What you need to know about Iran’s raging protests
Abu Dhabi, UAE CNN — Protests continued across Iran on Sunday despite government crackdown and state media reports claiming that demonstrators have put an end to their rallies.
2022-09-26 20:18:38 - VI News Staff
The protests, now in their tenth day, were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in a hospital three days after being apprehended by the morality police in Tehran and taken to a “re-education center” for not abiding by the state’s hijab rules.
Protests have since then taken place in more than 40 cities, including the capital Tehran, with dozens reportedly killed in clashes with security forces. At least 1,200 were arrested, according to state-backed media.
Rallies that started with calls for justice for Amini’s death have morphed into a larger protest, uniting an array of social factions and classes, with many calling for the fall of the regime.
Here’s what you need to know about the protests:
What’s different about the current protests?
Today’s protests aren’t unlike earlier anti-government movements, but the core issues driving today’s mobilization are different, experts say, arguably making them more significant.
Earlier waves of protests – in 2019, 2021 and more recently this year – were primarily fueled by economic grievances, says Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder and CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation in London, adding that it was one of the main reasons protests did not cross over to other segments of society.
“This is different, because what people are really asking for is a more significant kind of political change,” said Batmanghelidj, adding that this movement has made it easier to “generate solidarity among different social groups.”
Today’s protests are also amassing younger Iranians with internet access who haven’t known an Iran before the Islamic Republic, said Sanam Vakil, a senior research fellow for the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House think-tank in London.
How secure does the government feel now?
The government doesn’t appear to feel more vulnerable than before, said Trita Parsi, vice-president of the Quincy Institute in Washington, DC. “And they may be miscalculating here.”