The Iranian regime has found a new reason to slam opposition and dissident groups abroad.
Pro-regime media outlet Fars News published an article on Monday accusing some voices abroad of trying to commercialize or profit off the protesters that the regime itself has murdered.
Iran’s regime is doing everything possible to discredit the protesters ahead of the one-year anniversary of the killing of Mahsa Jina Amini. Amini was killed on September 16, 2022, after being detained by the regime and accused of not covering her hair according to Iranian law.
Mass protests rocked Iran last fall and continued into January as a result. The regime appeared to offer concessions and made a point of cracking down on protesters primarily in minority areas. Amini was Kurdish, and Iran focused its efforts against Kurds, even attacking Kurdish dissidents in Iraq.
Iran also cracked down on Arabs, Baloch and Azeri minorities. The regime understood that its main threat came from the center of the country and that if it could divide the periphery, where minorities generally live, and the center, then it could hold on. The regime so far has held on and become more draconian.
A woman with her hand painted with the word ”Freedom” takes part in a protest following the death of Mahsa Amini, in Athens, Greece, October 1, 2022. (credit: REUTERS/COSTAS BALTAS)Many activists abroad have taken up the banner of Amini and the protesters. They also adopted the Kurdish feminist slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom,” with Amini as the symbol of the rebellion.
However, in becoming that symbol, she has sometimes been repackaged by groups, who wish to use her to support various causes which she may not have supported in her life. For instance, some Kurds are suspicious of Iranian monarchist nationalists which they remember from the era of the Shah as a centrist Persian form of rule that also sidelined minorities.
As such there is tension between some of the dissident groups, which can be seen in their messaging. For instance, when Azeri voices have demanded more autonomy, other groups have tried to sideline them to demand they support other Iranian dissidents.
Events abroad strengthen Iranian leaders’ arguments
This gives Iran’s regime a way to critique the protests abroad. The regime has said now that the dissident groups have commercialized the protest and they point to various examples such as events where tickets cost money to attend.
The regime does this in a bizarre irony since it surely knows that protest movements also need financial support. It wants to cut off the support and delegitimize the dissidents abroad.
This illustrates the great fear the regime has that Amini and others whom the regime has brutalized will become symbols that transcend various groups and will be used to defeat the regime one day.
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