Addressing a rally for the mid-term-election campaign, the US President Joe Biden made a comment that was taken as a violation of the country’s sovereignty. “Don’t worry, we’re gonna free Iran. They are gonna free themselves pretty soon,” he said.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi used this remark as a sign of US involvement in the ongoing unrest in the country that was triggered after a young Iranian woman, arrested for defying the mandated dress code, had died in police custody. Raisi reacted to Biden’s remarks by saying, “Mr. President, Iran was freed 43 years ago and vowed not to be enslaved by you.”
Iran’s relations with the US have been on a roller coaster course since the Islamic Revolution brought the religious scholar Ayatollah Khomeini in power after dethroning the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. With the rise of Khomeini as a ruler, religious fundamentalism gained ground and the kingdom of Iran turned into an Islamic Republic. The natural outcome of the formation of a religious state was the introduction of religious laws and legislations that provided religious liberties but imposed restrictions that conflicted with the basic human rights of citizens. Most of the victims were women.
Soon after the Islamic Revolution, relationship between the US and Iran reached a culmination point when Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took embassy officials as hostage in November 1979. They demanded that the Shah of Iran, undergoing a medical treatment in the US at the time, should be extradited to Iran for a trial of “crimes against the Iranian people” he had committed during the time he ruled the country. A stalemate set in that continued for more than a year before the hostages were released.
Since then their relations nosedived and a feeling of antagonism set in that made both countries suspicious of each other. Any political or human rights activism in Iran would always be viewed as a US-led conspiracy against the Islamic Republic deserving to be dealt with forcibly. Who and what could be found detrimental to the very fragile system of the Islamic Republic is a question that always remains unpredictable and is mostly driven by the political situation of the country.
In July 2022, the Islamic Republic of Iran arrested three award-wining film directors, Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof, and Mostafa Aleahmad. Jafar Panahi, was arrested to serve a six-year sentence handed to him in 2010 on charges of filming a group of young Iranian girls disguised as boys and men to sneak into Azadi Stadium to watch a FIFA qualifier match between Iran and Bahrain. Women are banned from attending football matches in Iran.
Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad were arrested for posting a statement on social media that criticized manhandling of demonstrators against the Abadan building collapse that left at least 34 persons dead. The owner of the building was reported to have had links with the ruling Iranian clergy and used his influence to raise the building beyond the authorized limits. Reacting to the public protest and agitation against the incident, the Iranian government accused enemies of Iran with an ulterior motive to topple the state.
Hardly the demonstrations against the Abadan building collapse were over, the incident of Mahasa Amini took place and kicked off another wave of upheaval in the country that turned out to be far greater in its intensity and outreach than was ever witnessed by the country. No sign of its end is still visible. Protests, rallies, and agitations are multiplying with every passing day, pulling more and more people into the storm of agitation, and even spilling over its effects beyond the border of the country.
While the people from the western world, like Germany, the UK, Norway, Austria, the US and Greece came out in support of the Iranian protestors, nobody from the Muslim world with the exception of Turkey and Lebanon showed their reactions to this uprising of their co-religionists.
The sanctity of the official “dress code” imposed by the Islamic Republic came crumbling down as the Iranian schoolgirls and other women came forward and took to the street, venting out their anger at the incident by removing their hijabs and staging demonstration in defiance of the crackdown by the security forces.
Reacting to this outrageous defiance of the mandatory headscarves, an Iranian lawmaker commented that the “rioters” taking off their hijabs are “out to prostitute themselves”.
All the warnings and repressive methods used by the state remained unsuccessful to bring an end to the ongoing wave of unprecedented protests that have left around 344 people dead, including 41 children and 24 women so far.
Countries having adverse relationship with Iran also found this turmoil as an opportunity to express their anger at them by criticizing the manhandling of the protesters by Iran. Reacting to such criticism, Iran warned Saudi Arabia of dire consequences if it wouldn’t restrain its Persian-language media coverage of the protest.
Amid the ongoing protests against the rigid “dress code” policy, what Iran needs is to look inside and address the real causes of the problem rather than keeping an eye on external interferences and blaming them for their internal problem. The Iranian society appears to be in need of a change that directly collides with the ideological framework of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Any move to restructure their laws is a task that will require a re-interpretation of the religious laws that are considered sacred by the state.
Even if Iran come out of this crisis without compromising any legislative changes, the legitimate demand of women to keep the state out of their personal lives will remain a point of contention until it is addressed to the satisfaction of the people. Would Iran be able to address the demand of the people without going through another revolution to reverse the policies that have been followed for the last 43 years?
