Iranian nights |
ROUTINE predictions about the impending demise of Iran’s repressive theocracy over the past couple of decades tended to be little more than wishful thinking. Could it be different this time?
The protests were triggered after the merchants in Tehran’s bazaar went on strike following a precipitous plunge in the value of a currency that was already in free fall. The same segment had spearheaded the popular mobilisation that toppled the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The merchants remained reliable supporters of the successors until early this century, when the economic clout of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its subsidiaries became paramount. Western sanctions have been complicit in Iran’s economic decline, but the role of ideological restructuring and corruption cannot be discounted.
As the protests against economic woes burgeoned, the initial response from President Masoud Pezeshkian was relatively empathetic. He offered dialogue, and a $7 monthly deposit for most citizens. That doesn’t add up to much in the face of rampaging inflation. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also makes a distinction between protesters and rioters, implying tolerance for the former and no mercy for those setting government buildings and mosques ablaze,........