For almost three weeks, people from all walks of life have raged against Iran’s theocratic regime. From the metropoles to the small cities, the majority of the Iranian population has been involved in the protests, which has significantly changed the face of the country’s society.
Fear is being defeated slowly, as the major chant of the people has become ‘Death to the dictator’ and ‘Death to Khamenei.’
We have reached the point where arrests, tortures, and repressive measures will not hold the people from the path towards freedom. Like wildfire, a new revolution is sweeping across the country and finding its way into every Iranian city. This revolution has united the people. From the Baluchis to the Kurds, they are sending a message of solidarity as the country fights to defeat the regime.
At the forefront of this revolution are the county’s brave women, who have been repressed for over four decades by the worst misogynist regime in history after World War 2.
This current situation was predictable, due to the country’s bleak economic situation, runaway inflation, extremely high prices, and a population close to the poverty line. Adding to the crises is the recent elimination of subsidies, growing unemployment, the emigration of the country’s elites, and a frustrated and futureless new generation which, according to the Persian calendar, have called themselves the generation of the ‘1380s’. Their average age is 20.
Seeing the fate of their parents, these youths are unwilling to accept any more of this current situation, while the Iranian regime wastes the country’s entire wealth on malign activities and precedent its security to the people’s prosperity. As a result, the Iranian people have decided to revolt, even at the cost of their own lives.
The regime thought that it could quell the people’s uprisings with violence as they have in the past. However, with the current unrest approaching its third week, times have changed. On October 3, the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei took to warning the people of the brutal repression that was to follow as retaliation to their uprisings.
Dictatorships have historically denied or accepted the collapse of their totalitarian rule, even in its latest moments, but what history has shown is that nothing is more powerful than a rising nation.
For now, the regime can still count on its Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the infamous ministry of intelligence, and the Basij militias. Tyrannies often fall when losing the power of their repressive institutions and tools, so it is only a matter of time in Iran’s case.
For many years, Khamenei has been trying to push the country’s political body to a younger generation, which he dubbed the ‘Young Hezbollahi’ government. What he did not consider though is the lack of a generation that is ideologically loyal to the regime’s principles, as set by the regime’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini. This can be seen in the lifestyle of many of the regime’s children, many of whom are currently living abroad in extreme wealth.
On October 3, discussing this new generation that has now revolted against the regime, the state-run Etemad daily wrote, “This generation has practiced fighting and winning in video games. The main issue is the recognition of life for all Iranian people, which is expressed in the voice of these youths. They want a good life not only for themselves but for their parents and all Iranian generations. They have seen deprivation in the eyes of their mothers and felt the pain of their fathers’ unsuccessful efforts to live a minimal life.”
They added, “This generation questions the basis of system values and chooses different values, criteria, and patterns. Patterns are taken from the communication space of the new world and virtual space. The new generations realize that women all over the world and throughout history have tried to pursue their demands, but none of these global demands have had anything to do with the hijab. The rights they demand are much more important than the hijab and cover a wide range of basic issues.”
The daily then warned the regime’s officials, writing, “In fact, when the concern is not to improve the lives of the people, a significant part of whom are young people, it is natural that this frustration will continue and lead to protests. Every decade and every generation you look at, the quality of life has declined. That is, the quality of life in the 80s was far better than in the 90s, and the quality of life in the 2000s was better than in this decade.”
Speaking about the root of this situation, the Etemad daily added, “Young Iranians want a normal life, and although some of its statements are economic, its roots are social. It means minimum welfare, social security, bright future, and based on this foundation, other social, and cultural demands are mounted.”
They concluded their piece by stating, “In fact, these protests are not only the protest of this generation but also a symbol of all the restrictions that have been created in the political and social context over many decades. The recent protests are also the natural result of the behavior of a governance system that has no concern for improving the quality of people’s lives.”
