Powerful image of an Iranian woman with her hijab removed and swung on a stick in protest of the Islamic theocracy
After decades of oppression under a theocratic dictatorship, the Iranian people have risen up in protest against the Iranian government. Over the last few days, Iranians have been protesting in the streets protesting high unemployment, economic stall, and inflation, which are all mostly to blame on the Islamic theocracy and how internal and external affairs are handled, from the hostility towards foreign business and companies, to their foreign policy in terms of their business deals and their military involvement in Syria and Yemen. Not to mention, the tight and oppressive rule the Iranian people endure under an autocracy.
The Iranian people seem to be fed up with their governments corruption and squandering of the nation's wealth in foreign involvement rather than on the economy. These recent events looks like they're leading up to a revoltion, and I'm in 100% support of the Iranian people's fight for freedom, but it's important to keep in mind that other recent destablized middle eastern countries faced a similar sort of uprising, only to end up worse than they were before. Libya cheered the death of Gaddafi and got sent back to prehistoric ages. Iraq cheered Saddam and got ISIS and Alqaeda. Arguably those could all be faulted at foreign meddling (America), but it's still something to keel in mind.
I think the best outcome (and the outcome Im hoping for) of a potential revolution in Iran is a westernized democratic state akin to Iran back in the 1970s, before the previous Iranian revolution. I'm not suggesting that Iran go back to having a Sha, but the system that they were living under before the Islamic theocracy took over was far better.
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Those are my thoughts, so what do you think? Do you think a revolution is going take place in Iran? If so, do you think it should or shouldn't happen? And if Iran does undergo a revolution, what direction should the country move forward towards, and what potential issues might they come across? Any and all thoughts and opinions are open to discussion.
Not a single revolution in the Middle East resulted in a progressive government and policies. All of them resulted in civil war, poverty and refugee crisis.
lol no ... One was an Academy student and the other one was a bank clerk ...
many university students were arrested ... And damn ... I can't access my Telegram and Instagram accounts since 12 hours ago :-\
lol no ... One was an Academy student and the other one was a bank clerk ...
many university students were arrested ... And damn ... I can't access my Telegram and Instagram accounts since 12 hours ago :-\
We saw this in multiple middle eastern countries, and even in Asia back when the US was competing with the sovjetunion over territory. One example is China, Mao Zedong who successfully was capable of convincing his people that their country was good as it was, and should not be persuaded to believe in the tales from the western world.
Multiple countries were thrown in a situation where their people were continuesly being informed of the wealth and freedom the western world was offering their own people, so they were continuesly kept in mind, that if they were to protest against their own regime, they would be offered a same "world", just like the western one. However, this ment going from dictatorship towards democracy, where the western world used "democracy" as their main argument of why it's one of the best elements to run a country. However, in todays world most countries with democracy are under huge preassure of outside influence, and this influence is usually purchased with money. That way democracy doesn't really "work" because if you can "pay" to win, then it wouldn't matter if people voted or not, right?
The people of Iran are facing a huge influence by the western world, and they're constantly being told that they're living under strict laws, they have no freedom and that they'll never be fully "happy", if they continue not doing anything against their regime. However, we have seen political unrest in middle east started by the western world, and those countries have not been able to restablish. Their people were simply "brainwashed" to believe that if they went against their regime, their country would have the same perks as the western world as soon as they accepted democracy. However, for a country to go from dictatorship towards democracy, that alone is a process that takes years, decades. Lets take Libya as an example...
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So we all know that democracy is good, but as long as it's not influenced by rich people. Libya had a dictator, but a rich one, one that was wealthy enough to give the country the title of one of the richest African countries in the world. After NATO intervention 1 in 3 Libyans live in poverty. Today Libya is still under war as rival militias continue to kill and destroy. They're fighting for power, and innocent people who thought they were going to live under freedom, wealth and all their other things that the western world promised them, are now facing another issue, rival militias.
Iran of all countries was capable of "re-establishing" itself after the Iran / Iraq war, and now the country is leading in many fronts and have many strong allies around the world (Russia, China and etc). Iran is currently keeping the US checkmate from gaining more influence in the middle-east, and today we live in a world where it's no longer "possible" to just go inside a country and turn it upside down, (when the US went into Iraq). Today it's harder to gain influence in countries. However, it's still possible. The way it's done is by creating political unrest and persuading people to believe they're not treated well by their regime. These people who end up believing in this eventually starts listening to every single thing they're being told by the influencer. Iran has had sactions on them for a very long time now, and with sactions you basically "starve" a country, but despite this starvation, Iran's regime has been capable of keeping the majority of its citizens happy and satisfied. However, if you starve too long, you can also start to feel the pain, and Iran is now facing that situation. Some of the people are not satisfied by the way the regime works and dictates, however lets all look at the facts. If Iranian people bow to the influence by the western world, they might have their democracy at one point, but it could cost many lives, their country and even the peace that is there now.
NATO Secretary General - Anders Fogh Rasmussen with Clement, discussing the wars that NATO went into:
You guys can't understand what he's saying, since he is talking in Danish, but I'm going to quote him in some parts of his speach. This conversation between these two people is basically a dicussion based on "why does NATO go into countries to give the people democracy, but in return the country turns into a war zone, thousands of people die and after the war the country faces rebels fighting for power and civil wars occur. The guy questioning Anders Fogh Rasmussen asks here how many wars it will take before NATO learns from its mistakes:
Clement:
"We went into Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and we try in Syria, how many wars does it take for you to learn from your mistakes in NATO?" Anders Fogh Rasmussen:
"As democrats we have a duty to try to give democracy to the places where it's possible".
The interview ends with Anders Fogh Rasmussen agreeing that they made a mistake NOT to plan how to re-establish the war torn countries after the wars. It's also possible to see Anders Fogh Rasmussen showing signs of discomfort when the questions to him starts to become more and more precise.
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Some days after this, the media and the people called Anders Fogh Rasmussen a warmonger.
I'm personally not a fan of dictatorship, but I'm not a big fan of democracy either (due to the fact that it's so easy to manipulate the elections, pay2win). However, we can all agree that people who would do anything to have power, they should eventually be punished. Those who would kill thousands of innocent lives, manipulate countries to believe they're not good enough and etc...
I didn't want to drag this too long, but I could go in depth once my exams are over xd
