Voice of Jewish News: The astonishing bravery of Iran’s youth
This week's editorial reflects on brave acts of open defiance in a country where the repressive authorities are infamously violent. Is this a turning point?
Many of us will have been moved by the photographs of Iranian women, young and old, ripping off their headscarves in recent weeks. They are being astonishingly brave – and a lot of them are of school age.
Think of the schoolgirls who were pictured gesturing at a portrait of ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei, the two men who have been Iran’s supreme leaders since the 1979 revolution. Think of the schoolgirls appearing to heckle a speech by a member of the feared Basij paramilitary force.
These are brave acts because they are instances of open defiance in a country where the authorities are often brutally violent. That was the case, it seems beyond doubt, with Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old ethnic Kurd who died after spending time in police custody.
Since her death nearly a month ago, protests have spread across Iran. Many have been killed; many more have been arrested.
She had been picked up by the morality police – allegedly for violating in some way the Iranian law requiring all women to cover their hair with a headscarf – and fell into a coma. The authorities say she suffered a heart attack. Her family says she had no underlying health problems and that she was beaten in custody. Since her death nearly a month ago, protests have spread across Iran. Many have been killed; many more have been arrested.
This isn’t the first time people have risen up against the authorities, but one remarkable thing about these protests is that the schoolgirls taking part are barely old enough to remember the last major wave of demonstrations in 2009. But is this a turning point?
So far, the men at the top have responded exactly as those of us who have been observing Iran for years would expect – by blaming Israel. It’s plainly ludicrous to accuse another country of causing Amini’s death, and there’s little to suggest that outsiders have done much to encourage the subsequent rebellion either.
What appears certain is that these protests are a sign of the people’s genuine anger, but are spontaneous and disorganised. It does not appear that there is any individual or group leading them.
The answer to whether these protests might lead to real change depends entirely on the Iranians themselves.
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