How Iran’s Gen Z is leading protests in the streets and online

Geoff Bennett:

The Islamic Republic of Iran is no stranger to popular uprisings, the regime crackdown on protests in 2009 and again 10 years later, but the demonstrations sweeping the country today are different. They're being led by young people and they're playing out both in the streets and online.

Ali Rogin:

After two weeks of protests and brutal government backlash, Iranian activists, predominantly young women remain defiant. The protests started earlier this year over high prices, but erupted in mid-September after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She died in police custody after being arrested by Iran's morality police who said she was wearing her hijab improperly.

Since demonstrations began, more than 80 people have been killed.

And protests have spread to other countries from the U.S. to Turkey, where an Iranian woman cut her hair, a popular act of resistance.

Nasi Be Shamsi, Iranian Protester (through translator):

Today, men and women in Iran are united in wanting to destroy the Islamic Republic forever. When women are liberated then the whole society will be liberated.

No Name Given:

Hello, TikTok. This isn't talking from Iran.

Ali Rogin:

But with social media their preferred battlefield for this generation of protesters even those Iranian women staying inside are finding ways to speak out.

To help us better understand Iran's Gen Z protesters, I'm joined by Holly Dagres. She's a fellow with the Atlantic Council, a Washington based think tank where she is also the editor of the Iran Source Blog. Holly, thank you for joining us. You've previously said that the 2009 Green Revolution, which was kind of called the social media revolution in Iran is not really the best example of how social media revolutions in Iran can go and that this one actually is much more deserving of that moniker. Why is that? And who are these protesters?

Holly Dagres, Fellow, The Atlantic Council:

Well, these protesters are led by Iranian Gen Z with women at the forefront. And what's been key here is that Iranian Gen Z like Gen Z everywhere is online. They're on social media. They're on TikTok, Instagram, and they use social media to express themselves and for their voices to be heard. And we've seen they've even use social media as a form of expressing themselves to lyric. Shervin Hajipour, a singer that's based in Iran actually use the tweets from actually Iranians as part of his lyrics and some of the needs and wants included the ability to kiss their lover in the streets to dance on the streets and for freedom. And unfortunately, Shervin Hajipour was arrested by security forces.

Ali Rogin:

And security forces are indeed cracking down very hard. They're using different censorship means to prevent Iranians from getting those messages out. Is that going to be something that impedes these protesters progress or the ability to achieve their goals? Or are they finding ways around the regime's crackdowns?

Holly Dagres:

Well, since the 2009 post-election protests known as the Green Movement, the Islamic Republic has viewed internet and social media as a national security threat. So, they've been cracking down hard on the internet over the years. And so, with much of the world's most popular websites, 35% of the world's websites have been blocked by Iran and Iranians use circumvention tools like virtual private networks to get by. Right now, we've been hearing from Iranians on the ground, they have to go through dozens of VPNs in order to get these messages out to the world.

Ali Rogin:

It's truly incredible when you think of the efforts that they have to go to. I want to ask you also about the age difference between the regime, the clerics who run it, and these protesters, how is that generational gap playing into what we're seeing on the ground?

Holly Dagres:

Well, Iranian Gen Z is under the age of 25. Much of the clerical establishment of the top are geriatric, in their own words of Gen Z. They have nothing really in common with them. A lot of Gen Z, because they spend time online do a lot of the same things that Gen Zers in the West, they make deep fakes, they make memes. And so, for example, there's ages and memes about this cleric by the name of Ahmad Jannati. And Ahmad Jannati is 95 years old. He's the Chairman of the influential Guardian Council, which is a vetting body, and they actually refer to him as a dinosaur and a T-Rex. And so, they actually show this in memes that they make. And that should just give you a sense of how disconnected they are with the government in the Islamic Republic.

Ali Rogin:

Finally, Holly, I want to get your sense of what the Biden administration is doing. How do you think that they've responded to these protests so far?

Holly Dagres:

Well, they've been a little behind, but they finally caught up in May. It took a while for the Biden administration to react to protest back then, it took about nine days for the U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price to actually issue a statement.

Meanwhile, the State Department's Persian language Instagram account was posting about SoulCycle and CrossFit. And so, they've definitely did a 180. We've now hear condemnation from all levels of government. And that's been very important. We've also seen that they've issued a general license that would be important for internet freedom. And that was something that has been called for years even since the Trump administration and now we're finally seeing that done whether it's going to really help with things on the ground. That's the question.

Ali Rogin:

Holly Dagres with the Atlantic Council, thank you so much for your time.

Holly Dagres:

Thank you.