‘Each time it gets bigger’

How Iran’s protests look to a dissident of the Shah’s regime

Iranian scholar Mehdi Aminrazavi discusses his youth as an anti-Shah activist and his hopes for the movement sparked by Mahsa Amini's death.

On Sept. 13, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was detained by the Iranian morality police and died in their custody three days later, allegedly at their hands. Protests have erupted across Iran and with solidarity actions taking place among the diasporic community across the world. A women- and youth-led movement has taken shape, and people are willingly facing brutality and even death in the streets, with slogans such as “We are all Mahsa” and “Life! Liberty! Freedom,” as women in particular cut their hair and burn their hijab (headscarves) to defy government regulation on their capacity for self-determination and unequal status before the law.

At the root of these protests is the call for revolution, no less than the complete reversal of the Islamic Republic instituted in 1979 with the ousting of the Shah, while others simply hope that some aspects of the repressive regime will subside.

Students of Amir Kabir university protest against Hijab and the Islamic Republic. (Wikimedia/Darafsh)

In part one of this two-part Nonviolence Radio episode, we interview Mehdi Aminrazavi for his perspective on the protest movement and what he is hearing from his friends and family in Iran. Born in Mashhad, Iran, Dr. Aminrazavi participated in the protest movement to oust the Shah. Now a scholar of philosophy and mysticism, he is the Kurt Leidecker Chair in Asian Studies, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies Program, and professor of religion and philosophy at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

In part two, we will speak with Leila Zand, who was born and raised in Tehran, and is now working on her dissertation about Track 2 Diplomacy for Iran/U.S. relations. She is a leader for Citizen Diplomacy with Code Pink.

For more on nonviolence in Iran visit Around the Movement.

Transcript archived at Waging Nonviolence