Headlines Iranian protests

[R8]

Protest have been going on for a week in Iran, after the death of a woman arrested by the morality police.
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...otests-a-moment-of-rage-a-chain-of-resistance

I honestly am very scared of how the Iranian regime is going to react to this

 

[Shedinja-43152]

It is very unfair a women don't be allowed to don't use this burka.

 

[bdt2002]

Protest have been going on for a week in Iran, after the death of a woman arrested by the morality police.
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...otests-a-moment-of-rage-a-chain-of-resistance

I honestly am very scared of how the Iranian regime is going to react to this

I didn't know this story was a thing at all. This must have happened earlier during the school week or something. Normally I try to keep my feet out of the cold waters of international political beliefs, but a recent... how I can word this...? "Uncertainty period" I've been having about this kind of thing lately makes me want to post. I'm going to keep this short since I still know practically nothing about these headlines.

Quite frankly, I don't know what disappoints me more- the fact that a "morality police" actually exists in another country far away from me, or the fact that this group doesn't seem to be in line at all with whatever's happening over in Iran right now. All I'm going to say about this is that free will can be a much touchier subject than a person might think at first, since it's almost too easy for people in positions of power to use their own free will in an effort to surpress that of the general public. As much as I hate that something like this has to happen, I think awareness of these kinds of stories is almost always a good thing, even if that's for the purpose of helping me to open my eyes and try and appreciate my own life more than I would have otherwise.

 

[Chloe]

absolutely horrible what happened to that poor woman. this current iranian government is atrocious and it's obviously paramount to support the movement and protests that are occuring currently. as long as this illegitimate and immensely unpopular regime stays in power, there is not much hope for an end to the tyranny and the violent and bloody repression of people's rights and freedoms in iran.

an unfortunate situation for iran, which has been detrimentally affected by the continued involvement of the united states and the west in general in the region. by putting middle eastern nations like iran under siege for such an extended period of time, they've created conditions that make it much more difficult for these nations to evolve and develop their governments and cultural attitudes. what sucks about these protests, as important as they are, is that the u.s. will probably continue to use it as leverage and reasoning to interfere in the region, which is consistently one of the major factors in the delay of progress in these countries to begin with. i'm not very optimistic that things will change in iran, but i do hope.

 

[MrHands]

This happens so often that this is barely news. Every few years protests happen and they get crushed by the government. Same thing will probably happen here. In fact it's so common in Iran that they have Wikipedia pages for each year that compiles all Iranian mass protests. Hopefully it happens with minimal loss of life or that the government will make some peaceful concessions that inch the nation closer to becoming a democracy, instead of an archaic theocracy.

Just don't hold your breath.

 

[Shedinja-43152]

to becoming a democracy, instead of an archaic theocracy.

I don't think Iran should become a democracy. Democracy shouldn't be an aim of rightness.
It can stay as a Theocracy but less repressive against womens.

 

[R8]

I don't think Iran should become a democracy. Democracy shouldn't be an aim of rightness.
It can stay as a Theocracy but less repressive against womens.

I disagree - the protests aren't only about women's rights in iran, but also are a consequence of the shitty situation the country is in. This regime does not care about human rights, or its population in general - we could talk about Iran being the 2nd country in the world in terms of executions, about torture, minorities rights such as lgbtqs or Bahais, the economical situation Iran seems to not really care about as they continue to support paramilitary groups in the middle east meanwhile their own population struggles to just survive.

The Islamic Republic is not even legitimate - they managed to progressively eliminate other political forces that contributed to the 1979 revolution, like communist or liberal movements. When Irak declared war against Iran, the Iranian government took this opportunity to get rid of political opposition by calling them enemies of the revolution.

 

[Vid]

The Iranian protests are something that has piqued my interest. I wanted to present new information and pose some further questions as the protests are ongoing. I hope to start a continue a fruitful discussion.

First, I wanted to share an image circulating the internet about women being "freerer" under the Shah.

image

For more images, please refer to the following article https://www.dailystar.co.uk/pics/pictures/gallery/life-under-shah-pre-revolutionary-18344744
The image shows a group of women without a hijab reading and writing, implying the regime under the Shah was utopia-like. However, a major piece of context is missing: these women were part of wealthy families so they were allowed to become educated and not where the hijab. The image fails to take into account that this was not the norm in rural communities where a vast majority of Iran's population lived until rapid industrialization and modernization. It also tries to portray the Shah as a benevolent leader when the Shah was a brutal dictator. I would love to see what people's opinions are on these images, whether they are bad because they are misleading or whether they are beneficial to make people in the "West" more sympathetic to the protests. I tend to lean towards them not being beneficial as they give the Ayatollah a propaganda point by highlighting how the "West" thinks the Shah was not authoritarian. This is ironic as the Ayatollahs are also extremely authoritarian.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/iran-first-execution-protests-rcna60703
Further highlighting how mistakes by the "Western" leaders and media could benefit the Ayatollah was a recent story circulated throughout Twitter that claimed that Iran executed 15,000 prisoners (In reality, there were 15,000 people arrested at the time), which Viola Davis and Justin Trudeau shared. This honestly got me thinking about how careful leaders should be with news they share about fragile authoritarian regimes, as likely all politicians who shared this story wanted to use it to make Iran look bad. However, this backfired, giving the Ayatollah some merit to their claims that the "West" is "evil" and is out to get Iran. I would love to hear anyone's opinion on how misinformation impacts protest against authoritarian regimes.

https://iran-hrm.com/2018/10/29/ira...tomb-of-ancient-persian-king-cyrus-the-great/
I couldn't find a recent article on this next update. Still, since 2018 the Iranian government has restricted travel to the tomb of Cyrus the Great on October 29th, an unofficial holiday honoring Cyrus the Great. There are rumors that the Ayatollah may want to destroy the tomb of Cyrus the Great because it represents Iran before Islam. My thoughts on this are that if they plan to destroy the tomb, it is a great shame to lose an important tomb of such an influential figure that is a big part of Iran's (Persia's) rich history. However, I could not find a concrete source on this but access to the tomb is still likely restricted to curb further protests.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/iran-first-execution-protests-rcna60703
Eleven people were executed. The rough estimates state that 18,000 people have been arrested and 475 killed. It seems the protests raging in Iran will likely become more and more brutal.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...ias-war-ukraine-could-be-long-one-2022-12-07/
In terms of lessening United States sanctions on Iran. This is unlikely and not politically unfeasible, given that Iran currently supplies Russia with drones it uses in the war against Ukraine. The United States is extremely sympathetic to Ukraine because they were invaded by Russia unjustly, but also it allows the United States to weaken a geopolitical rival significantly. For the sanctions to go, the Iranian people would need to topple the current regime and put in a regime that is not hostile to the "west." (Note the new regime does not have to be democratic to achieve this result. The US has been and still is fine with authoritarian regimes that benefit its interests) If the new regime is willing to sell cheap to oil to the United States then the sanctions will go away regardless of the new regimes form of government.

I also wanted to share two good YouTube videos on the Iranian Protests, one from two months ago and a week ago.

videos

Given Iran's recent brutal response to the protests, I would love to hear everybody's thoughts on these updates and what people think will happen.