Lack of leadership is both a strength and weakness of Iran’s protest movement

France 24

Lou ROMÉO-Dec 16th 2022

The anti-government protests that have rocked Iran since Mahsa Amini’s death on September 16 are unprecedented in scale and duration. But the protests’ lack of a clear leader is proving to be both a strength and a weakness – it makes them harder to repress but also impedes the development of a viable political movement.

Three months after the start of anti-government protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman visiting Iran, at the hands of the notorious morality police, the Islamic regime has intensified its crackdown on demonstrators.

Two men accused of taking part in the protests have been executed this week and dozens of others could suffer the same fate, according to Amnesty International.

However, the protest movement’s lack of leadership is making it harder for the Islamic Republic to quell the demonstrations. Instead of leaders, the movement has martyrs and symbols – and many of these are young women.

For it was young women – enraged at Amini’s arrest and subsequent death in custody after allegedly flouting the country’s dress code by wearing her hijab “improperly” – who started the movement. Iranian women over the age of 9 are required to cover their hair in public.

In the days after her death, women and girls ripped off their hijabs and took to the streets in their thousands.

They were joined by young men, students, Kurds, the indigenous people of Baluchistan, and by shopkeepers and workers.

The broad movement is a “collective mobilisation of non-collective actors”, says historian and political scientist Jonathan Piron.

Symbols fuel the revolt

Although each of these groups is protesting against the Iranian regime, not much seems to unite them beyond the images of murdered demonstrators.

Women like Amini, 22, and Nika Shakarami, 16, who was killed on her way to a rally, have become figureheads for the revolt.

A video filmed at the grave of Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, who the regime hung on Monday for involvement in the protests, showed women angrily crying, “Majidreza Rahnavard, martyr of the country.”

“The dead act as symbols, because the figure of the martyr (shaheed) is central to Shiite culture,” says David Rigoulet-Roze, a professor of political science and co-editor of “La République islamique d’Iran en crise systémique” (The Islamic Republic of Iran in Systemic Crisis), published last June.

“The Shiite rite of the 40-day post-death ceremony poses a problem for the government, which tries to steal the bodies of killed demonstrators to avoid family funerals and gatherings at the graves. These act as ‘fuel’ and keep the movement going, reviving it 40 days after each death.”

He adds: “But these are martyr-like figures, emblematic deaths – not leaders.”

Flexibility versus repression

With no leader to rally them, the protesters have turned to the internet to organise their demonstrations.

“Social media plays a key role in the movement,” says Rigoulet-Roze. “Several platforms have already been suspended by the authorities for a long time. The only ones that were accessible, such as Instagram and WhatsApp, have also now been blocked.”

“It’s a challenge for the protesters to disseminate information given the regime’s repressive tactics,” he says.

“But the Iranian protesters are very flexible, continues Rigoulet-Roze. “They are part of ‘Gen Z’, which is very resourceful and they have used VPNs (virtual private networks that mask online activity) to bypass censorship for a long time.”

In October, the regime decided to criminalise the sale of VPNs – in a bid to further clamp down on “illicit” Internet use.

But once again, the demonstrators are proving creative – adapting their methods of communication and organisation by calling on people to gather on a certain date without disclosing the exact meeting place. Small groups then meet and disperse after about 15 minutes to avoid being arrested.

Although the protest movement’s flexibility has allowed it to survive these past three months, it is also one of its weaknesses.