Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian jurist and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, addressed a gathering of Iranians outside the British Foreign Office on Saturday demanding the proscription of the IRGC.
Emphasizing the importance of unity and solidarity among Iranians against their shared adversary, the Islamic Republic regime, Ebadi remarked, "While the eventual downfall of the Islamic Republic appears inevitable, I hold the hope that we can draw valuable lessons from the preceding 44 years. Diverse as our perspectives may be, let us recognize that we share a common adversary, and thus, should refrain from internal discord."
The event, which marked the second day of protests by Iranians residing in Britain, witnessed participants advocating for the inclusion of the Revolutionary Guards in the British government's list of terrorist organizations. The protesters congregated to pay homage to Shapour Bakhtiar, the final Prime Minister under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and Fereydoun Farrokhzad, an accomplished Iranian artist and activist who was killed in his apartment while in exile in Germany, by assassins believed to have been sent by Iranian intelligence.
While momentum builds for the international community to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity, the British government's response to such calls has yet to culminate in concrete action. Despite a unanimous resolution passed by the House of Commons in January, urging the government to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist group, the process has encountered bureaucratic hurdles.
Shirin Ebadi's impassioned plea for unity resonated with Iranians gathered in London, highlighting the pressing need for collective determination in challenging the repressive Islamic Republic regime.
Farhikhtegan newspaper, affiliated with Ali Akbar Velayati, a close advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said in an article published Saturday that a parliamentary committee in charge of the bill has eliminated the only possible benefit of the bill aimed at reducing police confrontations with people.
The main idea of the bill was to introduce a new way for hijab enforcement in the streets that would not lead to violent confrontation between police and people, reminiscent of the death of Mahsa Amini that ignited nationwide protests last September, shaking the foundations of the clerical regime. It put the emphasis on non-policing measures, rather than hijab patrols who confront the people on the streets.
The bill, which was sent to the Islamic Consultative Assembly by the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi, initially was comprised of only 15 articles. Now undergoing its final deliberations, it has become more unwieldy with 70 articles while the parliament has decided to discuss it without an open session in fear of further backlash.
According to lawmaker Ahmad Naderi, a member of the parliament's presidium, a joint committee will make “the decision on the bill's passage into law discreetly and without being presented in the open session of the parliament.”
“The bill, fraught with suspicions and flaws both from a legal and societal perspective, has become a topic of national discussion,” said Farhikhtegan daily. “Now even more alarming news is being heard,” added the paper, explaining that lawmaker Amirhossein Bankipour has made the hijab patrols by police as the only viable option to crush the civil disobedience movement that is translated into society as women unveiling in public. “This means going back to square one,” said the article.
The uprising last September has made it increasingly difficult for the clerical regime to enforce the mandatory Islamic dress code. Since the beginning of the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement, tens of thousands of girls and women have shed their compulsory hijab. The regime seeks to criminalize hijab defiance, but no branch of the government wants to be solely responsible for complications and the risk of social backlash.
According to Farhikhtegan newspaper, the bill has evolved to the point where instead of rectifying the existing issues, its new addendums will further exacerbate the situation.
In recent weeks, the regime has intensified measures to intimidate people against defying hijab such as shutting down restaurants, cafes, small businesses and even online shops. The regime has also summoned students and has moved to make university lectures online in fear of renewed protests. However, the common belief is still the same: Regime cannot retain control of women’s dress code on streets.
Veteran hardliner lawmaker Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani said that to keep its head above water, the regime must act promptly. “Every day, the situation worsens, thus requiring preventive actions; otherwise, we risk entering irrecoverable circumstances. Due to inaction, defiance against hijab has deteriorated further, and if we don't stop its progress, it will sweep us away,” he said, justifying the haste and secrecy in finalizing the hijab bill.
Responding to Haji-Deligani, political analyst Ali-Hossein Ghazizadeh said, “The regime is rushing to secretly approve the bill. This bill represents the last arrow in the quiver of the regime to confront the women who have come to make history. Mark my word! This bill does not work; the flood that has been unleashed will sweep you all away,” he said in a tweet.
Reformist activist Saeed Shariati quipped on a television debate earlier in the week that it is not "religious minorities" but the "irreligious majority" who do not adhere to the regime's interpretation of Islamic laws.
A prominent ‘reformist’ politician also argues that the current popular distrust in the government leads the authorities to use a security approach against the people.
At the same time, a former Deputy Intelligence Minister and Government Spokesman says despite the nationwide uprising that started in September 2022, there is no prospect for change and reform in the country.
Former budget chief Massoud Roghani Zanjani speaking in a Club House chat session that years of inflation and poverty have brought the popular dissatisfaction to a peak and laid the ground for protests in Iran.
Zanjani said that the current crisis is the outcome of clerics' intervention in politics and the conflict between elected and non-elected bodies in the government. He added that the non-elected bodies are where the clerics' power centers are.
He further added that "When absolute power was given to the Supreme Leader in the 1987 revision of the Iranian Constitution, it was in fact similar to crossing out all other articles of the Constitution." He pointed out that since then, Ali Khamenei has undermined the Constitution by actions such as giving executive powers to the heads of the three branches of the government.
Zanjani said one of the reasons for the country's economic crisis is that Iran has two treasuries, one for the government, and another for Khamenei's office. He further charged that privileges given to the clerics has created an apartheid regime in their favor.
Meanwhile, prominent reformist figure Feyzollah Arabsorkhi said in an interview with Rouydad24 website that people's distrust of the government, has encouraged officials to use security measures as a tool against the people.
He added that what is going on in the parliament and the government is diagonally different from what people expect. Arabsorkhi said, "Just look at the government's views about the Internet and social media. It reflects the views of the hard core of the government about freedom of speech.” Under these circumstances, you cannot expect the people to trust the government when it tries all the time to restrict people's access to the Internet.
"People's distrust in the government and its efficiency are currently the biggest problems the authorities are facing," Arabsorkhi said, adding that "People do not believe what rulers say, and if the government wishes to correct this situation it should respond positively to popular demands and expectations.
He added that the hijab law that is currently being discussed secretly at the parliament without paying attention to the people's views and expectations is one of the examples why Iranians have lost trust in the government. The state television which could have acted as mediator between the people and the government acts so unilaterally that there is no trace of the people's demands in its programming.
Meanwhile, former government spokesman Ali Rabiei wrote in Etemad Online website that there is still no prospect for reforms and correcting mistakes made by the government despite several months of nationwide protests.
"On the contrary, in some cultural issues we see that the government is putting a step back," Rabiei said, presumably referring to compulsory hijab.
Rabiei insisted that failure to bring about a clear prospect for reforms in foreign and economic policies, and improve governance will adversely affect turnout in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
