Iran: “The government should accept the demands of the people”

A police motorbike burns in the streets of Tehran during a protest following the death of Mahsa Amini, September 19, 2022. AP

Text by: Nicolas Falez Follow

2 mins

Two weeks after the death of Mahsa Amini, protests continue in Iran.

To denounce the death of the young woman, shortly after her arrest.

And to demand an end to the obligation for women to wear the Islamic headscarf.

Iranian academic, specialist in international relations and human rights, Mehdi Zakerian believes that the demonstrations carry a message widely shared by the Iranian population.

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RFI: Have the ongoing protests in Iran opened a political and media debate in Iran?

Mehdi Zakerian:

 Of course.

We see young people in the demonstrations, but the subject affects other generations.

It is a national request, it does not come from a particular class.

Do you think the authorities will have to respond to these demands and perhaps relax the current rule that imposes the hijab on women?

At the beginning of the revolution [1979] the authorities made a point of imposing the wearing of the hijab.

It was a symbol of the Islamic Revolution.

And at the time, it represented a kind of “public order” in which the values ​​of religion and society are respected.

Today, that has completely changed: the majority of Iranians do not believe that removing the headscarf would be against religion or against morality.

Iranians want to live like elsewhere in the world.

But unfortunately, the Iranian government thinks that it is still in the period of the Revolution.

Today what he asks for is no longer considered fair or acceptable.

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the government should accept the demand of the Iranian people.

Is a change possible?

Why not ?

Other rules have changed in the past.

Ayatollah Khomeini [Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic from 1979 to 1989] ended the ban on broadcasting music on the airwaves.

The video was also accepted after being initially banned.

So, it is possible, but there are some people in the government who only think by Sharia.

This is not acceptable to the Iranian people, the result is protests.

Many personalities speak out in support of the protest movement…

Yes, there is a unity, a national will.

Even people wearing the hijab are speaking out against the obligation.

Myself, I come from a religious family, but in which we believe that girls and women should not be forced to wear the hijab.

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• Iran: behind the death of Mahsa Amini, the uprising of a people

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