It was a moment few faculty and students will forget at Isfahan University of Technology in central Iran. Hundreds of students – men and women – marched side by side through the tree-lined streets last month, clapping and chanting the word now heard at every Iranian protest around the world, from Vancouver to Berlin to Tehran:Freedom, freedom, freedom.“Freedom, freedom, freedom. At the university protest, however, the students used another slogan that struck a deeper chord with Iran’s clerical establishment: “Husayn, Husayn, where are you? Yazid is now IRGC,” they chanted, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. By invoking the names of two historical figures from one of the darkest chapters of early Islamic history – when the Prophet Muhammad’s beloved grandson, Husayn, was murdered at the hands of a tyrannical ruler named Yazid, in Karbala, Iraq, in 680 CE. X. The students were telling authorities that the Iranian government now symbolized Yazid’s oppressive rule – and appealed to Hussein to help. Tehran has used the powerful narrative of Karbala often in the past to criticize contemporary issues such as US hegemony and militarism in the Middle East. The fact that the students have now redefined this slogan is a damning indictment of how deep-seated the disillusionment in Iran is. Crippling US sanctions, combined with economic mismanagement and corruption, have resulted in a shrunken Iranian economy that has seen no meaningful growth in the past decade. In 2022, the inflation rate exceeded 50 percent and prices continued to rise steadily, while household purchasing power declined and GDP growth slowed. High oil prices have also dampened growth. A 19-year-old industrial engineering student at Isfahan University of Technology told The Globe and Mail that she joined her school’s protests because she was too afraid to join the streets. He said it was a decision he made after years of hoping for political and social reforms from government officials that failed to materialize. The Globe is not identifying her or other sources for fear of state retaliation. The university protest was one of hundreds that have erupted across the country since mid-September following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s “morality police” for allegedly wearing a hijab incorrectly.. According to Human Rights Activists in Iran, at least 339 people were killed by security forces in the ensuing crackdown. With the protests now in their eighth week, some reports put the number of arrests at 15,300, including more than 40 students. Canada Sanctions Iran Police, University As Regime Cracks Down On Protests Trudeau joins families of Flight 752 in protests across Canada against Iranian regime Hearing of Ms. Amini’s death caused outrage but not shock, the engineering student said, adding that while she has never interacted with the morality police herself, some of her friends have and say they have experienced verbal and physical brutality. Susan Safaverdi, a professor of political science at Tehran University’s Islamic Azad main campus, where protests have also taken place, confirms Iran’s government’s failure to respond to calls for change. “Students say, ‘You have to see us. We are here. We may be different, but we exist and we are here,” Professor Safaverdi told The Globe. “The government has a responsibility to see the needs of the people and listen to those voices. Freedom of thought is important – to respect people who are different from us.” If the protesters Talk about freedom, he said, “this freedom must not be defined only for those who conform to our model.” The call to ban the mandatory hijab is symbolic of many of the needs that most Iranians have, he added. “In most cases, these needs are ignored by those in charge.” Professor Safaverdi also credits the women-led nature of the movement. saying that women have become the face of the protests and that their calls for justice and accountability have been a “source of light” and hope. A member of the Iranian community living in Chile protests outside the United Nations local offices in solidarity with the Iranian people, in Santiago on November 11, 2022.IVAN ALVARADO/Reuters In an article published last month on an independent digital news website she founded, Zanan Diplomacy (Diplomatic Women), she called on authorities – men and women – to question the fairness or religiosity of Iranian women who do not observe the mandatory hijab, saying violates Islamic teachings. “No one is allowed to insult the dignity of a human being, according to the teachings of the Prophet of Islam – especially a woman – because insulting the dignity of a woman is considered indecent. The narrations of the Prophet show us that he did not insult the dignity of people who wore hijab or did not, nor did he insult those who believed in the religion or did not believe. Prophet Muhammad was pure in his morals and teachings, he added. “He was soft-spoken and not cruel even to his enemies, and so this form of etiquette must continue. Also, some women mistreat other women who don’t cover up in an acceptable way – and label them – which is wrong.” Other Iranians point to the impact of US sanctions, which have severely limited Tehran’s ability to finance imports of humanitarian aid, including life-saving medicine, according to a 2019 Human Rights Watch report. “People are disillusioned after decades of crippling sanctions and also a political and social system that is becoming more and more regressive,” said Barzin, a Tehran-based reporter for an economic daily. The Globe is identifying him only by his first name for fear of government retaliation. “I feel responsible for being more active in politics, because the alternative – which is to do nothing and let the conservatives rule the country – has become too dangerous. “May the hardliners understand that they cannot run the entire country by themselves and must let other groups and sections of society participate in the political process and rule the country,” he said. A 32-year-old journalist in Tehran who has participated in previous public protests said Iran was facing a new moment. The current protests are part of a broad revolutionary movement by Iran’s younger generation, he said, in which young people are unafraid of police forces and ready to sacrifice their lives for change. The protests may be suppressed in the end, he added, but their effects will linger on younger generations of Iranians.
