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On September 16, 2022, Iranian woman Martha Amini died unexpectedly after being detained by the state moral police for not wearing a headscarf correctly, which immediately triggered a large-scale demonstration against the government in Iran. At present, the ongoing movement has seriously threatened social order, causing casualties between people and police, and destruction of public facilities. The activity has spread to more than 20 cities in the country, and the demonstrations in western Iran in Kurdistan were particularly fierce. In fact, the "Terrari Incident" is just the fuse for the outbreak of demonstrations in Iran, and behind it is the demands of groups of various classes for their own rights and interests. What are the imminent problems when the contradictions intensify? How should the Iranian government respond? This article will introduce the main reasons for the demonstrations in Iran.
1. The main reasons for the outbreak of demonstrations in Iran
(I) The economic class has solidified and people have difficulty living
Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has adopted a political system of unity of politics and religion, and religion is above everything else. Before the revolution, Iran was ruled by royal groups with the nature of bourgeoisie , and after the revolution, it was replaced by priests with strong traditional colors. The new ruling class is not the bourgeoisie. The focus of development is to educate the people through religion and rule the country with religious doctrine rather than promote economic development, thus leaving many gaps in the exploration and creation of wealth after the reform. At the same time, although the ruling class changed before and after the Islamic Revolution, the characteristics of wealth and power concentration on the upper class have not changed, and wealth is still concentrated on a few people. Because of the fixed class structure, political power and economic power are concentrated in the same group, and the formulation of economic policies must be based on the ruling class.
(Photo source @ Google)
Even after the success of the revolution, the ruling class confiscated the former king's wealth under the banner of "social fairness" and established as many as 120 religious funds, and allowed the IMF to fully control all the money-making industries such as oil, construction, aviation, finance, automobiles, food, and electronic products imports, but with the cooperation of internal nepotism and external political power suppression, the so-called fair distribution is just a flash of the water. The establishment of the fund did not actually increase the economic capacity of ordinary people, but instead further concentrated capital on to a few religious elites. The privileged interest group is not concerned with how to create more wealth, but just about how to distribute it. However, Iran's principle of wealth distribution often achieves monopoly aggregation of the upper class under the cover of "equality".
When the mastery and distribution of capital are mastered by the ruling class, the ultimate benefit is mainly determined by the closed subjective factors such as the individual or group of religious leaders' consideration of their own interests, decision-making vision and ability. The economic policies formulated by religious elites are class-oriented, so it is not surprising that decision-making mistakes occur in leadership. In the early stages of national economic development, as a country rich in oil resources, Iran, under the closed economic and industrial policy, ignored the development of supporting industries and relied solely on oil resources, which ultimately led to the need to import oil from other countries.
In the 1990s, Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad, who came to power in the early 21st century, began to try to explore the reform path of the free economy, emphasizing the focus on market, privatization, and international cooperation, but the rigid power structure at the top level has always hindered the comprehensive transformation and flexibility of Iran's economic industry, and the problems of production and distribution have never been truly resolved. During his tenure, Rouhani focused on promoting Iran's integration into the international market, but the rigid national decision-making structure and backward industrial foundation are still difficult to change in a short period of time. After taking office, the decline in oil prices in 2014, the implementation of economic sanctions in 2018, and the COVID-19 pandemic have all caused a huge blow to the economy, and the unemployment rate has even reached 12.19%.Until today, the gap between the rich and the poor is still very serious within Iran. With the high unemployment rate, government subsidies are useless. With the sluggish international economy, the regional religious and political situation is turbulent, the domestic economy is unstable, and the people at the bottom cannot even meet the needs of food and clothing. The government's incompetence and inefficiency in decision-making and actions have become a source of people's dissatisfaction and anger.
(II) Women's power is blocked, and religion has a trend of secularization
In religion, more than 90% of the people in Iran believe in Islam (Shi'a) and established it as Iran's state religion. As mentioned above, the integration of religious forces and political forces is the biggest feature of the system of integration of politics and religion. Among them, like most Muslim countries, women are generally less than or affiliated with men, and women need to adhere to specific and partially compulsory religious traditions. During the Pahlavi period, social contradictions in the secular field of religion were already prominent, and the Islamic Revolution in 1979 was a combination of secular social resistance and the external form of religion. However, after the revolution, Khomeini returned to religious tradition and proposed that society should follow the prophets' hadith and the fundamentals of " Quran ", which made Iran's secular women's liberation movement regress in the previous period.
