Roozbeh Parsi, director of the Swedish Institute for International Affairs’ Middle East program, has denied any cooperation with the Iranian government following a media investigation linking him to a Tehran-directed influence network.
"It's really a battle of generations," said Dagres, a senior fellow at think tank the Washington Institute's Iran program.
"Gen Z, Gen Alpha as well, as they come of age, are really pushing back against the Islamic Republic's norms and they're really trying to take back their country. Whether they succeed is another thing."
Dagres, who specializes in Iranian youth and curates the newsletter the Iranist, said the Iranian government realizes they may have already lost Gen Z so are staking their hopes for staying in power on their successors.
“They've been actually looking at the next generation, which is Gen Alpha."
"When they came up with the song Salam Farmandeh or Salute Commander. Mostly when you see kids it's Gen Alpha kids that are part of the regime choirs and also they're being forced to sing it at schools."
Gen Z, or those born between 1997 and 2012, make up less than 7 percent of the population but were at the forefront of the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprisings demanding women's rights and the end of the Islamic Republic.
Though the protests were largely stamped out, the generation remains restive.
“(Tehran is) having to think ahead because really they're struggling and I think the prime example of how they struggled here was the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising itself. It was led by Gen Z girls and women,” said Darges.
The Islamic Republic is thinking outside the box, appealing to Persian nationalistic motifs to form the minds and win the battle of the new generation.
“They've made a play about the Shahnameh or the Book of Kings. They're really trying to tap more into Iranian nationalism, which is much more palatable to the average Iranian, regardless of age these days than more Islamic motifs," said Dagres.
A recent viral video showcases a reporter asking Gen Zs to identify the clerics in photos they presented. The girls could not tell the difference between Iran’s current Supreme leader Ali Khamanei and the founder of the Islamic Republic Ruhollah Khomeini.
The kids had no problem identifying K-pop bands and Billie Eilish, however. The moment illustrated how little interest the youth have in their rulers.
Iran’s Gen Z formed a counterculture, the opposite of what the government was trying to force onto them, consuming Western music, movies all in an underground way, Dagres said. But they are not afraid to showcase their color dyed pink hair and skateboards.
The fact that women and girls are increasingly not wearing the mandatory hijab, she said, showcases the subtle ways Iranians are resisting.
In a scene which went viral online, a group of Iranian schoolgirls raised their middle fingers at a portrait of Iran's leaders in a classroom, in another sign of sharp defiance.
Authorities used extreme force to quell their rebellion after the death in morality police custody of a young Gen Z'er, Mahsa Jina Amini, in 2022.
Sham trials, confessions forced through torture and a wave of executions in 2022-23 claimed the lives of many of their number, including 23-year-old Mohsen Shakari and Majidreza Rahnavard, both promising youths hanged for their activism.
Declining marriage and birth rates
Gen Z is also the generation that is coming of age and often holding off on getting married and have children.
So much of that is a result of their connection to less traditional Western culture, but also high unemployment, concerns over climate change, inflation in Iran and a rejection of Islam and tradition, Dagres said.
Islamic Republic officials say that by the year 2101 the population in Iran will halve even as neighboring countries experience rising birth rates.
Iran’s once-youthful population is aging fast. That has stirred concerns over a lopsided economy and a potential healthcare collapse in the future.
The United Nations (UN) projects that by 2050 one-third of Iranians will be 60 or older, representing a three-fold increase from 2021.
Iran’s Ministry of Science has called for the removal of educational content deemed to discourage people from having children to combat declining birth rates.
The average Iranian household went from 6 per family to three and now a growing number of youths are choosing to live with their partners.
It is a phenomenon in Iran called white marriage, where two unwed people live together, replacing the traditional marriage proposal where families would help set up relationships.
The latest findings from the state-run National Population Research Institute suggest the number of registered marriages in Iran has dropped dramatically since 2011 with almost half a million marriages registered - a fall from the peak of 891,627 marriages in 2010.
The Rejuvenation of the Population and Protection of the Family (RPPF) law, enacted by the Iranian Parliament in 2021 under a directive from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, imposes penalties for actions deemed to discourage marriage and childbearing.
