BBC report: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62967381
A better source’s report: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/khamenei-aide-visits-mahsa-aminis-family-media
Tudeh (communist) Party of Iran statement: https://www.tudehpartyiran.org/en/2022/09/20/statement-of-the-tudeh-party-of-iran-down-with-the-dictator-there-is-no-end-to-the-regimes-murderous-thuggery/
A woman was seemingly murdered by the IRI’s religious police after being taken into custody for not wearing her hijab “properly”. Iranian officials deny this and claim she died of a heart attack. Looks like no one is buying this line.
Danny Haiphong thinks a color revolution is underway because of Iran’s pivot to the east. I haven’t seen this sort of line taken by anyone else yet, but I’m more keen to trust the Tudeh Party than a non-Iranian, as much as Haiphong is usually right. From my understanding and their own statements, Tudeh is not clamoring for some relationship with the West and are very aware of and against NATO, EU and U.S. imperialism. I doubt they’d be in favor of these protests if they thought they were spearheaded by western NGOs.
Lots of protests all over the country. Many chants recorded such as “long live socialism, long live communism” and “death to the dictator, down with Khamenei”. Complicating matters is that the murdered woman was Kurdish-Iranian and fittingly a lot of the protests began in heavily Kurdish regions of Iran. This is not to dismiss the plight of Kurdish people or their capacity for revolutionary struggle, but Kurds have been insidiously used and abused by the West to forment ethnic tensions in Iraq, Turkey, Syria and elsewhere before, and western media outlets are seemingly attempting to continue that legacy by drawing a clear divide by Iranian Kurds and non-Kurds.
There is a fog of reporting currently, with a lot of protest info being relayed to western media by Chatham House, a British think tank known recently as having been pushing a lot of anti-Russia stuff. U.S. officials also immediately “demanded accountability” of Iran and claimed the act was “unforgiveable”.
Any MENA comrades have thoughts? Do you think this could be a revolutionary moment, or a cynical attempt by NGOs to weaken Iran after they’ve closened to China?
A common refrain in Iran is “Not capitalism, but Islam”
“Too many of the ultra religious folks turn to fascism in the same horrible ways that the capitalists do” what, then, of Stalin’s reconstitution of the church and promotion of socialist morality on the basis of orthodox teachings? Or do you agree with the CIA’s Hannah Arendt’s claim that communism is just “successful fascism”?
Religion can take many forms. It can be a tool of the oppressor (Christianity’s use in colonialism) or it can be a tool of the oppressed (Christianity’s use in Liberation Theology to fight against colonialism) … so too is Islam being used progressively to fight against imperialism and to fight on behalf of the oppressed (Iran has throughout its history lent support to oppressed peoples and their leaders such as the Black Panther Party)
I support women’s rights. I also expect more details surrounding these current events to continue to come out in due time. but first and foremost I will not criticize that which is in the crosshairs of US imperialism. I lend my full support to the Iranian government in its struggle against imperialism, and as a matter of secondary importance I lend support to those within Iran seeking to reform it in a non-western, non-capitalist way.