encourages protest for Mahsa Amini

The daughter of the former president faces charges of incitement to revolt. The balance rises to almost 80 dead and more than 1,200 arrests. Raisi says he is “sad” by the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman, but threatens to apply a heavy hand against “chaos”. From American exile, the Shah’s son referred to the case as a “women’s revolution of modern times.” The solidarity of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

Tehran () – In the Islamic Republic, tensions and street protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini in the hands of the morale police in mid-September. The demonstrations have become an open battle – with women in the forefront – for freedoms and rights. President Ebrahim Raisi uses the double weapon of the carrot and stick: he admits that he is “saddened” by the death of the 22-year-old girl of Kurdish origin, but at the same time maintains that he will not tolerate “chaos” or a new escalation of the demonstrations -according to him, fueled by foreign countries. And among the many high-profile arrests in recent days, the daughter of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been targeted. This is Faezeh Hashemi, accused of having “fomented the revolt”.

According to the news agency Tasnim, the 59-year-old woman already has a “history” of arrests, due to “her presence in some previous protests.” Last July, authorities accused Faezeh – a former parliamentarian and women’s rights activist – of “propaganda against the regime” on social media. Her father, a moderate, would have sought an “approach” to the West and the United States – the “great Satan” for the ayatollahs – but all was in vain, and he was ousted by the ultra-conservative wing.

Meanwhile, the number of victims of the wave of protests is growing: humanitarian organizations report a balance of 80 deaths and more than 1,200 arrests. Yesterday, President Raisi spoke on state television and stressed that “we are all saddened by this tragic incident…. [Sin embargo]chaos is unacceptable” and for the government, the “red line” is the “security of the population”. We cannot allow people to disturb the peace of society by fomenting revolts”, he concluded.

Ignoring the threats, protesters continue to take to the streets across the country and spread videos on social networks, with chants and slogans that include “death to the dictator” and that strike at the heart of the highest institutions, from the president to the supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In the short term, however, a collapse of the Islamic Republic under the weight of protest is highly unlikely. The leaders are willing to use all resources, including the iron fist, to remain firm in power and avoid ending up like the Shah at the time of the Islamic revolution in 1979.

However, the one who is optimistic is precisely the son of the former Iranian leader who ruled the country before the rise of the Ayatollahs. Commenting on the anti-hijab protest and the death of Mahsa Amini, from his exile in the United States Reza Pahlavi speaks of the “first women’s revolution” of “modern times”. A revolt “of women, by women, with the support of men: sons, brothers and fathers.” In 1936, it was Reza’s grandfather who banned the Islamic veil, while his father had made it optional. Women,” he concluded, “should be able to decide whether or not to wear the veil. But it must be a choice, a free choice, not imposed for ideological or religious reasons.”

More radical still is the opinion of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British citizen of Iranian origin, who spent six years in the Islamic Republic’s prisons on charges of espionage, accusations that she has always rejected. In a video entrusted to the BBC, the woman, in solidarity with one of the symbolic gestures of the protest, appears cutting her hair. At the end of the clip she affirms decisively: “For my mother, for my daughter, for the fear of isolation, for the women of my country, for freedom.”