{"id":229079,"date":"2020-11-04T14:58:44","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T14:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=229079"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:35:21","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:35:21","slug":"last-years-uprising-in-iran-is-still-underreported-despite-obvious-significance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/blog\/op-ed\/last-years-uprising-in-iran-is-still-underreported-despite-obvious-significance\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Year\u2019s Uprising in Iran Is Still Underreported Despite Obvious Significance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Iran_Protests_Uprising_04112020\"<\/p>\n

By Alejo Vidal Quadras<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last November, Iran was rocked by a series of anti-government protests that arguably comprised the most widespread anti-government uprising since the inception of the current regime. Demonstrations were confirmed to have taken place in 191 cities and towns, spanning all 31 Iranian provinces. The significance of this geographic diversity was amplified by the fact that some of the participating locations had been assumed to be strongholds of the theocratic system until their residents joined in adopting slogans that left little doubt regarding popular support for regime change and democracy.<\/p>\n

Those slogans had generally been established about two years earlier, in the context of another uprising that was nearly as large and diverse. Both in December 2017<\/a> and in November 2019<\/a>, citizens of Iran poured into the streets in response to distressing economic indicators which revealed the extent of the regime\u2019s mismanagement and lack of care for the wellbeing of its own people. In the first instance, the nationwide unrest was sparked by an organized protest in the city of Mashhad, which sought to highlight the overall economic conditions. In the second, the entire uprising proved to be spontaneous, in response to the government\u2019s announcement of a sudden spike in gasoline price.<\/p>\n

Despite these differences, both uprisings quickly shifted focus from expressions of economic discontent to a full-throated condemnation of the system that was responsible for it. Both movements came to be defined by slogans like \u201cdeath to the dictator\u201d and \u201chardliners, reformists: the game is over.\u201d The latter referred to the two mainstream factions of Iranian politics, associated with the regime\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, respectively. The public rejection of both these factions underlines the demand for an alternative drawn from outside of the existing power structure. And the further details of the unrest indicate that most people seem to have a specific alternative in mind.<\/p>\n

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Iran Protests: Nationwide Uprising in Iran- November 2019<\/div><\/div>
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