Iran protests have been persisting and growing fiercer since the September 16 death of 22-year old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by police in Tehran for not adhering to the country’s strict Islamic dress code. The “anti-hijab” protests which are raging and lately taking over university campuses across various cities are now coming under increased international media coverage. Now in their fifth week, the protests and ongoing clashes with security forces have left over 230 Iranians dead, including reportedly with casualties among police as well.
Multiple hundreds of demonstrators have also been arrested. Increasingly, Iranian authorities are blaming the Islamic Republic’s “enemies” – including the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia – for fomenting what have morphed into raging anti-government unrest. This theme of Tehran is likely to gain more traction among broader swathes of the Iranian population which have by and large remained on the sidelines after on Monday President Joe Biden issued a message of support for the protests…
Biden made the off-the-cuff statements to activists and reporters, describing of his July visit to Saudi Arabia, “Everyone thought I went to the Middle East because of oil, it was because of Iran.” Biden praised the “incredible courage” of the protesters, and when asked by an activist to issue a message to Iranians in the streets, he said: “Keeping fighting, we’re with you.”
This past week has seen the first instances of the US president personally issuing such specific support to the anti-regime protests, and it’s certainly going to be noticed in Tehran, given officials there have already said the “riots” are a US-backed plot.
Biden had also said days ago in a visit to a California community college:
“Iran has to end the violence against its own citizens simply exercising their fundamental rights,” Biden said.
“I want you to know that we stand with the citizens, the brave women of Iran, for real, for real,” Biden said, “who right now are demonstrating to secure their very basic, fundamental rights.”
Speaking about the death of Amini, he said, “it stunned me what it awakened in Iran. It’s awakened something that I don’t think will be quieted in a long, long time.”
It’s very likely the protesters themselves are increasingly wary of ways in which their movement faces the potential to be externally hijacked (whether real or perceived). Already the government is pointing to instances of protests being encouraged from the outside. This was a key talking point on Tuesday from Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi in an address given at Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabai University.
The official cited Western as well as Gulf Arab attempts to beam propaganda into Iran via state-funded satellite broadcasts. As AFP and Iran state media described of his words:
Bahadori-Jahromi said Persian-language media outlets and platforms based outside Iran were being used to “put pressure” on Tehran.
“Countries are willing to pay from their own pockets to start Persian-language media, while they do not know Persian at all and want to put pressure on us,” IRNA quoted him as saying.
Earlier Tuesday, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi accused Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia of backing such foreign media.
“Social media and television channels, especially the ones affiliated with regional movements including Saudi Arabia and some Western countries,” have created “false atmospheres”, he said, without identifying any of the outlets.
This has further been a theme of government officials and some Iran-based pundits appearing on US networks like CNN.
They liken what’s happening inside Iran to an externally driven regime change project, akin to the way events spiraled in Libya and Syria during the “Arab Spring” of the prior decade.
