Book Review - What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom
IN MARCH, many Iranians refused to vote in the national elections, claiming the system was rigged and that nominees were “approved” by the government. The recent deaths of President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian add to the nation's current woes. According to Arash Azizi, a Tehran-born historian, author and political analyst, the majority of ordinary Iranians also oppose the regime’s support of militant groups in the Middle East. They remain invested in their own battle against repression.
The latest wave of protests in Iran was sparked by the death, on 16 September 2022, of Mahsa Amini. Three days earlier, the 22-year-old student had arrived in Tehran for a shopping trip. As she came out of Martyr Haqqani station, she was detained by the “guidance patrol” for alleged non-compliance with the country’s mandatory hijab rules. While being transported by van to a nearby police station, Amini was brutally beaten. At 8.30 p.m. she was declared brain dead. By Friday her heart had stopped beating. The following day thousands of people attended her funeral in Saqqez shouting “Death to the Dictator”. Her tragic death spawned a revolution. Women took to the streets across the country, setting their headscarves on fire and cursing Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran since 1989. Their battle cry: Women, Life, Freedom.
In What Iranians Want, Azizi explores the various protests that have helped fuel the current movement. These range from International Women’s Day actions and workers’ strikes to environmental activism and the fight for freedom of expression and religion. Women are at the forefront of many demonstrations in Iran – inevitably they have the most to gain from regime change – and Azizi also describes the activism of prominent figures who have risked their lives and imprisonment battling repression. They include Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, a writer and journalist who has spent most of the past two decades in detention for promoting human rights, and is currently held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. Mohammadi has campaigned tirelessly for the abolition of the death penalty in Iran and against the oppression of women and continues her activism from prison.
Despite repeated crackdowns resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests, Iranians continue to mobilise. Azizi dedicates specific chapters to the various rights and freedoms they have fought for since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. One describes the trade union movement, exemplified by the workers from Haft Tahpeh, the oldest sugar factory in Iran, whose strikes for better pay and conditions have inspired others around the country. Another highlights the plight of members of the Baha’i faith – a minority so persecuted, they are not allowed to attend university.
Azizi concludes with the tragic story of 16year-old Sarina Esmayilzadeh and her “fight for a normal life”. The teenager wrote poetry and posted videos on Telegram (a messaging app) and YouTube. On 23 September 2022, she was beaten to death by security forces while protesting the murder of Amini. The Islamic Republic tried to stifle her voice but, like many activists in this book, Esmayilzadeh leaves behind her aspirations for a free Iran on social media.
What Iranians Want is an accessible read. As well as identifying the defining moments of the protest movement in recent years, Azizi celebrates Iranians’ resilience. Although based in New York, his passion for his home country and concern for his compatriots is clear. He believes power will shift with the demise of Khamenei and anticipates a struggle between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s social mass movements: “It will be a pitched battle between two poles: one consisting of the IRGC ... the other consisting of the men and women at the heart of this book, whose resources are bravery and determination.” Protest has seeped into the fabric of everyday life in Iran. The people, Azizi suggests, may yet be rewarded with a brighter future.