Iranian protesters demand real change
What has been happening in Iran the past four weeks is not their fathers’ revolution. After years of pent-up anger, young people are taking to the streets in a direct challenge to the theocracy that has ruled since 1979, cheered on by prominent figures in culture and sports. What began as a protest by women over oppressive hijab rules and their strict enforcement by the morality police has fast become a broader generational and social uprising. “Down with the dictator!” has become a common slogan throughout the country.
On Oct. 8, President Ebrahim Raisi addressed professors and students at Alzahra University in Tehran, reciting a poem that equated “rioters” with inconsequential flies. Fearlessly, female students chanted back, “Get lost!” and “Mullahs, get lost!” The demonstrators have been galvanized by a protest anthem, “Baraye,” from 25-year-old musician Shervin Hajipour, with lyrics based on tweets expressing grievances with the regime going back decades. They came in the aftermath of the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, while in police custody on Sept. 16, detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly wearing a headscarf improperly. Hajipour’s song, posted on Instagram, went viral with 40 million views in less than 48 hours. He was detained Sept. 29 and accused of “propaganda against the system” and “inciting people to violent acts,” before being released on bail and prohibited from leaving the country.
Then came the outrageous case of Sarina Esmaeilzadeh, a 16-yearold girl from Mehrshahr in Karaj, who was fatally struck on the head by batons from security forces during a protest Sept. 22. Authorities attempted to coerce her family into a videotaped statement that she killed herself, according to the group Iran Human Rights, based in Oslo. The family refused. The prosecutor went ahead anyway and declared the cause of death to be suicide.
Actors, athletes and others spoke out, too — and were immediately punished. Mahmoud Shahriari, a former presenter for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, was detained by a court order for “inciting riots and sympathizing with the enemy.” His offense: posting messages in support of the protests on Instagram. Soccer star Ali Daei had his passport revoked over a call for the government to “solve the problems of the Iranian people rather than using repression, violence, and arrests.” Actor Hamid Farrokhnejad said Oct. 9 that he had undergone hours of interrogation because of his support for the protests. “I was summoned twice, interrogated for 10 hours and banned from leaving the country to prove to me that I was wrong when I said that even a peaceful protest is not possible in this country,” he said, according to Radio Farda.
It is not clear how many have been killed, but the total is clearly in the dozens across 17 provinces. Iran Human Rights says 185 are dead. The wide and unrelenting protests — oil field workers joined this week, and ethnic minorities, too — have been met by the regime with the usual mindless deployment of thugs, batons and guns. But what has become clear is how deeply and broadly Iranians yearn for normalcy and to be free of the dictatorial clerics. It is a spirit of disenchantment that cannot be arrested.