Iran’s post-war gamble on the young

Tehran is red and black when I arrive. Millions of people in black mourning attire carried red flags, the stark emblem of blood and martyrdom, seeking revenge for their leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on February 28. “We Must Rise,” declare the banners. War songs ricochet off the walls in streets punctuated by elegies on the martyrdom of Imam Husayn and his Companions at Karbala. This is collective grief channelled as state resilience. An elderly supporter I meet, Akbar Ali Jafari, puts it like this: “The war has given the Revolution a new lease on life.” The founding purpose is resurrected and its leadership cast as embattled defenders of the nation rather than an ageing, contested regime.

In early July, a towering fist was constructed a few days before the funeral proceedings of the slain leader. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) chose Revolution Square as the spot to assert that the Islamic Republic stood undefeated. What unfolded during the funeral proceedings was a grand spectacle of unity and continuity orchestrated as much for domestic consolidation as for Western consumption.

The national mood changes

The day after the state funeral in July, the scene changed. Art galleries around Enghelab Square reopened, women in t-shirts and jeans sketched with their heads uncovered. In the affluent Tajrish or centuries-old Grand Bazaar, boys and girls sped by on motorbikes or hung around vaping. In Pasdaran, cafes filled with couples holding hands or groups of youngsters talking over each other loudly. 

I thought of what Mr Jafari had told me earlier, that the Islamic Republic wants to bring the younger generation into its fold. And indeed, I was looking at the evidence in the public sphere. Restrictions on dress codes appeared to have been further relaxed along with those that regulated music and mixed gatherings outdoors. This was a different Iran from the one just four years ago, managed by a morality police or Gasht-e-Ershad Guidance Patrol force set up during the Ahmadinejad presidency in 2005 to guard the nation’s chastity. But the force was suspended after Mahsa Amini’s death in custody was met with nationwide protests in 2022. Women ripped off their headscarves as they rallied to the cry, “Women, Life, Freedom” in the face of a crackdown. “Those were horrible days,” recalls 24-year-old activist Maryam Rezaei, who works as a........

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