‘For woman, life and freedom” – the slogan of Iran’s demonstrators – encapsulates the revolutionary aspirations of this extraordinary movement led by young women. Above all, it expresses their clear understanding that the demand for justice for Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old whose death at the hands of the morality police precipitated the outpouring of pent-up anger, strikes at the very heart of a system rooted in repression.
Who will forget the images of irrepressible young women tearing off headscarves to wave them triumphantly in the air, joyfully dancing as they consign them to bonfires. “Where is it all going?” Iranian writer and academic Azadeh Moaveni asks. “What is this revolt? A feminist revolution for bodily freedom and gender equality; a radical civil rights movement against misogynistic, corrupt policing; or a leaderless, unorganised uprising that demands a fundamental overhaul in relations between citizens and the state? Perhaps it is all of these things at the same time.”
Three and a half weeks on, the protests continue. At the weekend social media footage showed demos in dozens of cities, hundreds of school girls and university students, young men too, facing teargas, clubs, and live fire.
Increasingly desperate, the authorities shut all schools and colleges in Iranian Kurdistan while police rounded up and arrested students inside school premises. Mullahs warned that punishment for those participating in demonstrations would be exemplary. And Iranian leaders limited access to Instagram and WhatsApp to choke off the widespread exchange of images of an uncowed generation. Business groups complain the repeated internet blackouts are severely damaging business activity. Norway-based Iran Human Rights group claimed on Saturday that at least 185 people, including at least 19 children, have been killed in the protests to date. The regime knows no other way to maintain itself, and it may indeed succeed one more time in temporarily extinguishing the flame of revolt. But a seed has been planted. Their time will come.
