We are watching a revolution take place in Iran

Editorial: In 1979, the Islamic Republic was the result of a righteous revolution, though hardly the democratic state many then dreamed of; now it could be overthrown by another uprising, one fuelled by the right kind of moral fervour among the young

Hundreds of protesters clap and cheer during a rally in Saqqez, Mahsa Amini’s hometown (UGC/AFP/Getty)

Some six weeks ago, a young Kurdish woman – 22-year-old Mahsa Amini – died in the custody of her country’s so-called morality police, a grotesque organisation dedicated to the oppression of women.

Ms Amini’s “crime” was to wear her hijab “improperly”. She was detained by the morality police for three days, during which time she fell into a coma after collapsing at the detention centre. The officers concerned stand accused of beating her with a baton and banging her head against a vehicle. Their version of events is that she suffered a heart attack.

There’s little chance of anything resembling an independent inquiry, and the increasingly angry people of Iran have drawn their own conclusions. They understand only too well what the theocratic regime is capable of.

Now that 40 days of mourning have passed – a traditionally significant moment – there have been yet more disturbances across Iran, inspired by the suffering and virtual martyrdom of Ms Amini and other young women and girls. The protests are so large that the authorities cannot suppress them even by firing live rounds. More than 200 innocent civilians, including children, have now also lost their lives at the hands of the regime, according to Norwegian human rights workers.

The disturbances have an increasingly revolutionary feel to them, with the people in the streets turning against their cruel rulers – just as they did against the Shah in 1978 and 1979, in protests that gave rise to the Islamic Republic we see today.

Though the system has a democratic dimension, ultimate authority still lies with the ayatollahs and the “supreme leader”, Ali Khamenei, who took over from the founder of the Islamic Republic – Ayatollah Khomeini – in 1989. His long reign as spiritual ruler does not seem to have softened his heart.

Elections and presidents come and go in Iran, and with them glimmers of reform and brief respites from the stultifying atmosphere of fear and violence; but there is never any doubt about who, in the end, is in charge, and who has been responsible for a virtual war on the people of Iran: the country’s implacably cruel clerics and theologians.

Certainly, the protesters in Tehran and in many other cities realise this only too well, and they have had enough. Some of the crowds were heard to chant “Women, life, freedom” and “Death to the dictator” – as well as “Down with traitors” and “Kurdistan will be the graveyard of fascists”.

They are tired of the immiseration of their oil-rich nation, which has ironically been hit by power cuts and water shortages. Last year, Iranians also protested about these things, but since then their list of grievances has only lengthened.

The young, in particular, are bored with being cut off from the rest of the world. They yearn for a freer, more prosperous nation that is liberated to reach its potential at last. They cherish their own culture and religious traditions, but they are also interested in Western trends in music and fashion, and want to go online to explore their world. Why should they live as if they were practically still in the Middle Ages?

Iran’s insistence on developing nuclear weaponry, along with its state sponsorship of terrorism, has left it sanctioned and isolated from much of the rest of the world. Iranians, so far as they know the facts, should also be disturbed that the ayatollahs have chosen to ally themselves with Vladimir Putin, another global pariah. Recently, Iran has been supplying Russia with “kamikaze” drones, which have been used in the war of aggression in Ukraine. None of this is helping Iran’s struggling economy.

Iran is not the only superpower in the region, or the only one that suppresses human rights, or the sole troublemaker in places such as Lebanon or Iraq. Tragically, it isn’t the only regime to inflict suffering on the Kurdish people. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel also have cases to answer. All have been more or less clandestine actors in conflicts in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, Lebanon and elsewhere.

However, Iran is the one major power where much of the population is currently taking its frustrations to the street – and where change is in the air. Iran claims that the protests are fomented by “foreigners”, which seems unlikely; but as the country becomes more unstable, some of its traditional regional rivals and enemies may not be able to resist the temptation to interfere.

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For the moment, though, the revolt is very much generated by the clumsiness and brutality of the regime itself. The future is uncertain, but if the protests spread wider and intensify – especially beyond the Kurdish areas – things will also become dangerous in terms of wider, regional security. Though different in many ways, the fate of Syria is a solemn warning from recent history about what can befall a broken nation.

The supreme leader would be wise to bend to the will of his people, relax his barbaric, misogynistic rule book, and abolish the morality police. Just as the Shah couldn’t be saved by his secret police and his close friendship with America back in the 1970s, nor can the supreme leader be protected by the morality police and his partnership of convenience with the Kremlin.

The young people of Iran are on the march once again. In 1979, the Islamic Republic was the result of a righteous revolution, though hardly the democratic state many then dreamed of; now it could be overthrown by another uprising, one fuelled by the right kind of moral fervour among the young.