Protesters demand greater freedoms while the leadership’s conservative vision of Islam falters
For decades, Iran’s clerical leaders have striven to make sure their country stays on a conservative, Islamic path. They have expanded religious education. The faithful have been urged to have more children. Those deemed to be exhibiting what the government regards as anti-Islamic behavior risk the full force of the law.
Months long protests in Iran against the core values underpinning the Islamic system suggest the country might be heading the other way.
Teenage girls now share videos of each other stomping on pictures of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, and his successor, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Young Iranians have been filmed knocking turbans off clerics’ heads, with the footage posted online. Thousands of women now walk around the streets of Tehran without the mandatory hijab, or headscarf, in what would have been a rare act of defiance just a few months ago.
#MajidrezaRahnavard was charged with "war against god", hanged in front of a basiji crowd from a crane, and buried without his family even knowing. This happens daily in Iran under the barbaric mullahs and their minions.
Don't be offended by the footage – be outraged at the IR. pic.twitter.com/b1izUAl80I
— Nioh Berg ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) December 12, 2022
