Protests in Iran

Two weeks have passed since the beginning of popular protests in Iran. The demonstrations have resulted in 22 deaths and more than 1,000 arrests, marking the largest protest movement in the country since the Iranian Green Movement, wherein protesters demanded the removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad following allegations of electoral fraud in the 2009 Iranian presidential elections.

People have taken the streets to voice their discontent with the Iranian government: following the 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions on the country, inflation and unemployment have persisted. Though the central message of the protests is difficult to discern, there appear to be principal themes: people are expressing their opposition to the Supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, by ripping down portraits of the religious leader on the streets. Secondly, rising unemployment and other economic issues, like high prices for food and gas, highlight the corruption impeding equitable distribution of benefits in spite of the economic growth that has been taking place since 2015. Moreover, youth unemployment rates stagnate at around 24 per cent for citizens aged 15 to 24. The declining living standards have spurred negative public sentiment against the Iranian government.

While the country has now returned to a calmer state, the resentment that fuelled the protests has yet to be addressed. Some experts have called the situation in Iran a “crisis of expectation,” as many of the promises of last year’s presidential elections have yet to be fulfilled. A U.S. intelligence official stated that even though demonstrations had more or less ended, “concerns were not going away, as they are symptomatic of long-standing grievances that have been left to fester.”