The Iranian protesters are taking great risks, but they are deadly serious. They have seen the corruption and repression of the Islamic regime, and are rejecting it. They are taking the risks because as food prices rise beyond the limits of their incomes, they feel they will soon have little left to lose.
The protesters shifted their attention from food prices to “the dictator” within 24 hours.
The Iranian revolt of 2017-18 is following the same pattern as in 2009, and as we saw later in the nearby Arab Spring. The Iranian population revolted in 2009, in the so-called Green Revolution. It pre-dated the Arab Spring by two years, but was propelled by similar motives. Iranians had tired of the corruption and repression of their government, and were sick of the high prices they had to pay for Iranian hardline support for terrorism.
Cartoon Circulating on Social Media in Iran
This year’s revolt started in the northeastern city of Mashhad. The initial proximate cause was the high cost of basic food, but the protests spread quickly to target the ruling elite. Food prices are terribly high in Iran – the most commonly cited example is that a dozen eggs cost about seven dollars. Iran has an average income much lower than the United States and other Western countries, so the economic pain is very high.
Iranian Protesters Shift Attention from Food Prices to Liberty
The protesters shifted their attention from food prices to “the dictator” within 24 hours, however. They see the high prices as a direct result of the endemic corruption that infests the Islamic state. Iranians know that the ruling clergy, the members of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and their families, and other members of favored classes are wealthy.
Iranians are asking where that money has gone…. “Neither Gaza, nor Lebanon – my life is dedicated to Iran.”
It is also common knowledge that the ruling regime received over $1.7 billion in cash from the U.S. government under the Obama Administration. Estimates of additional payments in cash and gold reach potentially as high as $32 billion, for a potential total of about $33.6 billion transferred by the Obama Administration to the mullahs. Iranians are asking where that money has gone.
Unfortunately, they know the answer too well. They see the devastation in Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria at the same time they see the wealth and power displayed by the ruling classes of the mullahs and their henchmen. Some of the slogans they chant at demonstrations reflect their frustration. “Neither Gaza, nor Lebanon – my life is dedicated to Iran” is a popular one.
Calls for Return of the Shah
Other slogans reflect a longing of this generation of Iranian Millennials, who have known only the strict rule of the mullahs, for a return of the Shah. “No Shah, no accountability,” is one slogan reported by Lisa Daftari in her Twitter feed. Daftari is an Iranian exile who reports on foreign affairs, and has transmitted messages from Persian social media to the English-speaking world.
Iranian protestors … are rejecting clerical rule in the most symbolic, decisive way possible.
More interesting was the gathering in front of the Goharshad Mosque in Mashhad. “Reza Shah, may you rest in peace,” the crowd chanted. Reza Shah is Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran from 1925 to 1941 (and the father of the Shah deposed by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979).
Reza Shah modernized Iranian society. As part of that effort, he abolished wearing the hijab in 1935. Shi’a clerics revolted against the effort, and staged an uprising in the Goharshad mosque in Mashhad.
Local police refused to enter the mosque to suppress the rebellion, so Reza Shah sent an army from Iran’s Azerbaijan province in the far northwest. The army broke in and killed the protesters. The incident is well known as the final breaking point between the Pahlavi family and the Shi’a clergy.
Iranian protestors know well the message they sent with that chant. They are rejecting clerical rule in the most symbolic, decisive way possible. This is of a piece with the symbolism of the young woman waving her hijab in the air on the end of a stick, declaring her independence from the hated mullahs.
Other protesters sent an even starker message. In Qom, the central city of Shi’a religious tradition, a crowd chanted on December 19th, “Oh Shah of Iran, Return to Iran.” Daftari asserts that this is a reference to the Reza Shah’s grandson, Reza Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who currently lives in Maryland.
The clerical regime that has ruled Iran with an iron fist will not back down easily. There will be heavy bloodshed before the revolution is over, and there is no guarantee that Iranians will break free. But President Trump and Vice President Pence are right to express support for the protestors. They will remember with gratitude that the free world supported them, and when they have thrown off the yoke of oppression, they will be ready to join the free world.
