Reflection on the Iranian Protest

Mahsa Amini

It’s been more than 1 year since the Iranian Protest following the death of Mahsa Amini. The event sparked a lot of debate outside and inside of Iran. After visiting my family in law this year, I wrote the following article to help outsiders understand the society a bit better and in particular the complex geopolitics. I have a bit of a bird’s eye view on Iran, given that my wife is from Isfahan and that we regularly go there to visit the family in law. The South African “Green Mamba” Passport has a benefit after all.

Iran is as complicated a place as South Africa, with a lot of factions, strong opinions and a population that has a love-hatred relationship with their own government and political system.

My suspicion last year was that the western media overestimated the support that the protest had and underestimated the support that the Iranian government enjoys (similar to how white South Africans constantly think that the ANC government doesn’t enjoy a popular appeal and won’t win the next election). There are a lot of reasons for it, and the support often isn’t just based on historical nostalgia, but rather because ordinary people did see their living standards improve to a point that is better than their parents’.

I did a few interviews on Iran with notably Noam Chomsky, Fereshteh Sadeghi, Trita Parsi, Mohammed Sahimi, Gareth Porter and Dave DeCamp. The various thinkers on Iran all have different and complex perspectives and don’t agree on everything. My view is that it’s important for us to listen to Iranians above all and in particular to give a stronger voice to those inside of the country and not necceraily those in the diaspora (who have lost a bit of touch with ordinary people). Politically the West and America in particular should drop the sanctions, trade with Iran and create the environment for the democratic elements (of which there are many) to make their argument.

Without exploring too much of the politics involved, my wife, who is also a painter ,in addition to being a mathematician, drew the following paintings during that period.