Published on: 05/12/2022 – 22:44
As the protest movement gathers intensity after a new call for a three-day strike in Iran, the attorney general surprised Saturday by announcing the crackdown on the vice squad, the agency responsible for Mahsa Amini’s death last September. But this statement, initially seen as a setback for the regime, should be interpreted with caution.
Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, who was questioned after a speech in the religious city of Qom, was surprised when his remarks on Saturday 3 and responsible for the death of Mahsa Amini was rescinded.
“The moral police have nothing to do with the judiciary, and they were abolished by those who created them,” he said, before continuing, “Of course the judiciary will continue to control the mores of society.”
Two days later, things seem a lot less clear. On the contrary, for Jonathan Piron, a historian specializing in Iran, the government is more inflexible than ever. “The vice squad has not been abolished in Iran, the researcher explains. The prosecutor’s words were ambiguous, they were misinterpreted. Authorities and power make no concessions on this issue, they follow their repressive logic.”
“The hijab is part of the DNA” of the regime
Washington and Berlin said Monday they expect “no improvement” in the situation of women in Iran, while at least 500 people have been executed and 18,000 others imprisoned since the mobilization began.
Reversing the veil, a pillar of the regime since 1983, seems impossible indeed. “The regime cannot reverse the obligation to wear the veil,” notes David Rigoulet-Roze, researcher at Iris. If he agreed to come back to it, it would be like disowning himself. The hijab is part of his DNA. From this point of view, the regime is probably not reformable because it cannot change its actual identity.”
The political scientist therefore fears an increase in violence at a time when more and more women are taking off their veils. The manager of a chain of stores was summoned by authorities on Monday for agreeing to serve bareheaded customers, Radio Farda (in Persian) reported.
An amusement park in Tehran was closed because its employees did not wear headscarves. “They will not put their veils back on, preferring to give up their lives,” develops David Rigoulet-Roze. It is likely that a point of no return has been reached, not to mention that not without an apparent paradox women wish to continue to wear the veil and support those who remove it in the name of this purported freedom of choice .”
So discontent appears to be generalizing in Iran, where pictures showing young women tearing off their veils are now accompanied by anti-regime slogans calling for the supreme leader and government to resign. Demonstrations took place in Tehran and other cities across the country on Monday evening, according to the BBC.
“Revolution in the Making”
In this context, the announcement of the abolition of the vice squad is more of a distraction by the authorities on the eve of a call for a new three-day nationwide strike. “It would potentially fall under a sort of ‘trial balloon’, a deliberately ambivalent and sibylline announcement, continues David Rigoulet-Roze. Because this comes just before the three days of strikes announced on social networks for the It is perhaps a question of whether this type of announcement is suitable for defusing the dynamic that has been initiated.
Be that as it may, this announcement did not detract from the motivation of the demonstrators on Monday. Indeed, on the first day of the strike, traders and universities took part in several cities across the country, including Chahinchahr (see videos below) near Isfahan, where the movement is widely followed.
Notably, workers also went on strike, such as those at the Mahchahr petrochemical plant. A crucial point for the regime, which nevertheless monitors the sector like milk over a fire: in 1978, the great strike in the petrochemical factories led to the shah’s downfall.
According to Radio Farda, 500 contract workers at the Mahchahr petrochemical plant stopped work on Sunday to demand a pay rise. For the Franco-Iranian sociologist Azadeh Kian, this is proof that the Iranian government is facing a “revolution in the making”.
“Traders very close to the regime largely followed Monday’s strike, lists them, as did workers in petrochemical and steel plants, truck drivers, high school students, students and teachers… We see the movement spreading and that they are tut doesn’t get weaker, quite the opposite.”
This movement, unprecedented in scope and duration, still has no “tipping point” to become truly revolutionary. “Unlike previous generations, young people are no longer afraid – the fear has changed sides, say today in Iran – and they are supported by their parents, even their grandparents,” observes David Rigoulet-Roze. The situation is completely unprecedented, even if it is real. At the level of society as a whole, the “convergence of struggles” is still missing. The turning point has not yet been reached, but it is not necessarily far away.”