Iranian Schoolgirls Have Jointed the Protests
Oct 9, 2022 22:53:03 GMT -5
Post by leilani on Oct 9, 2022 22:53:03 GMT -5
The Iranian Government's Newest Headache? Schoolgirls Have Joined the Protests
BY RICK MORAN 10:32 AM ON OCTOBER 08, 2022
The Iranian government has lost all legitimacy and the situation in the streets suggests only extreme bloodletting will allow the regime to regain nominal control over the population.
Incredibly, the protesters no longer fear the police or military. Those in the streets have made a conscious choice to protest or die. They are daring the authorities to shoot them down.
With spotty internet and a crackdown on online dissent, it’s impossible to say how many Iranian protesters have died. Amnesty International estimates 52 dead but with the Kurdish and Balochi minorities in near-open rebellion, the death toll is almost certainly much higher.
Joining those protesters now are girls ages 13-18. Several videos on social media show the girls confronting authorities, waving their headscarves, and shouting defiantly for regime change.
“It’s an indication that this is a struggle for the future,” Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, told NBCNews. “This is young people realizing that it’s a battle for their future, and that they have to be a prominent part of it. Their parents have failed to bring about change and they want to have a better life. I think that’s what’s motivating young people to be so vocal.”
The Iranian authorities are faced with a dilemma, he said.
“It’s a conundrum. It’s very difficult for them to go after 13 to 18-year-olds with lethal force, especially when a majority of them are girls.”
However, there are at least five cases of Iranians under the age of 18 dying in the protests, according to research compiled by Ghaemi’s rights organization. Last month the human rights group Amnesty International also said it had documented children among the people killed by the government in its crackdown.
The schoolgirls joining the protests doesn’t mean that authorities are going to get squeamish about spilling the blood of little girls. It means that the government’s truncheons and bullets hold little fear for people who have reached the limit of their tolerance for being treated like cattle.
Iranian high school girls are leading protests in various areas of Iran.
Almost all segments of society want this regime to go.
The threat posed by these protesters is existential. “These are primarily very, very young people, a younger generation who have apparently completely lost faith that this Islamic Republic can be reformed,” Trita Parsi, executive vice-president at the Washington, D.C.-based Quincy Institute, told CNN.
“They’re breaking from their previous generation who was seeking to reform the system from within,” Parsi added. “This new generation seems to not have any faith in that at all.”
The last time the entire nation was on the march was in 2009, following the rigged presidential election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office. Massive numbers of protesters were arrested, and dozens were murdered in the streets. Only a bloody effort by the Revolutionary Guard was able to quell the unrest and restore order.
But this protest feels different. The fact that women are leading it and that the hijab issue strikes so close to the heart of the oppression has aroused the Iranian people like never before.
Is the regime in any danger of falling? They have the guns and the willingness to use them. As long as that holds true for one side, the regime’s security is assured,
For a while, anyway.
link
BY RICK MORAN 10:32 AM ON OCTOBER 08, 2022
The Iranian government has lost all legitimacy and the situation in the streets suggests only extreme bloodletting will allow the regime to regain nominal control over the population.
Incredibly, the protesters no longer fear the police or military. Those in the streets have made a conscious choice to protest or die. They are daring the authorities to shoot them down.
With spotty internet and a crackdown on online dissent, it’s impossible to say how many Iranian protesters have died. Amnesty International estimates 52 dead but with the Kurdish and Balochi minorities in near-open rebellion, the death toll is almost certainly much higher.
Joining those protesters now are girls ages 13-18. Several videos on social media show the girls confronting authorities, waving their headscarves, and shouting defiantly for regime change.
“It’s an indication that this is a struggle for the future,” Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, told NBCNews. “This is young people realizing that it’s a battle for their future, and that they have to be a prominent part of it. Their parents have failed to bring about change and they want to have a better life. I think that’s what’s motivating young people to be so vocal.”
The Iranian authorities are faced with a dilemma, he said.
“It’s a conundrum. It’s very difficult for them to go after 13 to 18-year-olds with lethal force, especially when a majority of them are girls.”
However, there are at least five cases of Iranians under the age of 18 dying in the protests, according to research compiled by Ghaemi’s rights organization. Last month the human rights group Amnesty International also said it had documented children among the people killed by the government in its crackdown.
The schoolgirls joining the protests doesn’t mean that authorities are going to get squeamish about spilling the blood of little girls. It means that the government’s truncheons and bullets hold little fear for people who have reached the limit of their tolerance for being treated like cattle.
Iranian high school girls are leading protests in various areas of Iran.
Almost all segments of society want this regime to go.
The threat posed by these protesters is existential. “These are primarily very, very young people, a younger generation who have apparently completely lost faith that this Islamic Republic can be reformed,” Trita Parsi, executive vice-president at the Washington, D.C.-based Quincy Institute, told CNN.
“They’re breaking from their previous generation who was seeking to reform the system from within,” Parsi added. “This new generation seems to not have any faith in that at all.”
The last time the entire nation was on the march was in 2009, following the rigged presidential election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office. Massive numbers of protesters were arrested, and dozens were murdered in the streets. Only a bloody effort by the Revolutionary Guard was able to quell the unrest and restore order.
But this protest feels different. The fact that women are leading it and that the hijab issue strikes so close to the heart of the oppression has aroused the Iranian people like never before.
Is the regime in any danger of falling? They have the guns and the willingness to use them. As long as that holds true for one side, the regime’s security is assured,
For a while, anyway.
link
