackdown, then they will just go home for a while and come back.”
The avenues for protest have narrowed in recent years, leaving Iranians to protest only as a means of demanding change. To what extent their political freedoms have shrunk last year, when the country’s leadership eliminated virtually all candidates, except the supreme leader’s preferred candidate, Super conservative Ebrahim Raisi, from the presidential election. In the process, they have undermined what was once a forum for Iranians to debate political issues and choose their representatives, even as candidates were always pre-selected from within. government.
Raisi opposes returning to a 2015 nuclear deal with the United States that placed limits on Iran’s nuclear development in exchange for sanctions relief and economic opening. His election, combined with a worsening economy, left Iranians yearning for better opportunities, more social freedoms, and closer ties with the rest of the world. hope.
“The reason the younger generation takes this kind of risk is because they feel they have nothing to lose, no hope for the future,” said Ali Vaez, director of Iran’s International Crisis Group. feature in Iran.
By repeatedly blocking reforms, the country’s leadership has “created a situation where people no longer believe that the system can be reformed,” he added. “I think people would be willing to tolerate a more moderate version of the Islamic Republic, but they just entrenched their position and created this situation. It turned Iran into a money box.”
The hijab, known as the hijab, is a particularly troubling issue: Laws requiring women to wear loose robes and cover their hair in public have been a pillar of the ruling theocracy and a pillar of revenue. drawn to reform-minded Iranians for decades, drawing one of the first protests against the ayatollahs after the 1979 revolution from women who did not want to be forced to cover up.
During the tenure of Mr. Raisi’s predecessor, reformer Hassan Rouhani, the moral police were discouraged from enforcing Iran’s often draconian laws against women, especially requiring them to wear the hijab. head in public in proper attire, with hair covered. That has led to more young women wearing their hair, even in devoutly conservative cities like Qum. Unmarried men and women are allowed to socialize in public in some places, while contemporary Western music buzzes in western-style cafes in upscale northern Tehran.
But the country’s conservative leadership sees the slide in standards as a threat to the republic’s theocratic underpinnings. In July, Mr Raisi called for conservative dress codes to be “fully enforced”, saying that “enemies of Iran and Islam” were targeting the “religious foundations and values of society”. ”, reported the official news agency IRNA.
During the summer, Iran’s ethics police, which patrol public areas for violations of Islamic rules, stepped up enforcement of hijab standards and three cafes in central Qum were closed. because there are top customers. In a video that was widely shared on Iranian social media in July, a mother threw herself in front of a truck carrying her daughter for violating the hijab rule and shouted: “My daughter is sick. , I beg you not to give it away.”
The backlash over Amini’s death has been so strong that religiously conservative Iranians have spoken out alongside liberals. On social media, women wearing headscarves have begun solidarity campaigns questioning harsh law enforcement and a prominent religious leader has said that religious police Germany only expels young women from religion. Even the tightly controlled state media have acknowledged the issue, broadcasting at least three voice-over debates – a rarity.
Authorities have denied any use of violence against Amini. They claimed that she suffered from an underlying health condition, which her family disputed, and that she had a heart attack in custody. But for many Iranians, pictures of her lying on a hospital bed, covered in blood, tell a different story.
While Mr. Raisi has promised to launch an investigation out of a bit of anger, Iran’s response to the protests has been fruitless. It was the same as in previous uprisings: bullets, tear gas, arrests and blood.
In 2009, millions of urban, educated Iranians spilled onto the streets of cities across the country, angry at what they believed to be electoral fraud by their leaders to ensure their political stability. tell a tough president and thwart reform. The elite Revolutionary Guards and Basij paramilitary forces opened fire, killing dozens and arresting many more, and eventually the “Green Movement” was extinguished.
As 2017 turned into 2018, protesters in dozens of cities demonstrated against high inflation and a weak economy. Again, they were faced with force. In 2019, the government abruptly raised gasoline prices, sparking week-long protests by Iranians fed up with increasingly thin wallets, corruption and repression. According to Amnesty International, the authorities killed at least 300 people in the ensuing crackdown and slowed the momentum of protests by blocking or disrupting the internet.
The outage is now back. To help Iranians access the Internet, the Biden administration on Friday allowed tech companies to provide secure platforms and services inside Iran without the risk of violating U.S. sanctions. often prevent doing business with Iran. It also facilitates the export of private satellite internet equipment, such as the Starlink service provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX to Iran.
But the Iranians may face overwhelming odds.
“At some point, I don’t think they will be able to control these movements,” Mr. Vaez said of the regulators. “But for now, the system has to lower its iron fist and try to capture this movement in its infancy.”
