Nonetheless, the Iranian security elites continue to judge their traditional techniques of suppression as effective. Street protests are now widely seen, especially by the new Generation Z, as the only viable way to achieve change. Discontent has spread and hope in the prospects for change has waned, while the core of supporters of the Islamic Republic has shrunk. The result has been a further restriction of social freedoms in Iran since the start of Raisi’s presidency.Ĭonsequently, the Islamic Republic now faces a previously unseen level of division between the state and society, with the state’s influence over the population rapidly declining. Rather than recognizing the heterogeneity of Iranian society, the authorities have pushed to unify the whole population around a state-driven ideology and way of life. But what made these policies so seminal to the present situation is their implicit dismissal of the values held by the majority of Iranians, who fall outside the conservative camp. These ideas have long been discussed among Iran’s hardliners, such as those at the Center for the Islamic-Iranian Model of Progress and the Office of the Supreme Leader. Namely, amid the failure of the government’s economic policy as well as Iran’s continued international isolation due to its uncompromising stance in the nuclear talks, the administration sped up the implementation of a social engineering plan that included creating a “national internet” and the “restoration of the hijab” as its top priorities. But a year into Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency, his administration, which represents the 1979 revolution’s ultra-conservative elements, pushed forward a controversial set of social policies that played a role in fueling the latest round of protests. But when protests refused to die down, the Islamic Republic adopted what has become its classic response: “maximum suppression,” utilizing all means of violence and imprisonment to stop the rallies.ĭiscontent in the Islamic Republic has been on the rise for at least the last decade. Instead, the state’s propaganda machine launched a fierce disinformation campaign, blaming Mahsa’s underlying health conditions for causing her death. Like in previous incidents that sparked popular demonstrations, including after Iran’s downing of a Ukrainian airliner in 2020, the authorities initially denied responsibility for triggering the crisis. The tragic death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian women arrested by the Islamic Republic’s so-called “morality police,” incited nationwide protests on Sept. Islamic Republic leaders are choosing to move up the ladder of escalation rather than step back and revise their policies, believing they can make the protests too costly to continue. The one-year-old Raisi administration pushed forward a controversial set of ultra-conservative social policies that increased the division between state and society and played a role in fueling the recent protests.
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