We get it. Trump’s a moron. His people are incompetent backstabbers. Got it. Done. Convinced.
So who exactly is going to stand up for the university students in Iran who are protesting against repression?
I’m in, are you? Because we can’t wait around for 2020 to get a new president, or even 2018 to get a new Congress. Shoutout to Sofiamo for publishing Iranian Authorities Implement Censorship to Silence the Voice of the Iranian People.
** update since this was originally written — I asked an old friend of mine who is Iranian and who runs a company in Iran, and he said
This is all a family matter. No need for outsiders to get involved. Nothing they can or should do anyway, in my opinion.
Long, complex history behind things. Beware of shallow occidental news treatment. No need to worry. We will work things out. Everything is and will be cool.
Which I thought was interesting, and not at all what I was thinking. So when he has time I will follow up with him more, and ask in particular about the students who have been arrested, etc. It seems to me important to at least connect to people in case they need help! But now back to the original article: **
Natalie Nougayrède writes in the Guardian, The west ignores Iranian people power at its peril — the story may be complicated, but when people are standing up, if you ignore them you help tyrants to win.
To be sure, there’s much we don’t know about Iran, where independent media coverage is hard to come by. But there is also much we do know. Last month’s announcement that the next budget would cut subsidies that were lifelines to low-income households served as a trigger. In provincial towns, crowds gathered to vent frustration against inflation and a general sense of injustice. Some dubbed this the “egg revolution” because the price of basic foods was set to spike. Now, full-on repression has been unleashed.
The story is not simple, because the president is actually a reformer. This is normal — when you slightly release repression, often it boils over and throws over more than the reformer was ready for — but it doesn’t mean that the protestors are not legitimate. Tocqueville recognized this a few hundred years ago:
The regime which is destroyed by a revolution is almost always an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and experience teaches that the most critical moment for bad governments is the one which witnesses their first steps toward reform.
Massoumeh Torfeh has a more nuanced explanation in Al-Jazeera Protests in Iran should be taken seriously
President Hassan Rouhani has taken four courageous steps over the past two years all of which have infuriated the hardliners: Against all odds he completed the Iran nuclear deal; stood up directly to the hardliners siding instead with the reformists; took the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund and implemented fiscal restraints policy; and finally took steps to tackle high-level corruption.
Yet, none of these steps have reached fruition and, as such, they have caused immense public resentment and hardship.
Despite that, the thrust of the political slogans at the protests were not directed at Rouhani. Initially aimed against high prices, the anti-government protests quickly turned against the regime as a whole and in an unprecedented level against the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
…….
Whoever started the protests or fanned its flames with whatever ulterior motive, one thing is clear that the public outcry against Islamic republic's repressive methods and the economic malaise cannot be written off as a mere conspiracy, or whitewashed with mass pro-regime demonstrations.
It may be hard to understand the complex politics in Iran, but one thing that is clear, is that people are frustrated and are pushing for change. And if no one is watching, its more likely they can be imprisoned or disappeared. So we need to watch.