To analyse
Iran: behind the death of Mahsa Amini, the uprising of a people
Iranian protesters in the streets of central Tehran on Wednesday, September 21.
PA
Text by: Louise Huet
7 mins
Since Friday, September 17, the disturbing death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian girl arrested by the morality police, the people of Iran have been beating the pavement to rise up against their Islamic system.
Large-scale protests have erupted across the country to counter the repression affecting society as a whole.
A growing surge of anger which nevertheless comes up against many obstacles in the hope of destabilizing the power in place.
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Fists raised, eyes proud.
These are the images and videos that have been circulating for a week: women who chant slogans against the Iranian Islamic regime, who uncover their hair, cut their hair and sometimes let their hijab burn.
Iranians standing up to the police and defying repression.
Thousands of women and men gathered in the streets to protest against the regime and pay tribute to Mahsa Amini.
This video was shot tonight in Sari (north). A girl is dancing, her long hair down.
She throws her scarf into the fire.
#Iran has been the scene of protests since the death of #Mahsa_Amini.
Arrested by hijab police, she died while in police custody on 16Sep.
pic.twitter.com/chYQPygTIK
— Ghazal Golshiri (@GhazalGolshiri) September 20, 2022
On September 16,
the death in still disturbing circumstances
of this young Iranian woman sparked a wave of protest across the country.
Three days before her death, the student had been arrested and detained by the morality police, claiming that she had a “
badly worn
” headscarf.
Since then,
the Iranian people have been on fire
.
“
Death to the Islamic Republic!
», «
Death to Khamenei!
[referring to Ali Khamenei
,
the highest authority in the country, Editor's note], hammered the protesters in violent clashes against the police.
According to the official reports of this Thursday at midday, more than 30 people were killed in the demonstrations, including four police officers.
► Also to listen: Mahsa Amini, symbol of the oppression of women in Iran
The object of their dispute: the morality police, a brigade which monitors strict compliance with dress rules, in particular the wearing of the compulsory hijab.
Since the arrival of the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi at the head of the country in July 2021, the controls carried out by this "orientation patrol", also called the
Gasht-e Ershad
, have been drastically reinforced.
This is why, according to the Iranian writer and sociologist, Chahla Chafiq, as well as according to Saeed Paivandi, professor-researcher at the University of Lorraine, we must see behind the unresolved death of Mahsa Amini a growing dissension between the Iranians and the regime in place, which could moreover shake it to its foundations.
The case of Mahsa Amini is only one illustration of a repression which "
actually affects all Iranians, in the name of chastity and morality
", assures Chahla Chafiq.
یک مادربزرگ که در #رشت روسریاش را برداشته و شعار میدهد: "بگو مرد برم برد برم!"
چهارشنبه ۳۰ شهریور
ویدئو: SaghiLaghaie#مهسا_امینی#ژینا_امینی pic.twitter.com/0RZQRzhsR1
— Radio Zamaneh (@RadioZamaneh) September 21, 2022
The repression of Iranian women, a symbol of the repression of all
At the forefront of these protest movements: Iranian women, who demand the end of a draconian regime that deeply discriminates against them.
If the death of Mahsa Amini served as a catalyst, anger has been brewing for years.
The compulsory wearing of the veil has been continuously contested since the Islamic revolution of 1979. Several actions carried out by women have already punctuated the history of the country, in particular during the White Wednesdays movement initiated in 2017, during which Iranian women wore a white veil in public space.
For Chahla Chafiq, Iranian writer and sociologist, exiled in France since the 1980s, the veil is therefore "
the Achilles' heel
"
of the regime.
“
The veil is the flag of the discriminatory order, and of the sexist repression of power
,” she says.
According to her, the death of Mahsa Amini had as much impact, because it “
symbolized all the hatred that this regime has towards women.
»
Unprecedented scenes in Iran: woman sits on top of utility box and cuts her hair in main square in Kerman to protest death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the morality police.
