May 15, 2024
The
young activists of the Woman Life Freedom movement have enough problems
without a regional conflagration that ballasts the regime.
In early April,
the world held its breath as Israel and Iran looked like they would go to war.
Not the stealth shadow war that the two countries have waged for years, but a
catastrophic hot war that would annihilate the Middle East and upend the global
security order.
As the world
anxiously watched the news — of Iran’s long-expected retaliation for Israel’s
bombing of Iran’s Damascus consulate, of Israel’s response and the shuttle
diplomacy urging restraint on both sides — one thing was noticeably missing
from the coverage. There was no mention of the feelings of ordinary Iranians.
Already suffering under an economy in freefall, rampant inflation and the
violent repression of women’s rights by roving Morality Police, Western media
showed only images of Iranians celebrating Iran’s retaliatory attacks in
Tehran’s Palestine Square.
As is so often
the case in coverage of Iran, these images did not represent the feelings of
average Iranians. When I spoke to contacts in Iran, many expressed fear,
disappointment and fatigue as they watched the events unfold on their
televisions. Some recalled the hardships the country endured during the
horrific Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). The younger generation who spearheaded the
Woman Life Freedom protests are too young to have lived through the war, but
have heard stories from their parents about rations, nightly bombings and
growing up in an atmosphere of fear and instability.
“I saw how
traumatized they are at the thought of another war,” said a female 20-year-old
university student in Isfahan, one of the targets of Israel’s April 19
retaliatory bombing. “They have been dreading an all-out war with Israel ever
since Ayatollah Khomeini started supporting Hezbollah and Palestinian groups
when he took power in 1979, giving them so much of our money which could be
used to solve Iran’s problems.”
One of her
friends, also studying in Isfahan, noted that state resources were also likely
behind the images of Iranians publicly celebrating the strikes on Israel. “The
people [seen on television] celebrating are regime stooges,” she said. “They
are paid to project support for the regime and its actions. We are used to
these people being carted out every time they need a photo op to frighten the
West, but I don’t know a single person who wants this. It’s just propaganda.
We’re used to it.”
A third
university student noted that, while in Iran there is widespread support for
the Palestinian people, there is little appetite for the Iranian regime’s
policy of diverting money to Hezbollah and Hamas.
“Even my
parents’ generation and the one involved in the revolution of 1979 — they never
meant for our country’s resources to support those groups,” she said. “In Iran,
people are falling into poverty every day and inflation is so bad that you
don’t know if your salary can cover the price of bread tomorrow. It’s criminal
of the regime to be funding these groups when they should be supporting the
Iranian people. We feel like we aren’t safe from our own regime, and we aren’t
safe from foreign regimes. We are being squeezed from all sides.”
After Israel and
Iran drew back from escalating the conflict in April, ordinary Iranians were
relieved that the immediate danger had receded. But they know regional tensions
remain high, and the stakes of further conflict enormous — both for the world
and the future of Iranian society. Many of the students in Isfahan and around
Iran continue to risk their lives protesting mandatory hijabs for women and
other discriminatory laws, and fear that the Woman Life Freedom would be an
early casualty of war.
“We fear that at
any moment, we will be at war, and people would rally behind the regime, just
as during the Iran-Iraq war,” said one of the students. “That is the worst
thing that could happen for the movement, which we are sure will eventually win
us our freedom.”
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