Iranian ‘Reformist’ Says The Youth Want Fundamental Change
Iran’s 'Reformists' have been side-lined during the current crisis, as neither the government nor the protesters consider them a serious political alternative.
Iran’s 'Reformists' have been side-lined during the current crisis, as neither the government nor the protesters consider them a serious political alternative.
The spokesman for Iran’s Reform Front, Abolfazl Shakouri-Rad says a bipolar situation has taken shape in Iranian politics and reformists have been left out of the political debate by both the hard-line government and the protesters who do not want an Islamic government.
“Reformists cannot do anything but sit on the fence and watch what is going on,” he said in an interview with the pro-reform Fararu website, adding that “the two main players in the bipolar game are fighting each other at the expense of the society. In the meantime, we Reformists do not know what is happening, what the future is going to look like and whether the current situation is going to serve the nation’s interests.”
It is not only Shakouri-Rad who is talking about a bipolar situation in Iran. Former Majles Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a close relative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has also expressed concern about the formation of a dangerous bipolar situation in Iran during a conference with hard-line commentators to seek a way out of the current crisis which has claimed at least 150 lives.
Haddad Adel was quoted as saying on October 4 that “The Iranian society is rapidly moving towards bipolarity, with radical hardliners on the one side and another group of people who disagree with them 100 percent.” This bipolarity is so much visible in the streets that many observers believe that the two the confrontation between the two poles might put the final nail in the Islamic Republic’s coffin.
The fact that both hardliner Haddad Adel, whose political positions are aligned with the ultraconservative Paydari Party, and Shakouri-Rad, a leading reformist figure agree on the existence and the nature of this bipolarity reveals the sensitive situation Iran and its people have been experiencing during the past three weeks.
The murder of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s notorious morality police turned into the largest antigovernment uprising in Iran’s modern history.
Shakouri-Rad said in the interview: “It was not only Mahsa’s death that led to this uprising. Her death only flared up the fire of accumulated dissatisfactions over the government’s performance.” He also said that the issue of hijab in the center of the event brought Iranian women and youths to the streets hoping for a change in their lifestyle.
He observed that even some of Iran’s conservatives are moved by what has happened, particularly because the way the government handled the whole episode.
Referring to the leading role of Iran’s youth in the protests, he said that most of the members of his own group, the reformist Unity of Nation Party are youngsters between 15 to 25 years old.
“This is a generation that believes it can achieve its demands only through shouting it in the streets. They do not believe in elections,” he said, but he did not mention that ruling hardliners made elections meaningless by allowing only their candidates to run.
Shakouri-Rad added that the gap between the government and citizens has widened as people have lost trust not only in the government but also in the Iranian media which can only echo what the government says. Meanwhile he acknowledged that foreign-based media including the Iran International TV have taken the lead in shaping public opinion in Iran.
“At the same time, social media posts criticizing the Iranian governments are ‘liked’ by thousands of Iranian users. Despite the restrictions imposed by the government, more Iranians are now-a-days on social media,” he said.
Shakouri-Rad maintained that this degree of dissatisfaction has always existed in Iran, but it has become stronger and more visible.
The politician concluded that “the current situation of political bipolarity is extremely dangerous, but we as reformists cannot even convince those who belong to the reform camp. People voted for us in several elections since 1997 but we did not have an eye-catching achievement. The younger generation no longer believes in us and as a result of that we have been marginalized in Iran.”
Regime sympathizers in the West, who want the Islamic Republic to remain in power do not actually verbalize their desire. Instead, they declare that the regime’s survival is not in doubt. They base their rationale for spreading seeds of despair on how forcefully previous unrests were crushed. As such, they suggest we must resign to the notion that the past is irrefutably prologue.
But this revolt is different. Let us review some of the realities in a “then and now” schematic.
Dealing with the Repressive Machinery
The world is dealing with a new generation of Iranians. Iranian generations Y and Z are different from the nondescript and timid generations of the past. They are especially distinct from that of the "reform" period. This was my generation. When we came to the streets, we would listen to the words of self-appointed reformist leaders and protest in silence. When the riot police beat us with batons, we would chant, "Police force! Support us! Support!" Instead, a girl of generation Z sets her headscarf ablaze in front of the security forces and the boy saves his friend from the clutches of the regime’s plainclothes mercenaries with a Bruce Lee-style high kick.
The very basic right of any human being - the right to protect one’s own life - is now a rule vastly acknowledged by the Iranian people. If you punch, you will get kicked. If you lift a baton, a flowerpot will descend upon your head from the balcony. This retaliatory policy has stunned the regime’s repressive forces and instilled fear in the hearts of mercenaries, rendering their authority and the Islamic Republic’s historically brutish force a bit ineffective.
