The Internet is flooded daily with horrifying news and footage of schoolgirl poisonings or biological attacks, as they are called in Iran, with videos showing the schoolgirls unable to breathe, ambulances and parents gathered in front of the schools and security forces ready to crush them.
In the wake of the relative calm that has followed the Mahsa uprising in Iran, it appears that the Iranian regime is exacting revenge not only on the youth but also on their parents.
Although the guidance patrol’s murder of Mahsa Amini sparked the Iranian uprising, it began years earlier with a change in values within homes. It means this movement encompasses all of the aspirations of the Iranian people and will eventually succeed.
Through textbooks in schools and institutions with vast resources, the government has spent years attempting to keep young people on the path of religion as defined by the clergy establishment and the regime’s ideology. These endeavours, however, have failed since today’s youth opt to uphold values related to daily life rather than those connected to heaven and the afterlife.
Those who used to live underground in society, with their private parties, reading sessions, extramarital cohabitation, homosexuality, and underground music groups, have now revolted and poured into the streets.
Instead of traditional professional opponents such as university students, labourers, lawyers, political activists, and authors who fought the government based on their principles and ideas, the regime now faces an army of young people murdered simply for striving to live a normal life. Youth who consider themselves Tik Tok, Instagram, or other social network citizens, have no recollection of a time before the Internet.
Following their deaths, clips from their social networks have been shared rather than their names and traditional portraits. Ignoring deeply ingrained morals in Iranian families, these videos show slain protesters singing in front of the camera, performing Dubsmash, or dancing like Khudanoor, Nika or Hadith in a country where women’s hair, dance, and song are prohibited. The first Mahsa Amini video, widely disseminated online, featured her dancing in a red Kurdish dress and encouraging others to join her.
Five months later, it is clear to both women and the Islamic Republic that the hijab in Iran will never be the same because women have already paid the highest price for it. In the wake of the protestors’ deaths, some women have made taking off the headscarf a moral obligation and a daily street battle in a time the gun has taken the place of the guidance patrol. Moreover, women who do not cover up are no longer stigmatized or mistreated by society.
This transformation has been so profound that even Khamenei stated that those who do not wear the proper hijab are not enemies of the Islamic Republic, so attempting to differentiate between hijab and opposition.
The shift in the language people use to interact with authorities is one of the movement’s peculiar traits. That the Supreme Leader is the target of the protesters’ most insulting and derogatory shouts, at first stunned most Iranians but has subsequently become regular chants.
For instance, On October 2nd, a brutal armed attack occurred on Sharif University, Iran’s most prestigious educational institution, when students chanted this type of slogan.
In his speech, Khamenei stated that foreign enemies wrongly assumed that using profanity and insults against the nation’s leaders would render them ineffective and force them out of the picture.
In a traditional polite society where offensive words are rarely heard in families, using language that even the media cannot publicize is a sign of society’s indignation at the clergy’s hypocrisy. The hypocrisy requires addressing one another with titles such as God’s representative on earth or the sign of heaven.
Furthermore, while a corrupt economy and sanctions have crushed the people for years, the officials’ families have lived in luxury inside or in so-called enemy countries without being forced to observe stringent Islamic rules.
It has now got to the point that many parents have stopped cooperating with the Islamic establishment imposing restrictions on their children because they have no explanation for how this hypocrite came to power or for their children’s grim future. Meanwhile, religion is gradually fading even within the homes of those who saw it as an integral part of the ruling system.
Today, the parents of murdered protestors appear in front of the camera, discussing their children’s everyday life and pledging vengeance.
Every protester’s funeral has turned into a performance art piece against the regime and a place where protesters congregated.
Theocracy in Iran is also Shiite, and religious events and gatherings are frequently accompanied by sobbing, lamenting, and grieving. Dark events and crying are the essence of the Islamic republic.
People commemorate the birthdays of their slain loved ones and dance on their children’s graves.
For instance, the courageous speeches made at the graves of Ali Abbasi by his sister Fatima, Shamal Khediripour’s wife, and Murad Bahramian’s daughter.
Even when forced to confess in front of the camera, Zeinab Molaei Rad, the mother of Kian, a child killed in a security force shooting, wore a red outfit, representing the raging war in her native culture.
Even in the worst-case scenario, Iran’s supreme leader did not anticipate that these generations would rebel against the regime. So, he has tried to find a partner for his long-time foes, Western countries. He blamed the western Internet for the protests. In order to localize the Internet, the Iranian government recently forced financial institutions to change their dot.com domain names to .ir, curtailed internet access, and threatened to prosecute VPN sellers.
Owing to the executions, mass arrests, lack of an organizer and leader, and the lacklustre reactions of the western governments, The street is relatively quiet, but the dam wall has been breached.
Although government institutions have yet to be conquered, the people’s aspirations have begun to dominate their spirit.
The legitimacy of the state and the control the regime once had over society’s minds have been lost, so most Iranians now believe that poisoning is under the authorities’ command.
As a result, the rage and despair flowing beneath the nation’s inflamed skin will resurface on the streets.
Along with systematic school and dorm gas poisoning, various factors, including the dire economic circumstances, the 48 % inflation rate, unfettered currency indulgence, and growing prices for essentials, may lead previously apathetic Iranians to take to the streets and protest.
Following the Mahsa uprising, people realized that the regime’s claimed invincibility was a myth, and they now have more faith in themselves. However, with recent tragic events such as executions and school poisonings, Iranians conclude that the regime is flaunting its power to the people while also distracting the public and trying to conceal a more significant issue.
