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protests in Tehran
Photo: AFP
In the holy Shia city of Mashad, the statue of the spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his homeland, is burning, and demonstrators are shouting
»
Death to the dictator!«.
Anti-government protests in Iran are spreading.
So will it be the courageous Iranian women who topple the radical regime in Tehran?
To anticipate, there is a high probability that everything will be the same at the end of this uprising.
Because the police officers will act ever harder against the angry women and the demonstrators on the street, the security forces will arrest more and more citizens and, together with the Revolutionary Guards, will bludgeon the uprising - shoot them down if necessary.
This is how the Islamic Republic has been handling the tantrums of its people for decades.
And the powerful in Tehran know that they are stronger than the millions of dissidents in their country.
They have the guns, they control the prisons and they are ruthless.
Above all, they want one thing: to retain power.
The murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was therefore no coincidence.
Just a few weeks ago, President Ebrahim Raisi issued a new morality-promoting executive order for "Hijab and Chastity."
One could say that the president encouraged the vice squad to use violence, that they should be tough on women.
Women in Iran report being forced into vans by morality guards, taken to morality police centers, where they are verbally abused and beaten.
According to human rights activists, many women are held in such stations.
But why is all this happening now?
Because the race to succeed the spiritual leader, who is in poor health, is on in the Islamic Republic.
Raisi has a good chance of succeeding the 83-year-old Ayatollah Khamenei in office.
Raisi knows this is the time of his probation.
He wants to show the spiritual leader that he will continue the Islamic revolution in his spirit when Khamenei leaves the political stage.
Raisi has always been a hardliner.
Elderly Iranians accuse him of playing a key role in the execution of thousands of political prisoners as deputy chief prosecutor in Tehran in the late 1980s.
After his election in 2021, the 61-year-old cleaned out his state apparatus, and more moderate voices among the Islamic revolutionaries are marginalized.
While President Raisi commends himself to the spiritual leader, the number of the angry grows at the same time.
The Iranian economy is on the wane, wages are falling and prices are rising dramatically.
The state has hardly anything to offer its people.
The women's uprising is therefore only the visible tip of the iceberg.
Underneath lies the growing frustration of a people of 84 million over decades of mismanagement and ever-increasing reprisals.
Most women know that they will not defeat the powerful in Tehran - but neither will the powerful the women.
The decisive factor for the outcome of this uprising will therefore be how many of the Iranians who are otherwise loyal to the government this time heed the call of the streets.
Only together do they stand a chance.
