MESOP MIDEAST WATCH MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis Series No. 1679
Antiregime Protests By Women, Ethnic Minorities, And Students In Iran – Part II: Criticism Of How The Regime Is Suppressing The Protests
By A. Savyon and M. Manzour
The antiregime protests in Iran have been underway for over four months, and many of those protesting the regime’s tyranny are students and other young adults, as well as members of Iran’s ethic minorities.
Part II in this series focuses on Iranian citizens’ criticism of the regime’s brutal enforcement of hijab wear and the segregation of the sexes – the two issues that were at the heart of the protests in their early weeks. However, an addition focus of the protests is the absence of established channels for expressing political opposition – such as opposition political parties – that led people to take to the streets and demonstrate.
As the protests continued, the more the regime’s brutal measures against the young protesters were exposed, the greater became the public criticism of the regime’s violent suppression of the protests. (See also Part I of this series: Antiregime Protests By Women, Ethnic Minorities, And Students In Iran – Part I: The Protestors’ ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ Chant vs Islamic Regime Claims That The Protests Are Organized By Foreign Countries.)
View MEMRI TV clips of young Iranians protesting against executions of demonstrators below:
Iranians Protest Against Regime’s Recent Executions Of Demonstrators: If You Execute, There Will Be An Uprising! December 11, 2022
Iranian Protestors Deface Posters And Statues Of The Late IRGC Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani, Who Was Responsible For Iran’s Expansion In The Region, On Third Anniversary Of His Killing; “Death To The Dictator! The Revolution Of 2022 Will Not Falter!”
This report will review protestors’ calls for regime change in Iran, and will include relevant MEMRI TV clips.
Calls To Overthrow Supreme Leader Khamenei’s Islamic Regime
Sister Of Supreme Leader Khamenei Denounces Him And Regime: “My Brother Does Not Listen To The Voice Of The Iranian People… The Revolutionary Guards And Khamenei’s Mercenaries Must Lay Down Their Arms And Join The People – Before It’s Too Late”
On December 7, 2022, Mahmoud Moradkhani, the nephew of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, tweeted an open letter by his mother, Khamenei’s sister Badri Hosseini Khamenei, whose daughter had been arrested the previous month after calling on the world to sever ties with Tehran. In her letter, Ms. Hosseini expressed her intense opposition to her brother’s regime and to its violence against the young protestors, writing: “I oppose my brother’s actions, and I call on [Iran’s] Revolutionary Guards Corps [IRGC] to lay down their arms and join the people, before it’s too late.”