The sanctification of struggle has been replaced by the will for triumph. Anger has substituted grief. Crying over the death of comrades has given way to trying to achieve the goal for which they died. Students at universities now bravely confront the regime’s henchmen and shout, “Death to the Dictator!” When their comrades at Sharif (Aryamehr) University of Technology in Tehran are brutalized by the Islamic Republic’s mercenaries, students from universities around the country protest. Even high school students have joined the movement.
International Attention
During the November 2019 protests, the regime shut down the internet and embarked on a mission to slaughter the people. In the West, this massacre was hardly covered in the media, as if it was not happening. No Western celebrity uttered a word. The Iranian people’s need for the internet became a paragraph in the annual reports of Western think tanks. The hacker group Anonymous was not aware of the atrocity unfolding in Iran. The tweets asking Elon Musk to help get internet for Iran were probably never read by him. President Donald Trump and his foreign policy team expressed verbal support for the people. The silence from the rest of the politicians was deafening. To this day, US Democrats know little to nothing about what was dubbed as Iran’s “Bloody November.” They conveniently ignored the tragedy because, Heaven forbids, they would find themselves on the same side with Trump.
Now, Anonymous has unleashed its fury on the Islamic Republic. Elon Musk agreed to activate Starlink for Iran. Almost immediately, the US Government issued the license for him to proceed. All this is not perfect and has limitations, but it is a ray of hope for the Iranian people that the world is hearing them. Indeed, they have found their own methods to circumvent the regime’s internet shutdown. In the diaspora, Iranians from around the world have taken to social media and to the streets to express solidarity with their compatriots. In Toronto alone on October 1, 2022, an estimated 50,000 people rallied in protest to the Islamic Republic. Hundreds of thousands more joined these rallies in the US, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.
Western celebrities on social media condemned the brutal murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini by regime’s mercenaries for “inadequate hijab.” Her name became a codeword for women-inspired protests. Artists, athletes, and other celebrities began competing in praising the bravery of Iranian women and men. Politicians in the West, one-by-one began making official statements in support of the uprising.
US Democrats who were at best lukewarm towards previous protests and flagrant human rights violations in Iran, have announced solidarity with the Iranian people, especially women. Even the progressive Democrats who are influenced by the Islamic Republic’s lobby found themselves in the awkward position of having to voice a semblance of support. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), who is an advocate of appeasing the oppressive regime in Iran, acknowledges in an interview with CNN that “this time is different.”
Most astonishing of all was Biden’s National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, admitting that the US, during Barack Obama’s presidency, made a miscalculation by not supporting the Iranian people during the 2009 uprising.
Unity
During the 2009 uprising, the streets of Tehran and a few other Iranian metropolitans saw an enormous turnout of people. In November 2019, there were protests everywhere except for Tehran, apart from some suburbs and peripheral townships. This time the heart of Tehran is ablaze. Affluent neighborhoods in Tehran are packed. Simultaneously, there are large demonstrations in other urban and rural areas on Iran. This has created a conundrum in transposition for the regime’s mercenaries and repressive forces. The middle class, which was silent in November 2019 and the winter of 2020, finally united with the rest of society. It is indeed a national uprising.
Artificial ethnic divisions, likely created by the regime itself or by fringe ultranationalist “opposition” groups outside Iran, were blurred. A nation rose in reaction to the slaying of a young Kurdish Iranian woman. In Tehran, people shouted "Kordestan, Kordestan, the eye and light of Iran.” Women of Tabriz shouted, "Azarbaijan is awake, it stands with Kordestan.” Everywhere else in Iran they chanted, "I will kill he who murdered my sister.” After the Islamic Revolutionary Guards massacred more than 40 Sunni compatriots in Sistan and Baluchistan province, people in the Shiite religious center Mashhad shouted, “Mashhad, Zahedan, my life is for Iran.”
Iranian opposition groups of various political persuasions, set their differences aside by and large. Those who did not join this movement with goodwill were rejected and repudiated.
The Islamic Republic’s unofficial lobby groups in the US and Canada that historically dominated the headlines with their “analyses” were also marginalized. Regime-affiliated journalists who largely wrote for English-language publications and spread disinformation in favor of the regime were ignored. Most interestingly, regime’s unofficial lobby in the US was explicitly told that they were not welcome in the October 1 rallies. In those rallies, placards were held by Iranians condemning these organizations and individuals.
Woman, Life, Freedom
The slogan of the Kurds who were fighting the Islamic State in Syria has become the slogan of the Iranians battling the Islamic State in Iran. “Woman, life, freedom” represents the paragon of liberty and social justice. Women, who were oppressed for 43 years following the Islamic Revolution, have become a symbol of human rights. Longing for a normal life and vitality, which the Iranian people were robbed of is celebrated. And freedom, it needs no elucidation.
You can call this movement an uprising, a rebellion, or a revolution. Whatever it is, it has a gratifying scent of victory. This time is different, in all respects.
The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily the views of Iran International.