For example, the Family Protection Law promulgated in 1967 is abolished, the minimum marriage age for women is reduced to 13 years old, and the right to divorce is deprived. Even though Khomeini did not completely ignore women's rights during this period, the status of women has declined greatly. Afterwards, women's status has actually been greatly improved since the beginning of Rafsanjani's rule. They have the right to education and vote, their careers are enriched and active in all areas of society, and they strive for their own rights while shouldering more social obligations. However, the conflict between religion itself and modern life has always affected the basic life of Islamic women. Just as this demonstration sparked by Martha Amini's detention for not wearing a hijab correctly, protests against Iran's mandatory hijab are actually part of the broader Iranian democratic movement.
After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, women wearing headscarves became a mandatory requirement in Iran, and women's clothing was subject to law. At the same time, Iran has set up a guided patrol (moral police) , and the task is mainly to supervise and arrest people who violate Islamic dress codes, including women wearing headscarves. Islamic women object to the mandatory requirement and show that wearing should be voluntarily and that the decision to wear should be based on their own understanding of the Quran and religion. During secularization, the transformation of women's identity is influenced by deep-rooted fundamentalisms and is difficult to achieve under the religiously established Fakih system. After the unexpected death of 22-year-old Martha Amini, another outbreak of protests against mandatory religious regulations in Iran, women from other parts of the world joined the demonstration and demonstrated their determination to protest by cutting their hair. Under the requirements of Iran's national legal policies and the suppression of violent agencies, a series of news reports such as the murder of young protesters have become increasingly aroused the emotions of demonstrators.
(III) External forces intervene, and ethnic conflicts intensify
Masha Amini comes from the Kurdish region in northwestern Iran. After the incident, demonstrations in the Kurdish region were particularly fierce. The Kurds, as an Iranian minority, made a demand for autonomy after the founding of the Islamic Republic, but were rejected by Khomeini. In 1978, Khomeini provoked a "jihad" against the Kurds and sent a military government to control the area. From the outset, the Kurds have been constantly clashing with the Iranian government in their pursuit of internal status and rights. At the same time, some of Kurdish parties are regarded by the Iranian government as agents of the United States and Israel in their own country, and are accused of being controlled by other countries to interfere in Iran's internal affairs, split the country's nation and disrupt the regional situation.
In response to the Martha Amini incident, Iranian President Ibrahim Lehi and government officials said that the incident was incited by the enemy. The rioters in the demonstration were different from those in the demonstration. The radicals in the activities were conspiracy arrangements of external forces in an attempt to undermine Iran's economy and security. It is undeniable that the security of the Middle East has been infiltrated by the power of major powers since the beginning, with many conflicts between countries and extremely unstable relations. Therefore, sensitive ethnic and religious issues are often used by foreign forces as weapons to interfere in regional affairs and internal countries within the Middle East to disrupt each other's countries, igniting the powder barrel with contradictions between radical and even extreme people.
(Photo source: Google)
2. Iran’s way of cracking
The Martha Armini incident continues to ferment, and the demonstrations and marches against this matter have attracted more widespread attention. At present, major media are following the progress of Iran's domestic and international events, as well as the views and attitudes of various groups including national leaders, leaders of international organizations such as the United Nations, experts and scholars, and demonstrators, and the next steps to be taken. However, the pictures, videos and other materials provided by both the government and the media have not been fully confirmed. The cause and context of the entire incident are not clear. The incident must not be arbitrarily characterized as "Iranian religious dictatorship" or "dominantly led by foreign forces."
