‘Each time it gets bigger’ — How Iran’s protests look to a dissident of the Shah’s regime

Nonviolence Radio

On Sept. 13, 22 year old Mahsa Amini was detained by the Iranian morality police and died in their custody three days later, allegedly at their hands. Protests have erupted across Iran and with solidarity actions taking place among the diasporic community across the world. A women- and youth-led movement has taken shape, and people are willingly facing brutality and even death in the streets, with slogans such as “We are all Mahsa” and “Life! Liberty! Freedom,” as women in particular cut their hair and burn their hijab (headscarves) to defy government regulation on their capacity for self-determination and unequal status before the law.

At the root of these protests is the call for revolution, no less than the complete reversal of the Islamic Republic instituted in 1979 with the ousting of the Shah, while others simply hope that some aspects of the repressive regime will subside.

In part one of this two-part Nonviolence Radio episode, we interview Mehdi Aminrazavi for his perspective on the protest movement and what he is hearing from his friends and family in Iran. Born in Mashhad, Iran, Dr. Aminrazavi participated in the protest movement to oust the Shah. Now a scholar of philosophy and mysticism, he is the Kurt Leidecker Chair in Asian Studies, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies Program, and professor of religion and philosophy at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

In part two (which will come later in a separate post), we will speak with Leila Zand, who was born and raised in Tehran, and is now working on her dissertation about Track 2 Diplomacy for Iran/U.S. relations. She is a leader for Citizen Diplomacy with Code Pink.

For more on nonviolence in Iran visit the Metta Center.

“Because the internet generation, even though they lived in Tehran and Mashhad and Shiraz and Isfahan, but they really were a part of this global culture that was very different from their parents. Whereas I or my wife would listen to these morality police and their advice and say, ‘Oh, sorry. It won’t happen again.’ These kids, 15 and 16-year-olds, wouldn't listen. They would confront them. They would fight with them. They would get arrested. They would be imprisoned and tortured and so on.

And so, as the younger generation came up, they not only looked down on my generation, as to, “Why did you do this to this country? You know, change is good, but for better, not worse. And you took the country back centuries. Why?” And so, they became more defiant and more defiant.” – Mehdi Aminrazavi