During the past weeks, the religious fascism ruling Iran has intensified suppression in the streets to terrify the fed-up people, particularly youths who are the leading force of protests.
In this respect, the State Security Forces (SSF) launched a new round of oppressive measures, including humiliating youths; killing two young men in Mashhad and Esfarayen cities in northeastern Iran; and beating a pregnant woman in Abadan in Khuzestan province, southwest of the country.
All the mentioned actions were taken place in the streets. Many people describe these brutalities as “street torture.” However, the question is, why the government insists on performing such disgusting actions in public?
Iranian authorities believe that they can control public ire by creating panic and horror among citizens.
Resorting to open suppression is one of the last cards of dictators, which reveals that they have no social base despite their hollow claims.
The Iranian people have experienced this kind of suppression in the entire history of the Islamic Republic.
In the past four decades, the ayatollahs tried to quell the people’s eagerness for fundamental rights and freedoms through the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) patrols and SWAT patrols.
Furthermore, they invented several units under cover of religious thoughts such as patrols of Amr-e Be Marouf and Nahy-e Az Monkar (enjoining good and forbidding wrong) and countering Bi-Hijabi (women who refuse compulsory hijab).
On the other hand, the Iranian government commits crimes against humanity under the excuse of religious punishments. Public stoning, hanging, and amputating people’s fingers are only some instances of tortures mandated by the ayatollahs’ penal code.
Moreover, the ayatollahs promote acid attacks on defenseless girls and women under the pretense of ensuring men’s zeal. On October 2, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s Representatives in the city of Isfahan, central Iran, and Bojnourd, northeastern Iran, called their thugs to assault “norm-breaker” women.
“The atmosphere of the society should be made insecure for these people, who are also few in number, and they should not be allowed to break the norms easily in the streets and parks,” said Khamenei’s Representative in Isfahan Yousef Tabatabai.
“The phenomenon of bad hijab and lack of hijab in society is like a virus among the people, and it must be confronted. In addition to the police and the judiciary, to deal with the lack of hijab, people should also get involved in this matter and be moral polices. Therefore, we must be sensitive to non-coronaviruses,” said Abolghasem Yaghoubi, the Friday prayer leader and Khamenei’s representative in North Khorasan province.
However, Iranian citizens never gave in to the government’s oppressive measures and restrictions, and they frequently show their objection to the ayatollahs’ actions.
In the past two years, these objections have emerged in the form of nationwide protests. As the authorities said, the people seek an opportunity to express their wrath against the entire ruling system.
Truly, increasing the suppression and restrictions is a testimony to public anger and distrust toward the rulers.
This is the main issue that authoritarian regimes try to conceal by a flagrant crackdown on simple cries. However, the government is simultaneously losing its credit even among its loyalists, which put its survival on the verge of collapse.
In this respect, a “reformism-theorist” Abbas Abdi describes recent protests as “illness,” adding that the establishment can just “contain the illness’s symptoms” with suppression.
According to Abdi, once the government thought it had defeated social disappointment and “healed the patient,” the “illness emerged with more intensity” in November 2019.
In his interview with Etemad daily, Abdi described Iran’s condition as a powder keg, which might explode with a small spark.
“The problem has not been resolved, and sooner or later, another event can detonate this powder keg. Therefore, we must go further than that decision and learn from the protests. We must await the repetition of these incidents,” Etemad wrote on November 16.
