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The anti-government protests that have rocked Iran since Mahsa Amini’s death on September 16 are unprecedented in scale and duration. But the protests’ lack of a clear leader is proving to be both a strength and a weakness – it makes them harder to repress but also impedes the development of a viable political movement.
Three months after the start of anti-government protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman visiting Iran, at the hands of the notorious morality police, the Islamic regime has intensified its crackdown on demonstrators.
Two men accused of taking part in the protests have been executed this week and dozens of others could suffer the same fate, according to Amnesty International.
However, the protest movement’s lack of leadership is making it harder for the Islamic Republic to quell the demonstrations. Instead of leaders, the movement has martyrs and symbols – and many of these are young women.
For it was young women – enraged at Amini’s arrest and subsequent death in custody after allegedly flouting the country’s dress code by wearing her hijab “improperly” – who started the movement. Iranian women over the age of 9 are required to cover their hair in public.
In the days after her death, women and girls ripped off their hijabs and took to the streets in their thousands.
They were joined by young men, students, Kurds, the indigenous people of Baluchistan, and by shopkeepers and workers.
The broad movement is a “collective mobilisation of non-collective actors”, says historian and political scientist Jonathan Piron.
Symbols fuel the revolt
Although each of these groups is protesting against the Iranian regime, not much seems to unite them beyond the images of murdered demonstrators.
Women like Amini, 22, and Nika Shakarami, 16, who was killed on her way to a rally, have become figureheads for the revolt.
A…
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Source : france24
