{"id":895624,"date":"2022-11-23T16:58:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T16:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=cd80c2a8d4a9717fcf1ea37408b59041"},"modified":"2022-11-23T16:58:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T16:58:00","slug":"chomsky-us-sanctions-on-iran-dont-support-the-protests-they-deepen-suffering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/11\/23\/chomsky-us-sanctions-on-iran-dont-support-the-protests-they-deepen-suffering\/","title":{"rendered":"Chomsky: US Sanctions on Iran Don\u2019t Support the Protests, They Deepen Suffering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protests have been raging in Iran since mid-September in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in a hospital in Tehran after being arrested a few days earlier by Iran\u2019s morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic theocratic regime\u2019s dress code for women. Protesters are widely describing her death as murder perpetrated by the police (the suspicion is that she died from blows to the body), but Iran\u2019s Forensic Organization has denied that account<\/a> in an official medical report.<\/p>\n

Since September, the protests — led by women of all ages in defiance not only of the mandatory dress codes but also against gender violence and state violence of all kinds — have spread to at least 50 cities and towns. Just this week, prominent actors<\/a> and sports teams<\/a> have joined the burgeoning protest movement, which is reaching into all sectors of Iranian society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Women in Iran have a long history of fighting for their rights. They were at the forefront of the 1979 revolution that led to the fall of the Pahlavi regime, though they enjoyed far more liberties under the Shah than they would after the Ayatollah Khomeini took over. As part of Khomeini\u2019s mission to establish an Islamic theocracy, it was decreed immediately after the new regime was put in place that women were henceforth mandated to wear the veil in government offices. Iranian women organized massive demonstrations when they heard that the new government would enforce mandatory veiling. But the theocratic regime that replaced the Shah was determined to quash women\u2019s autonomy. \u201cIn 1983, Parliament decided that women who do not cover their hair in public will be punished with 74 lashes,\u201d the media outlet Deutsche Welle<\/em> reports<\/a>. \u201cSince 1995, unveiled women can also be imprisoned for up to 60 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

But today\u2019s protests<\/a> are a display of opposition not just to certain laws but to the entire theocratic system in Iran: As Frieda Afary reported for Truthout<\/em>, protesters have chanted that they want \u201cneither monarchy, nor clergy<\/a>.\u201d And as Sima Shakhsari writes, the protests are also about domestic economic policies whose effects have been compounded by U.S. sanctions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The protests have engulfed much of the country and are now supported by workers across industries, professionals like doctors and lawyers, artists and shopkeepers. In response, the regime is intensifying its violent crackdown<\/a> on protesters and scores of artists, filmmakers and journalists have been arrested or banned from work over their support for the anti-government protests.<\/p>\n

Is this a revolution in the making? Noam Chomsky sheds insight on this question and more in the exclusive interview below. Chomsky is institute professor emeritus in the department of linguistics and philosophy at MIT and laureate professor of linguistics and Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona. One of the world\u2019s most-cited scholars and a public intellectual regarded by millions of people as a national and international treasure, Chomsky has published more than 150 books in linguistics, political and social thought, political economy, media studies, U.S. foreign policy and world affairs. His latest books are The Secrets of Words<\/em> (with Andrea Moro; MIT Press, 2022); The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power<\/em> (with Vijay Prashad; The New Press, 2022); and The Precipice<\/em>: Neoliberalism, the Pandemic and the Urgent Need for Social Change <\/em>(with C.J. Polychroniou; Haymarket Books, 2021).<\/p>\n

C.J. Polychroniou: Noam, Iranian women started these protests over the government\u2019s Islamic policies, especially those around dress codes, but the protests seem now to be about overall reform failures on the part of the regime. The state of the economy, which is in a downward spiral, also seems to be one of the forces sending people into the streets with demands for change. In fact, teachers, shopkeepers and workers across industries have engaged in sit-down strikes and walkouts, respectively, amid the ongoing protests. Moreover, there seems to be unity between different ethnic subgroups that share public anger over the regime, which may be the first time that this has happened since the rise of the Islamic Republic. Does this description of what\u2019s happening in Iran in connection with the protests sound fairly accurate to you? If so, is it also valid to speak of a revolution in the making?<\/b><\/p>\n

Noam Chomsky<\/strong>: It sounds accurate to me, though it may go too far in speaking of a revolution in the making.<\/p>\n