Three people were executed in Iran late last week for taking part in last year’s anti-government protests. Human rights organizations have been talking about a veritable wave of executions in Iran since the beginning of the year. But this doesn’t just have to do with the protests, says ARD correspondent Katharina Willinger, currently in Istanbul.
SRF News: Are the many executions this year mainly related to the protest movement against the Iranian regime?
Katharina Willinger: Many observers assume that. What is certain is that the last three executions in Isfahan represent such a case. However, many executions also affect the drug milieu – this has to do with the fact that absolute hardliners have been in power in Iran since 2021. They take an even harder course on anyone who thinks differently than they do. It was a bit different under President Hassan Rouhani.
The protests have diminished and the regime’s intimidation seems to be having an effect. But have the protests really died down completely?
It has actually become quieter on the streets. The protest seems to have reached the minds of many Iranians: they have finished with the mullahs’ regime. In addition, many women are expressing their dissatisfaction with the fact that they are no longer subject to the Islamic dress code. That takes a lot of courage. Because it is still forbidden to take off the headscarf in public.
Many women no longer submit to the Islamic dress code – it takes a lot of courage.
Violators are punished with fines, imprisonment or flogging. Many women even fear that they may not be punished for it for months or years. But the inner will to no longer bow to the regulations of the Iranian Republic is so great that the women still accept the risk.
Legend:
In Iran, there is still an obligation for women to wear a headscarf – even if the vice squad seems to have largely disappeared from the public sphere. There are reports that offending women are now being identified by facial recognition cameras and then punished.
Reuters/Wana News Agency
There are, of course, against the executions Protests from Western governments – also from Switzerland –, but the protests against the regime in Iran are hardly reported here anymore. Do the people of Iran feel abandoned by the West?
They feel let down by international politics. Business is still being done with the Iranian regime, and there is still cooperation with the Revolutionary Guard, they say. Although this is listed as a terrorist organization in the USA, it is not listed in the EU. The EU’s now eight packages of sanctions, which have been imposed since the protests began in September 2022, have also been criticized.
Do people still believe regime change is possible?
There is certainly hope among young people in Iran. A whole generation of Iranians, who know nothing other than the Islamic Republic and who should have been ideologized by the school system, feel enormous hatred for the regime.
A whole generation of Iranians feel enormous hatred for the regime.
In view of this fact, the regime is likely to have little future prospects. Nevertheless, the mullahs may be able to hold out for a long time: the entire power apparatus, the force and the army are completely controlled by the Revolutionary Guard – and thus by the regime.
Brigitte Kramer conducted the interview.