Iranian youth have played a leading part in the country’s modern drama, from the 1979 revolution (it was students who took over the American embassy) to the spasms of protests that have rocked the Islamic Republic since. However hard the regime tried to tame them, through cultural revolutions at schools and universities and repeated purges, they have proved extraordinarily resistant — and resilient. The student unrest that started in 1999 at Tehran University against repression represented the first big domestic shock to the Islamic system. Equally threatening, however, has been the consistent political involvement of youth in bringing more moderate, reformist leaders to the presidency. They were instrumental in rallying behind Mohammad Khatami, the reformist cleric, who was elected president in 1997 and served for two terms. He remains young Iranians’ favourite politician. In 2009, many youth joined the reformist Green movement, which fought in vain against the alleged rigging of a presidential election. Despite the brutal repression that year, the youth did not give up. On June 14 2013, they came out in droves to vote for the moderate Hassan Rouhani, knowing that their voice might once again be ignored but determined to show the regime that they remained relevant.
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Former presidents Mohammad Khatami (left), still young Iranians’ favourite politician, and Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, a hardliner
Afra, a 30-year-old civil engineering graduate, was one of those who cast her vote. I meet her with a group of her friends on Revolution Street, around the corner from Tehran University. Afra lost her job at a development company when international sanctions made it difficult for companies to finance projects. She now works for a research company. Life is “mind-boggling”, she tells me. “Look at the internet — there’s a ban on Twitter and Facebook and we have to use proxy software to access them. But while we feel the ban, the highest-ranking officials have access to them,” she explains, referring to both the president and the supreme leader who are hyperactive on social media. “There’s a kind of deal, a policy, by which they [the regime] know everything is happening in the country but everything is done secretly. It’s not normal.” Frustration, however, is not a reason for apathy, she says. “Rouhani’s election was a step forward and it was a victory for the youth who forced the regime to accept him as president.”
I ask Afra and her friends how they envision Iran changing. Step-by-step reform, they say, not upheaval. One revolution for Iran, they tell me, is enough. “The Islamic revolution made us less developed and we’re afraid another one will take us even further backwards,” says Hamid, a 25-year-old finishing graduate studies in engineering. “Look at the Arab revolutions,” he continues, referring to Syria, Egypt, Libya.
Mahnaz Mohammadi, documentary film-maker
‘We know revolution takes you nowhere. Only reform takes us forward’
Iranians young and old are also under no illusion about the heavy price of defying the regime: 100 demonstrators were killed in the 2009 unrest and thousands were imprisoned. Mahnaz Mohammadi, a 39-year-old documentary film-maker who took part in the protests and did a stint in jail last year on charges of conspiring against the state, says her friends, even those still behind bars, believe in reforming the Islamic Republic. “In 2009, we gained a voice. Before that, most people outside thought the Iranian people and the government were the same. Now everyone differentiates and that’s important for our dignity. But we’re not looking for revolution — we know revolution takes you nowhere. Only reform takes us forward.” Remember, she tells me, most Iranians’ priority is economic wellbeing. Political freedom is the concern of a minority.
Despite the rupture between Iran’s youth and the regime, there are links with society that the political elite has been adept at exploiting, whether through a vast patronage network, the religious institutions that cater to the poor or the largely state-owned economy. One of the main gripes you hear in Tehran is that jobs require connections — and the closer you or your family are to the top echelons of the regime, the more likely you will land a good job after university. Narges Barahoui, the activist and researcher from Baluchistan, says that “invisible links” are not to be underestimated. “People demand jobs from the government. They prefer them to private sector jobs because they’re safer, more prestigious and with higher salaries. There are also cultural links, especially in the provinces, where Iranians are more religious and have better relations with the state. And every time a new government comes in, they hire new people, and that creates new links.”