PARIS: Despite a slackening of street activity in the face of a brutal crackdown, Iranian protesters are still challenging the Islamic regime four months into their movement, observers say.
There have been fewer daily street protests nationwide since November as the authorities seek to quell the protests with methods including capital punishment, which has already seen four protest-related executions. But the anger unleashed by the death in mid-September of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for violating the Islamic republic´s strict dress rules, has not subsided. At a time of economic crisis, it still poses a potential threat to the regime.
Meanwhile protests have taken on different forms, notably including strikes. Mass street actions continue in some regions, and there have been tentative signs of division within the regime.
“With the number of protests diminishing since mid-November 2022, it appears that a stalemate has set in, with neither the regime nor the protesters´ side being able to overwhelm the other,” said Ali Fathollah-Nejad, Iran expert with the American University of Beirut´s Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs. “Revolutionary processes usually entail phases of both relative calm and uproar.