In this case, the mining of facts is particularly critical. The premise of attribution is factual sorting. Only when transparent and open investigations and effective process supervision can we give a credible reply from protesters and all Islamic people. No speculation or public opinion should be exaggerated, thereby further threatening Iran's social stability. It is urgent to cool down the chaotic national situation.
attaches importance to equality between men and women and protects the rights of Islamic women. Iran uses the Quran as the Supreme Court of the country and fully complies with the regulations on equality between men and women. Even though Islamic women have now won more basic rights than they have since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and have made progress in protecting their rights, women's path to seeking equality is still hindered by the deep-rooted religious ideas of women. The issues advocated in the Qur’an, such as economic rights, personal dignity, marriage and family, still suppress Islamic women’s lives. As for the veil, the Qur’an teaches women to be humble, so covering their faces is to maintain their qualities and avoid evil. Islam is very strict with clothing norms and symbolizes women's piety. In countries that educate and manage the people through religion, strictly following the rules is often conducive to the rule and governance of the country. However, the political nature of the veil should not be a reason for coercion and should be granted the right to voluntarily choose.
rejects the intervention of external forces and exerts national and regional autonomy. The Middle East itself is extremely sensitive, with complex internal contradictions and often easily intensified; some external powers seek and unite regional allies, impose their will on the region, and disrupt regional peace and security based on narrow national interests. Historically, the Middle East was used as a stage for the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Later, the United States had provoked regional tensions and even put it into war in order to compete for regional oil resources, stabilize US dollar hegemony, and maintain US regional power. Regardless of whether this incident was incited by external forces and Iranian enemy countries, external forces should withdraw from the Middle East, and all countries in the Middle East should firmly safeguard their sovereignty and enhance national autonomy.
breaks down economic barriers and alleviates people's living difficulties. Iran, which is based on the unity of politics and religion, is integrated with politics and religion, and the former is subject to the latter, and economic decisions are based on the interests of religious elites. The domestic gap between the rich and the poor caused by the concentration of wealth and the high unemployment rate have led people to life difficulties.Therefore, only by easing social class contradictions and implementing top-down economic structural reforms can we reduce our dependence on resources, improve the national industrial structure, further open up the market to adapt to globalization, and achieve economic progress on the basis of improving the cooperation mechanism, create more job opportunities for the people, and reduce the latent factors of crisis outbreaks.
(Photo source: Google)
III. Conclusion
Large-scale demonstrations in Iran caused by the unexpected death of Martha Amini pose a great threat to national stability. The direct cause of the incident is the opposition of Islamic women to compulsory religious regulations and their own rights and interests and freedoms. However, the fundamental reason for this incident to have such a significant influence across Iran is that the national economic downturn and the widening gap between the rich and the poor have intensified the conflict between the middle and lower classes and the current Iranian government. In addition, the interference of external forces and the fueling of the mastermind behind the scenes may also promote the continued heating of the incident to a certain extent. In response to the above reasons, a clear investigation of the incident, reflection on religious laws and regulations and policies, prohibition of infiltration of external forces, emphasis on improving national autonomy, and reform and stimulation of the national economic structure are all top priorities for quelling the riots.
Written by Wu Ziyu, an intern commentator of "Smart Birthday" and studied at the School of International Relations of Sichuan Foreign Studies University; preliminary review | He Yuwen, an intern commentator of "Smart Birthday" and studied at the School of Law of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics; final review | Wu Xiang, a researcher of diplomatic think tank (GDYT) and executive editor of the editorial department of 'Smart Birthday'.
References
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[2] Kazakhstan: "Secondary Politics and Religious Politics in the Process of Iran's Modernization", published in "Research on Historical Theory", 2008 No. 3, pp. 61-70.
[3] Ji Kaiyun: "A Brief Discussion on the Characteristics of Contemporary Iran's Religious Management", published in "Journal of Southwest University (Social Science Edition)", Volume 3, No. 2, 2011, pp. 175-180.
[4] Wang Yiru, Liu Xia: "Iran's Kurdish Party and its Political Prospects", published in "International Research Reference", 2017 No. 2, pp. 40-47.
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[6] Bi Faren: "A Brief Analysis of the Social Status of Muslim Women", published in "Nation Today", 2008 No. 10, pp. 18-22.
[7]Maziar Motamedi, "Iranian leaders holding meeting as protests enter fourth week",ALJAZEERA, October 15,2022, https://www.aljazeera.com/.
