When the young Iranian Kurdish girl Jina Mahsa Amini was dying in a hospital about three months ago, many people in Iran were already suspicious. A photo showing the 22-year-old with a ventilation tube and eyes closed in an intensive care unit in the capital Tehran is spreading rapidly. Many people already assume that Amini must have suffered violence after his arrest by the moral guards.
“Woman, Life, Freedom”
The notorious morality police had taken the student away just three days earlier because of an ill-fitting scarf. The young woman dies and after her death, anger and sadness erupt in her hometown of Saqqez. Starting in her native Kurdistan, the protests are spreading like wildfire across the country.
Initially, anger was directed against the Islamic dress code, but the demonstrations turned into an endurance test for the Islamic Republic’s entire political system. Since then, Tehran’s leadership has been caught in the worst political crisis in decades, with an uncertain outcome.
“Woman, life, freedom” chant supporters of the protests in Iran and supporters of the movement abroad.
“Because the desire for freedom is so great”
Why do the protests in Iran not stop? “Because the desire for freedom is so great”, says lawyer Shoura Hashemi in the PULS 24 interview.
It is a very young generation that is leading the protest. According to Hashemi, it would always reorganize itself and think of new forms of protest. Even the executions already carried out would not stop the protesters.
But the older generation “is also now playing an increasingly important role”. The previous generation would join the protests in the form of strikes.
More about it:
Hashemi: “Because the desire for freedom is so great”
18,000 protesters arrested, 445 killed
According to human rights activists, at least 445 protesters were killed in the mass protests in Iran. The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported in November that 63 children were among the dead.
According to human rights organizations, at least 18,000 protesters have been arrested so far. Authorities often accuse them of participating in illegal demonstrations, causing disturbances or endangering national security. At least 400 protesters have reportedly been sentenced to prison terms so far.
Executions do not prevent
At least 24 demonstrators are currently facing the death penalty for their participation in protests critical of the system. Two executions have already taken place, causing horror and outrage at home and abroad.
Even executions won’t stop Iranians from fighting for their freedom, agrees blogger and freelance journalist Mina Khani. The executions “are nothing new” for the population. Rather, what is new for the Iranian people is the realization that the desire to overthrow the Iranian state is a widespread idea.
More about it:
Khani: Executions do not deter protesters
Take Down the State – “More Realistic Than Ever”
More than 40 years after the Islamic Revolution, the political leadership in Tehran is defending its iron course. Words of reconciliation remain silent as international pressure mounts on the violent crackdown on Tehran. Above all, the dissatisfaction and rejection of the younger generation has taken the state apparatus by surprise, say observers.
The idea of overthrowing the Iranian regime is “more realistic than ever”, Khani told PULS 24. It takes time and is “a marathon” because it is part of a revolutionary movement to develop further. But the population now knows “how much power there is”. In Iran, things are much further away than they were three months ago. That the state must be overthrown is already a “very well established idea”. Now they are discussing how to organize the protest next year and what further steps should be taken.
The Iranian people are fighting under the motto: “We have given too much to stop. We have to win this fight,” Khani said.