Weekly Blog - 31 October 2022 - Iran Protests
Iran Protests
Cities, towns and villages across Iran have been rocked by protests in recent weeks, by ordinary people from all walks of life desperate to throw off the country’s oppressive ultra-conservative Shiite Islamic regime. The protests were triggered by the tragic death in custody of Masha Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, on Friday 16 September. She was arrested three days earlier in Tehran by Iran’s notorious morality police, for allegedly wearing her hijab headscarf too loosely. The Iranian authorities have claimed a heart attack was responsible, but denied her family access to her body. Witnesses report seeing her being severely beaten by police in a patrol car following her arrest.
The protests that followed her tragic death have been led by young women, even school-girls. They have been defiant in protesting this latest incident in a long series of brutal police treatment of Iranian women, and in opposing the forced wearing of the hijab and Iran’s other strict morality laws. The protests have spread to draw in women and men from all parts of society, and from across the country, and have expanded into wider protests against Iran’s oppressive conservative Islamic regime. Iranian expat communities have been staging similar protests in cities around the world.
Although the vast majority of protests have been peaceful, the Iranian authorities have responded with brutality, using teargas, beating protestors with batons, and firing indiscriminately into crowds. At least 60 protestors have been killed, including multiple children. The real figure is probably far higher. Hundreds more have been arrested. Large parts of the internet have been shut down or disrupted in an attempt by the regime to suppress news and prevent activists from organising.
Reforming or Replacing the Iranian Regime
The regime in Iran came to power in the 1979 popular Islamic Revolution, which overthrow the last shah. His repressive rule was deeply loathed in Iran. He was shamefully propped up and supported by western nations for their own political and economic aims. However, the ultra-conservative and repressive form of Shiite Islam that the revolutionary government has since imposed on its population has also become increasing unpopular, especially with younger generations wanting to enjoy a freer society with much greater human rights.
Protests against Iran’s oppressive regime have been common for decades. However, the current protests are unprecedented in their spread and duration, and in being led by fearless and courageous young women and girls. They represent the best hope for many years of seeing significant reform in Iran to make the country more democratic, and a much better respecter of human rights.
Reform Movements
One of the key areas that a major report from Arise, The Arise Manifesto, looks at in detail, is what the Bible has to say, and what history and the world’s leading academic experts have to teach us, about what works best for dramatically improving democracy, human rights and good governance in countries. It finds that overwhelmingly the most successful way of doing this is through just such mass, popular, peaceful, bottom-up uprisings, like the one we are currently witnessing in Iran.
In the Bible we see how the people of God endured multiple repressive regimes over centuries. Yet throughout, God’s command to them is not to take up arms against such regimes. Such violence only produces more bloodshed, and often ends up replacing one brutal regime with another. Instead the Biblical model is that Christians should peacefully speak truth to power in a bottom-up way. We see this in Joseph and Moses influencing and challenging the pharaohs of Egypt. Later, the prophets did the same to the kings of Israel and Judah; and Daniel, Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah influenced Babylonian and Persian kings. In the New Testament, John the Baptist and Jesus himself spoke out against injustice from Herod, tax collectors, soldiers and Jewish religious authorities.
Turning to the lessons from history, academics and researchers show how around the world in recent decades, bottom-up popular peaceful reform movements have again and again proved to be the most successful method of dramatically improving democracy, human rights and good governance. We have seen such movements in Serbia, Madagascar, Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Nepal, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, East Germany, Slovenia, Mali, Bolivia, the Philippines, Zambia, South Korea, Chile, Argentina, Haiti, Brazil, Uruguay, Malawi, Thailand, Bulgaria, Hungary, Nigeria, and many other countries.
Such peaceful bottom-up reform movements avoid playing into the hands of autocratic regimes by confronting them in the area of physical force, where the regime is strong. Instead they peacefully refuse to cooperate with the regime, and continually expand the numbers involved, increasingly isolating the regime until it is forced to concede. Where such reform movements have been successful, they have seized the initiative with a clear strategy and tactics that continually evolve, to keep the regime off balance and reactive. They have built ever larger coalitions and attracted mass numbers of people who have demonstrated peacefully in visible city centres. They have also used non-violent direct action like strikes, sit ins and occupying areas. Where autocratic governments have responded with force, they have turned that against them, using the outrage it sparks to gather ever greater support. Successful reform movements have made good use of inspirational leaders, and used social media and other communications routes well, to get their message out. They have captured the sympathy of the international community, the media, and more and more sectors of society, increasingly isolating the regime, until even the police and military see which way the wind is blowing and begin to defect, and the regime is forced to concede.
Of course such movements also require great courage and perseverance from those involved. They are not guaranteed to succeed every time. But overwhelmingly the power of ordinary people peacefully refusing to submit is remarkable, and has continually proved the most successful way to improve democracy, human rights and good governance in nations around the world.
Christians at the heart of Reform Movements
Christians and churches have played a hugely important central role in such reform movements in nations all around the world. They have worked well alongside journalists, academics, activists, students, trades unions and others in the movement. In Iran of course, Christians are severely restricted. Christians make up less than 0.7% of the population. Christians are subject to harassment, discrimination, intimidation, arrests, interrogation, pressures to convert to Islam, and all conversion from Islam is forbidden and punishable by death. Nevertheless, despite all this, the small Christian population of Iran is very much playing its part and protesting alongside young women and girls (as indeed are the other minority communities), both inside Iran, and in cities around the world.
Globally the international community, the church, and all of us as individual Christians should do all we can to support the people of Iran as they demand their freedom. For the international community this might mean diplomatic pressure, international condemnation, targeted sanctions, travel bans, freezing the assets of the regime, or providing asylum for activists who have to flee the country. However, such support should be offered wisely, and only in ways that the activists in Iran want. It is all too easy for the regime to portray popular protests as being stirred up by the international community. The activist in the country should make those decisions. It is their struggle and movement. From the outside we should support only in ways they request. Supporting such bottom-up Reform Movements in countries around the world (and the Christians that are so often at the heart of them) is one of three key focus campaigns for Arise. They are one of the brightest hopes for our world.
Find out more
Find out more about how bottom-up reform movements, with Christians at their heart, have transformed our world, and have huge potential for positive change in the future, in the Arise Manifesto. This report is Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world. It looks at what the Bible says, and what we can learn from the best data and the world’s leading experts on the five major areas of evangelism, discipleship, social justice, development and the environment. It then draws these lessons together into a practical road map for the changes we need to see in our world, which the Arise movement campaigns to achieve.
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