Online magazine highlighting research, news and analysis covering the European Neighbourhood

Iran protests now as widespread as 2019 protests

The ongoing protests in Iran against the mandatory hijab have now become as widespread as the 2019 protests, which resulted in 1500 deaths after the regime cracked down hard.

Iran’s exiled former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi urged the world to respond by targeting the regime and its associates through “specific measures” like the Magnitsky Act.

Commenting to CNN, Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, stated young Iranians “don’t want this system any more,” “They want democracy.” “They want a new government… This generation is very, very different from us,” she tells me, especially young men’s solidarity with women’s rights inside Iran.

Activist Masih Alinejad commented:

“Women of Iran are leading a movement against religious dictatorship.

We are not fighting against a small piece of cloth.

Forced hijab is one of the most visible symbol of oppression.

We want separation from religion and politics in the Middle East.”

Separately, German ECR MEP Lars Patrick Berg lamented Iran’s aggressive actions in neighbouring Iraq, after meeting the Head of Mission of Kurdistan’s Regional Government.

Berg stated:

Iran’s attacks on the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan in Iraq destabilise the security situation in the entire region. The European Union  must have an interest in de-escalating the situation.”