Despite its brutal tactics, Iran’s regime fails to contain mass protests

The women and youth-led movement has proven hard to put down.

By Ellen Ioanes  Updated Nov 21, 2022, 10:35am EST

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On Monday, at the start of their first match in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, members of the Iran men’s national soccer team stood silently as their national anthem played.

It was a highly visible reminder that dissatisfaction with the Iranian government remains strong, several months into ongoing protests in the country.

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The Iranian regime is struggling to crush a massive wave of nimble and durable protests, unlike any the Islamic Republic has faced in the past. The leaderless movement has grown in strength despite increasingly harsh crackdowns, relying on unprecedented solidarity between ethnic minorities, different religious groups, and men allied with protesting women.

The movement started in September after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an ethnic Kurd from Saqez in northwest Iran, who was arrested in Tehran by the morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly and who later died in police custody. Protests in Saqez quickly spread to Tehran and other cities throughout the country. Now in their third month, the protests show no signs of stopping, despite the shocking violence security forces have deployed against the demonstrators, including savage beatings, mass arrests, and indiscriminate killings of protesters, including children.

At the frontlines of the demonstrations are women and young people — high school students walking out of school on strike, and women tearing off their hijab and cutting their hair in public as an act of mourning and defiance.

Despite earlier viral claims, the government has not senten