{"id":9558,"date":"2022-12-16T18:13:40","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T18:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=9558"},"modified":"2022-12-16T18:13:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T18:13:40","slug":"irans-months-long-protest-movement-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=9558","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s months-long protest movement, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“the Islamic Republic, headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, executed 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari<\/a> for the crime of \u201cwaging war against God,\u201d or moharebeh in Farsi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shekari was the first prisoner to be executed due to the recent unrest, in what Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, head of the Norway-based organization Iran Human Rights, characterized as<\/a> a \u201cshow trial without any due process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Shekari\u2019s execution<\/a> \u2014 likely the first of dozens \u2014 the Iranian regime is reverting to a tried and tested playbook of executing political opponents<\/a> and dissidents<\/a>. But it\u2019s not clear that the mass imprisonment<\/a>, extrajudicial killings, and further possible state-sanctioned executions will deter the protesters who have for more than two months now defied crackdowns and curfews to call for an end to Khamenei\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also not clear what success looks like for the protesters should they somehow manage to topple the regime that\u2019s had an iron grip on the nation since the 1979 revolution \u2014 or how they would manage to do so in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inciting spark for the now 11-week-long protests was the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16 while in the custody of Iran\u2019s morality police. Amini, a 21-year old Kurdish woman, was arrested while in Tehran for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly; since her death, she has become a potent symbol of many Iranians\u2019 contempt for the country\u2019s oppressive theocracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protests have gained momentum since they began in Amini\u2019s hometown of Saqez<\/a>, in Iranian Kurdistan, appearing in dozens of cities throughout the Islamic Republic despite the government\u2019s efforts \u2014 including internet and mobile network disruptions<\/a>, mass arrests<\/a>, and civilian killings<\/a> \u2014 to quash them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are some ways this protest echoes past movements, but there are also key differences \u2014 not just the longevity, but the degree of societal cohesion and solidarity, too. Women have led and become the public face of this movement \u2014 aparticularly notable fact in 2022, given the ways that women have been repressed under the current regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of that, however, doesn\u2019t mean that this movement will bring down the Islamic Republic; decades of repression, a poor economic outlook, extremely limited opposition in the political establishment, plus the fact that the military and security service as well as the economic elite continue to throw their lot in with the regime make it difficult to imagine an alternative vision for the future of Iran.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2022\/12\/10\/23499535\/iran-protest-movement-explained<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“the Islamic Republic, headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, executed 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari for the crime of \u201cwaging war against God,\u201d or moharebeh in Farsi.
\nShekari was the first prisoner to be executed due to the recent unrest, in what Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, head of the Norway-based organization Iran Human Rights, characterized as a \u201cshow trial without any due process.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Shekari\u2019s execution \u2014 likely the first of dozens \u2014 the Iranian regime is reverting to a tried and tested playbook of executing political opponents and dissidents. But it\u2019s not clear that the mass imprisonment, extrajudicial killings, and further possible state-sanctioned executions will deter the protesters who have for more than two months now defied crackdowns and curfews to call for an end to Khamenei\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also not clear what success looks like for the protesters should they somehow manage to topple the regime that\u2019s had an iron grip on the nation since the 1979 revolution \u2014 or how they would manage to do so in the first place.<\/p>\n

The inciting spark for the now 11-week-long protests was the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16 while in the custody of Iran\u2019s morality police. Amini, a 21-year old Kurdish woman, was arrested while in Tehran for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly; since her death, she has become a potent symbol of many Iranians\u2019 contempt for the country\u2019s oppressive theocracy.<\/p>\n

The protests have gained momentum since they began in Amini\u2019s hometown of Saqez, in Iranian Kurdistan, appearing in dozens of cities throughout the Islamic Republic despite the government\u2019s efforts \u2014 including internet and mobile network disruptions, mass arrests, and civilian killings \u2014 to quash them.<\/p>\n

There are some ways this protest echoes past movements, but there are also key differences \u2014 not just the longevity, but the degree of societal cohesion and solidarity, too. Women have led and become the public face of this movement \u2014 a particularly notable fact in 2022, given the ways that women have been repressed under the current regime.<\/p>\n

All of that, however, doesn\u2019t mean that this movement will bring down the Islamic Republic; decades of repression, a poor economic outlook, extremely limited opposition in the political establishment, plus the fact that the military and security service as well as the economic elite continue to throw their lot in with the regime make it difficult to imagine an alternative vision for the future of Iran.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1104,660,156,1047,942,362,661],"class_list":["post-9558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-authoritarianism","tag-dictatorship","tag-iran","tag-islam","tag-protesting","tag-protests","tag-tyranny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9559,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9558\/revisions\/9559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}