https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/...rotests-woman-death-morality-police-rcna49100
The theocratic despotism of the clerics in Iran has done more damage to Islam, in the eyes of a great many Iranians, than anything the West could have done to undermine it. The regime will likely weather this storm – it has the firepower, after all, and during the 2019 riots over fuel prices, it did not hesitate to kill 1,500 Iranians — but the Iranian young, who make up most of the protesters, have all across Iran demonstrated their widespread fury at the way they are being ruled. They can be killed, but not cowed. They are still enraged at those who have made their lives so miserable. They will not reconcile themselves to clerical rule.
The government organized counter-protesters to come out after Friday Prayers on Sept. 23; judging by the videos released, those crowds were much smaller than the crowds of protesters, and consisted almost entirely of women dressed in black chadors. Instead of defending the government, they merely condemned the anti-government protesters as “Israel’s soldiers,” live state television coverage showed.
“Iranian state-organised marchers call for execution of protesters,” Reuters, September 23, 2022:
The government in Tehran has been shaken to its core, and no longer knows where to put its feet and hands. That’s a good thing. Now the Bidenites should not agree to a very bad deal that would provide this drowning regime with the lifeline of sanctions relief. Iran must be allowed to remain impoverished, in order that enough of its immiserated subjects rise up, yet again, to cry “Death to the Dictator” and this time, to make that wish a reality.
The ayatollahs must be running scared. They’ve been unable to suppress the protests, which have only grown in size and in violence. They can’t possibly allow the Morality Police to again police women’s dress or behavior, as they have done for 42 years, and especially the wearing of the hijab; the response will be too violent. Indeed, one of the demands of the protesters has been the disbanding of the Morality Police altogether.
The theocratic despotism of the clerics in Iran has done more damage to Islam, in the eyes of a great many Iranians, than anything the West could have done to undermine it. The regime will likely weather this storm – it has the firepower, after all, and during the 2019 riots over fuel prices, it did not hesitate to kill 1,500 Iranians — but the Iranian young, who make up most of the protesters, have all across Iran demonstrated their widespread fury at the way they are being ruled. They can be killed, but not cowed. They are still enraged at those who have made their lives so miserable. They will not reconcile themselves to clerical rule.
The government organized counter-protesters to come out after Friday Prayers on Sept. 23; judging by the videos released, those crowds were much smaller than the crowds of protesters, and consisted almost entirely of women dressed in black chadors. Instead of defending the government, they merely condemned the anti-government protesters as “Israel’s soldiers,” live state television coverage showed.
“Iranian state-organised marchers call for execution of protesters,” Reuters, September 23, 2022:
In fact, the general strike all over Iranian Kurdistan shows that the strike has also taken on, for the Kurds, a separatist aspect. The Kurds are demonstrating not just against the Morality Police, nor just against the economic corruption and mismanagement; they also want greater autonomy, as the Kurdish people, for themselves.
On the Internet, the anti-regime hackers appear to have the upper hand. On the streets, the protesters keep on showing up, in ever greater numbers, and in more and more cities and towns. It will now require a crackdown by the army to suppress them, as it did in 2019, when 1,500 protesters were killed. And such a crackdown will only increase the widespread disaffection.
The government in Tehran has been shaken to its core, and no longer knows where to put its feet and hands. That’s a good thing. Now the Bidenites should not agree to a very bad deal that would provide this drowning regime with the lifeline of sanctions relief. Iran must be allowed to remain impoverished, in order that enough of its immiserated subjects rise up, yet again, to cry “Death to the Dictator” and this time, to make that wish a reality.
