Protests have raged in Iran for over three weeks now against the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been apprehended by the country’s ‘morality police’ for not wearing her hijab “properly”.
In the weeks following Amini’s death, thousands of women have taken to the streets or Iran to protest the country’s strict dress code laws, with international commentators also calling for the curtailing of the powers of the ‘morality police’.
Since then, the nation has seen internet restrictions, protesters burning their headscarves, an outpouring of international support, the deaths of around 150 protesting women and reportedly, the arrests of thousands more.
In order to understand the implications of these protests on the future of Iran, The Wire‘s Karan Thapar spoke to noted Iranian scholar and director of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Peace at Jindal Global University, Ramin Jahanbegloo.
Jahanbegloo believes that the West Asian nation will never be the same. He says the protesting women are questioning Islamic orthodoxy and rigidity and dubbed the protests “a revolution of values”. Saying that Iran is at a “point of no return”, the scholar opined that if trade unions and the older generation join the protests – which he says they are likely to do – it could spell the end of the present regime and the Ayatollah’s reign.
Jahanbegloo’s only fear is that the Revolutionary Guard might step-in to save the regime by a coup d’etat which, if it happens, could create a government structure similar to that of General Zia-ul-Haq in Pakistan in the late 1970s and 80s.
To know more about what Jahanbegloo had to say on the issue, watch the video below.