{"id":26345,"date":"2022-10-09T04:18:30","date_gmt":"2022-10-09T04:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=26345"},"modified":"2022-10-09T04:18:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T04:18:32","slug":"how-gen-z-became-the-iranian-regimes-most-fearsome-opponent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/10\/09\/how-gen-z-became-the-iranian-regimes-most-fearsome-opponent\/","title":{"rendered":"How Gen Z became the Iranian regime\u2019s most fearsome opponent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dressed like a punk-rocker in her dark make-up and clothes,\u00a0Nika Shakarami\u2019s high voice rang out\u00a0on the streets of Iran as she was filmed singing to her fellow protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just days later, her broken body was secretly buried by security forces far from her village: the latest victim of Tehran\u2019s brutal crackdown on youngsters demanding basic human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nika, 16, was one among\u00a0thousands of brave schoolgirls\u00a0who have cast off their headscarves, given portraits of the Supreme Leader the middle finger and chased Iranian officials out of their playgrounds. Even young boys have shown solidarity by burning headscarves in makeshift bonfires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As demonstrators\u00a0continue to clash with riot police in Iran\u2019s streets, those intimately familiar with the country say an unprecedented force for change has emerged, among a new generation of internet-savvy youngsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fear factor in Iran has been shattered by the country\u2019s courageous youth,\u201d Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Iran affairs expert and former hostage of the regime, told The Telegraph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young, online and undeterred by Iran\u2019s ageing patriarchy, Iran\u2019s \u201cGeneration Z\u201d is known as Dahe Hashtadi in Persian, which translates to \u201cthe eighties\u201d \u2013 referring to the years 1375-1389 in the Iranian calendar. In the West, Generation Z refers to those born between 1997 and 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike previous generations, access to social media has given them a rallying point and a massive platform to speak out against the regime via Twitter and the video sharing app TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
PETER DEJONG\/APA protestor holds roses with little hearts painted on them as she joined thousands in a show of support for Iranian protesters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a generation who have never known a government other than the Islamic Republic, and have never known a leader other than [Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei. The regime elites are overwhelmingly elderly \u2026 yet 60% of Iran\u2019s population is under 30,\u201d explained Dr Moore-Gilbert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis young generation, like youth the world over, yearns for the freedom to express themselves and live their lives how they see fit. Iran\u2019s ageing theocracy is simply not relevant to their lives, and long ago lost all legitimacy,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iranian leaders have been deeply spooked by the mass uprising, which began in protest over the death in police custody of 22-year-old Masha Amini for incorrectly wearing a hijab, but quickly evolved into a campaign to topple the regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 41 protesters have been killed according to Iranian state media, though a report by Amnesty International this week said that the death toll in the province of Sistan and Baluchestan alone had risen to 82 \u2013 including bystanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, panicked Iranian intelligence officials sent a text message to millions of citizens asking them to reveal the identities of those taking part in the protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ezatullah Zarghami, Iran\u2019s heritage minister, appeared to admit earlier in the week that the root of the protest was the mass alienation of young citizens. \u201cThe unprecedented images of what is happening in our girls\u2019 schools is due to our regime\u2019s lack of having any proper cultural identity for our youths,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protests have even spread into Iran\u2019s women prisons where detainees are said to be staging sit-in demonstrations, according to Dr Moore-Gilbert, who was herself a detainee in the notorious Evin prison on false spying charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have heard that many prisoners in the women\u2019s ward of Evin are also protesting and staging sit-ins from inside the prison, to express their solidarity with protesters outside,\u201d said the British-Australian academic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But so far, the regime has shown scant evidence of wishing to reform its theocratic rules, including its requirement to wear the headscarf or risk detainment and torture by the so-called morality police prowling the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Supreme Leader Khamenei has sought to blame the unrest on the West, telling a police academy in Tehran: \u201cThis rioting was planned \u2026 these riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case of 16-year-old Nika has proven particularly shocking for Iranians. Her family has said\u00a0that they were forced to lie about her death\u00a0and their views on the protests, in pre-recorded TV statements. \u201cSay it, you scumbag,\u201d a person off-camera can be heard telling Nika\u2019s uncle during his broadcast statement condemning the protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they came to identify Nika\u2019s body, her relatives said, they were only allowed to look at her face, raising suspicion that she had suffered grievous injuries in police custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources familiar with the Iranian leadership\u2019s strategy said there was a risk that any supportive statements from the West about the uprising would be seized upon as evidence of a foreign-backed coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were also circumspect about the prospect of regime change, pointing out that the fluid, mass protests were lacking a central figure who could emerge as a credible opposition leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

stuff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dressed like a punk-rocker in her dark make-up and clothes,\u00a0Nika Shakarami\u2019s high voice rang out\u00a0on the streets of Iran as she was filmed singing to her fellow protesters. Just days later, her broken body was secretly buried by security forces far from her village: the latest victim of Tehran\u2019s brutal crackdown on youngsters demanding basic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4836,8657,7167,8249,11183,5268,10446,8659,10387,7960,9194,11555,6731,11996,7234,10418,12328,8261,5455,8057,11638,4028,8182,2264,5696,10825,10840,2702,11525,10954,11062,13157,1759,9515,9974,10634,9683,8183,11973,6332,8386,421,9374,8306,11926,5561,11171,13235,5807,8810,5655,12778,5349,11279,12794,7444,7592,7586,5350,8033,5320,36,594,5140,5784],"class_list":["post-26345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-access","tag-amnesty","tag-amnesty-international","tag-australian","tag-boys","tag-british","tag-burning","tag-camera","tag-campaign","tag-case","tag-charges","tag-citizens","tag-coup","tag-crackdown","tag-death","tag-death-toll","tag-elites","tag-evin-prison","tag-family","tag-fear","tag-forced","tag-freedom","tag-gen-z","tag-government","tag-hijab","tag-hostage","tag-human-rights","tag-identity","tag-injuries","tag-international","tag-internet","tag-islamic","tag-iran","tag-killed","tag-leadership","tag-lost","tag-millions","tag-nika-shakarami","tag-one","tag-online","tag-platform","tag-police","tag-population","tag-prison","tag-prisoners","tag-protest","tag-protesters","tag-riot","tag-risk","tag-schools","tag-security","tag-seized","tag-social-media","tag-spying","tag-supreme-leader","tag-tehran","tag-tiktok","tag-torture","tag-twitter","tag-video","tag-women","tag-world","tag-who","tag-young","tag-youth"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}