It’s easy, actually too easy, to think of Iran as a one-dimensional country; to think of it as a country run by the ayatollah, as a country of religious extremists. Truth is, Iran is much more nuanced and diverse than many in the Western world give it credit for.
While we think that all Iranians toe the line, Iran is, in fact, a multifaceted nation.
We’ve been lured into a misimpression of this nation because all we hear about is how Iran is principally steered by religious leaders who adhere to Shi’ite doctrine.
Yes, some more aware readers know that there is a segment of youth within the country once known only as Persia that yearns to break free of the shackles of religious oppression, but only a segment. Like all Iranians, the younger generation living in Iran today is as divided as are their elders. That is what makes the job of Iran’s ayatollah religious leader so difficult.
The ayatollah must pound the masses into religious submission. That is his policy.
Many Iranians are not in sync with the extremist regime
Iran is very large, about two-and-a-half times the size of Texas. It has a population of approximately 91 million people. The Persian, or the Fars population of Iran, is only about 61%. That is hardly more than half of the population. That leaves a lot of people not in sync with the ruling religious extremist regime.
That played right into the hands of Israel. It is one of the reasons that Israel was so successful at infiltrating Iran.
Iran is composed of many different ethnic communities. No love is lost between them and the Fars religious leadership. The Semnanis, who live in the north of Iran, compose about 19% of the Iranian population. Their primary language is not Farsi, the official language of the country they live in. They speak Semnani, and they are not alone. For many Iranians, Farsi, the language of Iran, is their second language. The Kurds speak Kurdish, and they compose 10% of Iran. There are also Khorasani Kurds, Larestanis, Khorasani Balochs, Gilakis, Laks, Mazandaranis, Lurs, Tats, and the Talysh Balochs. There are many more.
One of the tools that the Iranian Shi’ite religious leadership utilizes to control its citizenry is by instilling tremendous fear – by brutally cracking down on religious violations; by enforcing its laws and insisting that those who violate them, especially its religious laws, are severely punished. Sometimes, the family of the violator is punished as well.
The crackdown is intended to set the example, to put the fear of Allah in the remainder of the population.
Case in point is the story of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, known to her friends as Jina. Her story unfolded on September 16, 2022.
Jina was the Kurdish-Iranian woman who, by removing her hijab, her head covering, created global headlines. She was arrested and brutally beaten by Iran’s morality, aka religious, police – beaten so badly that she fell into a coma and was rushed to a hospital. That was where she died.
News of her death brought millions to the streets of Iran in protest. The police shot live bullets into the crowd and arrested countless numbers of Iranians. We cannot get an accurate count of the total number of protesters, but we do know that there were large protests in tens and tens of cities throughout the country.
Iran’s religious leadership brutally squashed a potential revolt all because a woman took off her hijab.
Under the rule of the ayatollah, the supreme leader, the hijab must not just be worn – it must be properly worn by every female over the age of seven.
Women may not ride bicycles. This was a fatwa, a religious decree, put in place by the current religious leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei. You may not walk a dog in public – ever. The punishment is extreme public humiliation and imprisonment.
Muslims may not leave Islam. No public displays of affection are allowed. In public places, a man may not touch a woman who is not his relative.
Women may not take selfies with soccer players. That would be extremely immodest.
Censorship of the media in Iran
Of course, the media are heavily censored. Only state news and state shows are available to Iranians. No Western media. No YouTube or X/Twitter, no new media, no social media.
As a way around these strict laws – which, in essence, forbid contact with the outside world – many Iranians use VPNs and satellite dishes to skirt the government media blockade. The government aggressively shuts these systems, and new ones pop up.
During Israel’s bombing of Iran, Israel was posting on social media sites, telling Iranians the real news – telling them what was happening. Israel even ran a quiz, a competition, on its site. After Israel twice eliminated Iran’s chiefs of staff, the leadership decided to keep a tight lid on the identity of its new chief of staff. Israel’s quiz asked Iranians who they thought that new chief was. One Iranian had the right answer, and Israel announced it to all of Iran.
It echoed the US Voice of America during World War II. And in response, Iran announced that anyone clicking onto Israel social media would be arrested and tried as a Zionist spy.
The truth be damned, Iran considers itself a winner always. Yet, try as it might, no country – not even the ayatollahs of Iran, can compete with the Web. And that might, just might, bring about the downfall of this repressive regime, a regime where a significant minority of its citizens pray for its downfall.
The writer is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Watch his TV show, Thinking Out Loud, on JBS.