At U.N. assembly, Iran’s leader ignores an uprising at home

At U.N. assembly, Iran’s leader ignores an uprising at home

Washington Post

Sept 22,2022-Analysis by Ishaan Tharoor

At the dais of the U.N. General Assembly, Iran’s hard-line president bemoaned the “oppression” and “militarism” unleashed by the United States. “We are the defenders of a fight against injustice,” said President Ebrahim Raisi, who also styled himself as someone who championed “the rights of the Iranian people.” But absent within the parade of tired slogans often spouted by the functionaries of Iran’s Islamic Republic was any recognition of what was transpiring in Iran as Raisi spoke.

On Wednesday, Iran was in the grips of a fifth consecutive day of unrest, as angry protests rocked cities in various corners of the country. Authorities appeared to restrict access to social media apps such as WhatsApp and Instagram after videos proliferated showing demonstrators clamoring for the downfall of the regime and clashing with police. In other instances, security forces were depicted indiscriminately attacking civilians on the streets. At least seven people have been killed while hundreds have been injured and arrested, according to rights groups monitoring the situation.

The catalyst was the death last week of Mahsa Amini, 22, in the custody of Iran’s so-called “morality police.” Iranian state media claimed Amini — a Kurdish woman from western Iran who had been visiting the capital Tehran — was detained after exiting a metro station, suffered a heart attack, and slipped into a coma. But her family has rejected this version of events, saying she was physically assaulted and brutalized by authorities even though she was observing the regime’s strict dress codes for women. The regulations have been compulsory since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

Images of the young Amini lying stricken in a hospital bed inflamed social media in Iran. Her death compelled some women to go to public areas and remove their headscarves; in some instances, the traditional garb was set on fire by protesters.

“The ferocity of the protests is fueled by outrage over many things at once,” my colleagues detailed. “The allegations Amini was beaten in custody before she collapsed and fell into a coma; the priorities of Iran’s government, led by ultraconservative Raisi, who has strictly enforced dress codes and empowered the hated morality police at a time of widespread economic suffering; and the anguish of Amini’s family, ethnic Kurds from a rural area of Iran, whose expressions of pain and shock have resonated across the country.”