Why are people protesting in Iran by cutting their hair and burning hijabs? Who are the morality police? And are we witnessing the beginning of another major Iranian revolution? These are some of the big questions being asked right now.
Mass protests have spread across the country and authorities have responded with violent and deadly force. The event that sparked all of this was the death of Masa Amini, a young Iranian woman who died while being held by Iran's morality police. On September 13th, Amini was reportedly arrested for wearing a hijab too loosely. That's considered a crime in Iran, as women are required to dress modestly and cover their hair when in public. There are reports that Miss Amini was beaten on the head with a baton and her head was banged against the vehicle by so-called morality police.
She fell into a coma shortly after collapsing at Buzara Detention Center. Miss Amini, who also goes by the Kurdish name Gina, died three days later. Authorities say Amini died of natural causes and that she had prior health conditions and suffered heart failure.
But her family says that she had no health issues and that the government is simply trying to cover up what actually happened. Amini was arrested by Iran's guidance patrol, which is commonly referred to as the morality police. Its primary role is to enforce religious laws in Iran, such as strict rules on dress, behaviour and mixing between men and women in public.
Punishments can take a number of different forms. from a simple warning to physical beatings. And the morality police are given a lot of freedom to operate.
They have ultimate power. There is no checks or balances of morality police. Unlike Australia, Iran doesn't have a separation between religion and government. In fact, many people consider Iran to be a theocracy.
That's basically a form of government where a religious leader rules in the name of a higher power. In Iran, that figure is the supreme leader. who was appointed by a small group of religious officials.
He embodies the sovereignty of God and therefore possesses enormous divine and constitutional powers. Iran does have elements of democracy. It has a president, parliament and elections.
But the supreme leader, who is not elected by the public, is the most powerful figure. Since 1989, that position has been held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Supreme Leader controls the armed forces, appoints judges and has the final say on all important policies.
We don't have an independent judiciary. So even if, you know, they break the law, you know, you go complain to who? To themselves?
The Supreme Leader also appoints half of the members of the Guardian Council, a 12-man body that controls Iranian politics and has the power to block laws, as well as candidates for parliament and even president. Just in case you're wondering about the other half, they're appointed by the Chief Justice, who himself is appointed by the Supreme Leader. To add to all of this, the Guardian Council also has to approve anyone that wants to run for a spot in the Assembly of Experts.
That's the group I mentioned earlier that's supposed to have the power to appoint and dismiss the Supreme Leader, but in its entire existence the Assembly has never dismissed or even questioned a sitting Supreme Leader. The constitution and the bodies that are guarding the constitutions are all in the control of a minority of seminary clerics, old men with beards and turbans, and they decide for everyone. All of this is important to remember when it comes to understanding what the protesters are currently asking for. What started as a response to the death of Masa Amini has transformed into a bigger movement. Calling for an end to the laws and systems that oppress women and minorities in Iranian society and an end to the overwhelming control of the country by an unelected minority.
Women want freedoms, freedoms that are not just restricted to the headscarf. They want freedoms to access education, freedoms to leave Iran without having to ask their husbands for permission to do so. Protest now. is calling for the end of theocracy.
The population sees the Islamic Republic of Iran as completely oblivious to the interests of the Iranian population. The bottom line is, the people of Iran can't achieve real change through elections if the Supreme Leader and the Guardian Council have ultimate political power. That's why the street is the only place they could go. Even when politicians do emerge that want to change the system, They're often blocked from even being able to run in the first place.
In the controversial 2021 presidential election, the Guardian Council disqualified all of the main moderate and reformist candidates, and less than half the population bothered showing up to vote. Any real change would require upending Iran's internal Higher power structure, something that famously happened during the Iranian revolution in 1979. The uprising transformed Iran from a secular westernizing monarchy, which operated largely as a dictatorship with little political freedom but more social freedoms, into the Islamic Republic that we know of today. Ever since the Islamic Republic managed to secure its hold on power and impose its strict reading of Sharia law, its own version of Sharia law, Women's rights have been depleted.
In 1982, the law passed and women's age of marriage got reduced to nine. The right to divorce went down the tube and the right to custody of your children. At the moment, there are a lot of comparisons between what's happening right now and what happened in the 1970s.
But is another full-scale revolution actually on the way? There is a large groundswell of support that has spread across the country, even in smaller, more traditionally religious towns. There are also signs that Iran's large youth population has had enough and is unsatisfied.
But according to the experts, there are some key differences between what's happening now and 1979. Firstly, the current protest movement doesn't have a unified leader or opposition group driving it. A lot of eager... Young Iranians who are prepared to sacrifice their life and call for freedom, but they do it in a very disorganized, haphazard and disjointed fashion. That's partly because, for years, any opposition groups that had begun to rise in Iran were quickly and aggressively crushed.
Every group that organizes, when two becomes three and four becomes five, they go after them. And it has succeeded in wiping out. all viable alternatives.
Another big difference is Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard. After the revolution, the Guard was set up to protect Iran's new Islamic system. Even though the Guard Corps is actually smaller than Iran's regular military, it's considered to be the most powerful force in the country. It also benefits a lot from the current regime, and its members would lose a lot of their benefits and status in society if things were to change.
The armed forces. Basically operate as a mega corporation. They own private properties, they own companies, they have their own factories, manufacturing.
And of course you can add to that the ideological commitment of Revolutionary Guards to this idea of an Islamic state. So, what happens next? Protesters and human rights groups have called on the international community to hold the Iranian government accountable for its actions. They need to be calling for a credible, impartial and independent investigation into Mahsa and Niniste. We need an accountability mechanism at the UN so that the Iranian leaders know that they can't kill and get away with it.
And to show strong support for all of human rights in Iran, including the repeal of discriminatory laws against women. Inside Iran, the government has continued its crackdown. The government has only one response to protests. They only know how to use brute force and suppress dissent. There have been mass arrests, internet blackouts, and protesters are being killed every day by Iranian security forces.
But despite all of this, the protests have continued. The question is how long the politics of repression will work for the regime. Even if the government does manage to stop protesters this time, there's a belief among some experts that because of the size and momentum of this movement, the bell has been rung, and Iran's leadership may be forced to make some fundamental changes sooner or later.
It gives a very clear warning to the Islamic regime that it has lost its grasp of the public. It does not have the support of many segments of the Iranian public. And therefore, the time has come. to open the way for structural reforms to meet the grievances of the public, which is very widespread, or it is going to face an upheaval of this kind over and over as it has been the case in the past.
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