Looking back at the 2022 uprising from any angle, we see signs of an explosive society, like a volcano ready to erupt. These signs can be observed in uprisings such as those in December 2017, November 2019, and even in 2009 and other movements.
A Spark in the Powder Keg
In September 2022, Iranian society, much like today, was on the verge of transforming from accumulated pressures into an unexpected new reality. One could sense this qualitative change from the rebellious atmosphere in the cities, visible in the red eyes of the people, and the exhaustion of their patience.
Just four days before the tragic death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police, a state-run media outlet wrote: “People are under pressure. People are pessimistic. If they curse at you once, they’ll curse Islam ten times, and they’ll curse the leadership and Imam [regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini] ten times. You’ve made the people not just pessimistic about the Imam, the revolution, and the regime, but furious. They’re showing their anger in their words and actions. If you don’t believe it, give the people a single day of freedom and see what they do” (Source: Khabar Fouri website, September 12, 2022).
On September 14, 2022, the state-run Etemad newspaper, according to Ali Rabiei, a security figure and then-spokesperson for the government of former President Hassan Rouhani reported: “A kind of restlessness and a sense of living in a harsh, turbulent environment is noticeable.”
The clerical regime gave no freedom to the people for even a single day and ignored such warnings. The explosive, “restless and turbulent” Iranian society was just waiting for a spark. The horrific murder of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini was that spark, which fell into the powder keg.
Targeting the “Core of the Regime
The 2022 uprising caught the regime off guard, most of all the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who fell silent for a time. On September 21, 2022, a state TV host admitted that protests typically became radicalized midway through, but this time, the protests started radically.
On the same program, Mohsen Mahdian, a regime-affiliated cultural officer, panicked by the rapid escalation of the nationwide protests and said, “In the past two days, we’ve seen unprecedented events. We’ve had a type of unprecedented protest in the last 40 years. Unprecedented in what way? In the sense that in no period have we seen such violence and chaos from the first hour. ”
By “violence and chaos,” he meant the uncontrollable rage of revolutionary youth who defied the dictator’s loyal enforcers and relentlessly took over the streets, with outraged Iranian women and girls leading the charge.
At the time, some disillusioned regime officials blamed others, questioning why the morality police were allowed to continue their crackdown, failing to foresee this outcome. They did not understand—or did not want to understand—that the uprising was far beyond compulsory hijab. The people’s uprising targeted the “core of the regime,” as it had in previous uprisings.
Mahdian added: “The issue is not the hijab. The issue is not the morality police. The issue is not the late Mahsa Amini. These issues… are just about one thing—this regime, this state. Their slogans are clear. Look at the slogans over the past two days; if you analyze them, you’ll realize that they are explicitly saying, ‘Our problem is not what has been said. It’s the state itself.’”
The people’s alignment against the regime
In the 2022 uprising, a significant portion of society stood against the regime. The social upheaval was so strong that it washed away all the prior preparations the regime had made to exploit the Arbaeen (the 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Mohammed) pilgrimages for propaganda purposes.
Upon hearing the news of Mahsa’s passing, the uprising in Tehran, and then in Saqqez and Sanandaj, began within a day, simultaneously urging Tehran University students to resist. By the second day, the angry uprisings in Sanandaj, Mahabad, Gohardasht, and Karaj drowned out the sound of the bullets from the regime’s security forces.
On day three of the uprising, cities including Saqqez, Mahabad, Sanandaj, Oshnaviyeh, Bukan, Marivan, Baneh, Sardasht, Piranshahr, Urmia, Javanrud, and Divandarreh went on strike. The voice of Tehran University echoed in several other universities, including Amirkabir (Polytechnic), Allameh Tabataba’i, Art University, Tarbiat Modares University, Beheshti University, Tehran University, and Isfahan University.
Divandarreh truly became a battleground between rebellious youth and the regime’s forces. By that evening, Tehran, with the cries of its brave men and women, rose up, inspiring Gohardasht in Karaj, Mashhad, Ilam, Baneh, Qorveh, and Rasht to join. In the following days, the movement spread to other cities, and by the second half of 2022, not a single day passed without an uprising somewhere in Iran.
The First Episode
Hamidreza Jalaipour, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander and governor of Naqadeh in 1983, responsible for executing 59 youth from Mahabad, admitted to parts of the uprising’s scope a year after the 2022 protests.
He labeled those within the regime who tried to portray the uprising as over through propaganda as “naive,” stating that this was only the first episode.
“There is another narrative—that this is just the beginning. This was the first phase, the first episode, and we are on a revolutionary path,” he said (Source: Didar News, April 13, 2023).
This reminder is to emphasize that the revolution, rooted in the explosive discontent of the Iranian people, will eventually overthrow the oppressive clerical regime.
The signs and symbols that sparked the 2022 uprising now, more than ever, signal the readiness of the people, revolutionary youth, and Resistance Units for the next episodes of uprisings. Any spark in this revolutionary situation could trigger a massive social explosion.