Is this thing still going on? Seriously! Where are we with this many months-long saga? I will admit that I thought the government would have shut down these protests by now, but on the other hand, the movement has not reached any sense of critical mass. It just seems to be this slow burn leading to nothing except a bunch of citizens venting. At what point do people revert back to the status quo? Call me skeptical, but I think an oppressed people kind of doesn’t mind after a while, and Iranians have been oppressed for nearly 50 years. So, why should now be any different? Oh, maybe it’s that “this time is different” mantra hope-peddling bullshit. People seem uniquely inclined to such myopia.
Speaking of “unique,” I came across this JSTOR article which I quote at length, “The civil unrest that erupted in Iran after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was allegedly beaten to death by the Islamic Republic’s morality police in September continues to spread across the country. Demonstrations initially aimed at abolishing compulsory hijab laws are now calling for a complete dismantling of the republic itself. Overnight, protestors went from taking off their headscarves to lighting them on fire, from tearing down portraits of their Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to shouting, ‘Death to the Oppressor!’ in the streets. Many reports present these developments as unprecedented, and for good reason. As Assal Rad, a research director at the National Iranian American Council, says in a Zoom call, the current level of civil disobedience would have been ‘unimaginable’ a few months ago. At the same time, it is important to recognize that today’s protests are not entirely unique in the context of Iranian history. They are firmly rooted in a century-old tradition of collective action against authoritarianism—a tradition which created ‘one of the most robust protest cultures in the world,’ as Reza Aslan writes in An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville, set during the 1905-1911 Persian Constitutional Revolution.”
It got me thinking, if Iranians are experts at protesting with a long history of doing so, then what’s taking so long? Perhaps I’m being too impatient. But am I? The Islamic Revolution took over a year to oust the Shaw. But one would think in this century of speedy everything from communications to the dissemination of information, events would be accelerated, but they are not. These Iranian protests have actually been culminating since July 2021. They’ve only intensified after the murder of Mahsa Amini. But before Amini, the populace had been agitated over economic problems, which arguably should be more of a catalyst for real change. Yet, nothing. So after 18 months of protests and 50 years of oppression, I see why this time will probably not be different. Oh, well. People get the government they deserve and desire.