People clap their hands and chant “Death to the dictator.”
#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/2oyuKV80Ac
— Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari) September 20, 2022
By protesting against the morality police and the obligation to wear the hijab, the demonstrators castigate a whole deadly ideology.
More broadly, if so many men and women gather in the streets, it is to revolt against a system that represses society as a whole.
“
The leaders have created a system where the man is the leader and he dominates the woman, but where the ideological leader dominates everyone.
So the current situation is not confined to women.
On the contrary, it is the question of the whole of society, and that is what is coming to light today
,” argues Chahla Chafiq.
A phenomenon of national solidarity
This wind of anger is therefore not limited to Iranian women.
“
Some of the people in favor of the system have mobilized, for example in the media or in a more passive way, against the system.
And even some clerics who belong to the state themselves are beginning to criticize this unprecedented repression in the streets.
It shows the gap between an increasingly isolated Islamic State, and the different layers of the population that meet each other
, ”says Saeed Paivandi, teacher-researcher at the University of Lorraine.
Several Iranian parliamentarians
have expressed their reservations about the methods of the moral police
.
MP Jalal Rashidi Koochi told the ISNA news agency that the morality police “
cause damage to the country
”.
Another MP, Moeenoddin Saeedi, meanwhile, mentioned the idea of abolishing it: "
I believe that due to the ineffectiveness of the Gasht-e Ershad in understanding the culture of hijab, this unit should be abolished. , so that the children of this country will not be afraid when they meet this force.
»
But for Chahla Chafiq, it is only an instrumentalization to look good.
“
As soon as there are overflows, they hold this kind of speech.
But the people don't believe it.
»
Iranian women protesters flee from police in central Tehran on Monday (September 19th).
PA
The population faces significant obstacles to weakening the system
So what is missing for this bubbling anger and this thirst for change to drive a real overhaul of the Iranian political system?
Already, "
The people are facing a power that is armed to the teeth, so there is enormous fear among the population
," explains the writer.
But this fear, which she analyzes as shifting, could possibly turn into a desire to act, or even into civil war if the social movement continues.
“
It would have to become a great revolution.
For that, it would be necessary to rally certain regions that are still absent
, ”she defends.
► To read also: Death of Mahsa Amini in Iran: "This regime has failed to Islamize society"
For Saeed Paivandi, the system in place can only change with the birth of a popular identity and a common project.
“For now, there is no specific claim.
We contest the compulsory veil, but without proposing the horizon of another political system.
This is what the Islamic regime has long tried to do: try not to allow the opposition to have a place in public opinion.
The current system is at an impasse because it presents no solution, but in the face there is no alternative either.
»
As the sociologist adds, many citizens have had painful political experiences through the Arab Springs and national uprisings in neighboring countries, Syria or Egypt, and might fear that the situation would get worse if the system collapsed.
To hope to emancipate oneself from Islamic ideology, “
an alternative force would have to emerge gradually in the opposition or in society, to carry a political project.
»
Tuesday, September 20, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Emmanuel Macron said after an interview with President Ebrahim Raïssi that he had "
insisted on respect for women's rights
" in the country.
US President Joe Biden also said he was in solidarity with "
brave women of Iran
".
In response, Ebrahim Raïssi accused democracies of having "
double standards
" regarding women's rights.
But for the sociologist Chahla Chafiq, these few statements by Western leaders are only a smokescreen, and the Iranian population continues to come up against “
the indifference of the West
” .
Westerners have no dignified reaction to people who have empty hands and who face an army alone
.
»
"ننگ ما ، ننگ ما رهبر الدنگ ما" شعار مردم #کاشان #مهسا_امینیONS #Mahsaamini #گگارشگرمنوتو Whatsapp
/Telegram: +44 7590 899 999 999 999
— اتاق خبر منوتو (@ManotoNews) September 22, 2022
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