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi used this remark as a sign of US involvement in the ongoing unrest in the country that was triggered after a young Iranian woman, arrested for defying the mandated dress code, had died in police custody. Raisi reacted to Biden’s remarks by saying, “Mr. President, Iran was freed 43 years ago and vowed not to be enslaved by you.”
Iran’s relations with the US have been on a roller coaster course since the Islamic Revolution brought the religious scholar Ayatollah Khomeini in power after dethroning the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. With the rise of Khomeini as a ruler, religious fundamentalism gained ground and the kingdom of Iran turned into an Islamic Republic. The natural outcome of the formation of a religious state was the introduction of religious laws and legislations that provided religious liberties but imposed restrictions that conflicted with the basic human rights of citizens. Most of the victims were women.
Soon after the Islamic Revolution, relationship between the US and Iran reached a culmination point when Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took embassy officials as hostage in November 1979. They demanded that the Shah of Iran, undergoing a medical treatment in the US at the time, should be extradited to Iran for a trial of “crimes against the Iranian people” he had committed during the time he ruled the country. A stalemate set in that continued for more than a year before the hostages were released.
Since then their relations nosedived and a feeling of antagonism set in that made both countries suspicious of each other. Any political or human rights activism in Iran would always be viewed as a US-led conspiracy against the Islamic Republic deserving to be dealt with forcibly. Who and what could be found detrimental to the very fragile system of the Islamic Republic is a question that always remains unpredictable and is mostly driven by the political situation of the country.
In July 2022, the Islamic Republic of Iran arrested three award-wining film directors, Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof, and Mostafa Aleahmad. Jafar Panahi, was arrested to serve a six-year sentence handed to him in 2010 on charges of filming a group of young Iranian girls disguised as boys and men to sneak into Azadi Stadium to watch a FIFA qualifier match between Iran and Bahrain. Women are banned from attending football matches in Iran.
Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad were arrested for posting a statement on social media that criticized manhandling of demonstrators against the Abadan building collapse that left at least 34 persons dead. The owner of the building was reported to have had links with the ruling Iranian clergy and used his influence to raise the building beyond the authorized limits. Reacting to the public protest and agitation against the incident, the Iranian government accused enemies of Iran with an ulterior motive to topple the state.
While the people from the western world, like Germany, the UK, Norway, Austria, the US and Greece came out in support of the Iranian protestors, nobody from the Muslim world with the exception of Turkey and Lebanon showed their reactions to this uprising of their co-religionists.
Hardly the demonstrations against the Abadan building collapse were over, the incident of Mahasa Amini took place and kicked off another wave of upheaval in the country that turned out to be far greater in its intensity and outreach than was ever witnessed by the country. No sign of its end is still visible. Protests, rallies, and agitations are multiplying with every passing day, pulling more and more people into the storm of agitation, and even spilling over its effects beyond the border of the country.
While the people from the western world, like Germany, the UK, Norway, Austria, the US and Greece came out in support of the Iranian protestors, nobody from the Muslim world with the exception of Turkey and Lebanon showed their reactions to this uprising of their co-religionists.
The sanctity of the official “dress code” imposed by the Islamic Republic came crumbling down as the Iranian schoolgirls and other women came forward and took to the street, venting out their anger at the incident by removing their hijabs and staging demonstration in defiance of the crackdown by the security forces.
Reacting to this outrageous defiance of the mandatory headscarves, an Iranian lawmaker commented that the “rioters” taking off their hijabs are “out to prostitute themselves”.
All the warnings and repressive methods used by the state remained unsuccessful to bring an end to the ongoing wave of unprecedented protests that have left around 344 people dead, including 41 children and 24 women so far.
Countries having adverse relationship with Iran also found this turmoil as an opportunity to express their anger at them by criticizing the manhandling of the protesters by Iran. Reacting to such criticism, Iran warned Saudi Arabia of dire consequences if it wouldn’t restrain its Persian-language media coverage of the protest.
Amid the ongoing protests against the rigid “dress code” policy, what Iran needs is to look inside and address the real causes of the problem rather than keeping an eye on external interferences and blaming them for their internal problem. The Iranian society appears to be in need of a change that directly collides with the ideological framework of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Any move to restructure their laws is a task that will require a re-interpretation of the religious laws that are considered sacred by the state.
Even if Iran come out of this crisis without compromising any legislative changes, the legitimate demand of women to keep the state out of their personal lives will remain a point of contention until it is addressed to the satisfaction of the people. Would Iran be able to address the demand of the people without going through another revolution to reverse the policies that have been followed for the last 43 years?