A Chronology Of The Iranian Protest

The protests quickly spread to other cities in Kurdistan and across the country, and in less than a week people from every corner of the country with different ethnic, religious, languages, gender and political orientations took to the streets demanding Justice for Jina under the exact same slogan. The protest is now surpassing 60 days with no sign of diminishing soon, targeting the very foundation of the regime and its political establishment. 

The state responded with a heavy hand, using every method of repression to crackdown the protest. According to the Human Right Watch for Iran the state security forces so far killed 340 people including 28 children and detained thousands. In the first trial of those detained, which was held on 31st of October 2022 the ‘revolutionary court’ charged four for being the ‘enemy of God’, an overt term that would lead to a death sentence in Iran’s judiciary system. 

The nature and the characteristics of the revolt led many Iranians to believe that this would be the beginning of the end of four decades of the Islamic Republic brutality, injustice, deprivation and suppression.  For some reasons, I believe the same, and if not, the uprising would be the foundation of a forthcoming revolution that would eventually overthrow the regime. 

Compared to the previous uprising taking place between 2008 and 2010 (Green movement) and in 2018, which was ignited by the rise in the price of petrol and other commodities, the current movement and the slogans people are chanting are far more assertive and radical than merely demanding changes to some policies. 

In its major campaign against the regime, the Green Movement showed no significant differences from the Iranian mainstream ideology when it comes to women’s rights, human rights, and ethnic/religious rights. Because of this, the movement attracted less attention from people who were not affected by the slight differences the movement had with the hardliners. The Kurds, Baluchs, Arabs, human rights activists, and feminists did not join the movement. 

However, when the two leaders of the movement, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Karoubi, who were also founder members of the regime, were placed under house arrest, the movement ultimately subsided. Nevertheless, many skeptics view the Green Movement as a safety valve that saved the Iranian regime from collapsing on many occasions since its establishment by the former president Mohammad Khatami.