Iranians struggling with depression
Depression is rife in Iran, Dagres said, with Iranians now turning to drugs like opium and alcohol which is haram or religiously banned to ease the pain. The economic hardships and day-to-day repression lead to their depressive state.
“Some of these Gen Z'ers are so desperate for a hit of alcohol because they become so addicted that they're purchasing ethanol from a pharmacy and drinking it," said Dagres.
With the demographics of Iran dramatically changing, Gen Z appears to have largely decided to seek change, and the Islamic Republic's influence over Gen Alpha has yet to be felt.
Only time will tell what sort of future the youth of Iran will achieve.
The ban enforced after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 was lifted in October 2019 under pressure from FIFA, the governing body for international football and its Asian counterpart the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
FIFA had warned Iran’s football federation that it could face expulsion from global tournaments including the World Cup if women were not allowed to attend.
Despite the policy change, opposition festers.
In March 2022 women who had bought tickets for a FIFA World Cup qualifier between Iran and Lebanon in the religious city of Mashhad were pepper sprayed when they tried to enter the stadium.
Women are still not permitted to attend all matches. Local authorities frequently cite what they call insufficient preparation, such as the lack of designated seating areas for women as a reason for their exclusion.
When women are allowed, the number of tickets available to them is often limited, and female enforcement officers in black chadors are present to ensure compliance with mandatory hijab laws.
Nevertheless, footage and photos posted on social media show defiance of the hijab is widespread.
The hardline newspaper Kayhan, closely linked to the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader, criticized the decision to allow women into stadiums. On Thursday, the daily accused proponents of the change of “implanting the idea that women’s success and dignity lie in imitating men’s behavior and attire.”
Kayhan’s criticism followed the release of footage showing female fans at a match between Tractor FC and Persepolis FC on Wednesday in which both male and female fans were seen cheering and occasionally swearing.
Kayhan argued that women’s presence has not improved what it described as the “poisonous and unhealthy atmosphere” of stadiums. It said it has led to violations of what it called women’s dignity, a “fundamental principle in Iranian and Islamic culture," according to the hardline paper.
Iranian authorities have long justified the ban on women’s attendance as a measure to protect them from exposure to profanities often chanted by male fans, even if women were seated in separate sections of the stadium.
Over the years, some women have taken significant risks to watch matches. Disguised as men, they attempted to enter stadiums but were often caught, arrested, abused or even sentenced to prison terms.
The ultra-hardline outlet Mashregh News also criticized FIFA President Gianni Infantino, suggesting he should have attended the Wednesday game week to understand the authorities’ stance against women’s presence in stadiums.
Infantino has consistently pressured Iran on this issue, particularly after the tragic case of Sahar Khodayari.
In September 2019, Khodayari, nicknamed the Blue Girl after her favorite team Esteghlal FC (nicknamed the Blue Team), set herself on fire after being sentenced to jail for attempting to enter Tehran’s Azadi Stadium disguised as a man.
This issue has also been reflected in art and media. Jafar Panahi’s 2006 film Offside depicted the story of young women disguising themselves as boys to watch a World Cup qualifying match at Azadi Stadium. The film won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival but was never approved for screening in Iran.
His response followed a report by Sweden’s TV4 and an article by Expressen, one of Sweden's most prominent dailies, which accused him of involvement in a network linked to Iran’s ministry of foreign affairs.
On Tuesday, TV4 reported that Parsi, the brother of former NIAC president Trita Parsi, had been connected to an Iranian initiative aimed at shaping Western policies.
The investigation, which cited emails provided by Iran International, followed a 2023 joint exposé by Iran International and Semafor that detailed Tehran’s efforts to cultivate relationships with academics and analysts abroad to expand its influence.
Sophie Löwenmark, a columnist for Expressen, wrote on Friday that “Parsi has participated in an advocacy network for a brutal dictatorship that today is a threat to Sweden, Swedish-Iranians, and Jews.”
She argued that his engagement had been secretive, without disclosure to his employers, and concluded that “this is not how someone you have full confidence in acts, but rather someone who appears to be the mouthpiece of the mullahs in Sweden.”
Parsi rejected her remarks in a response published by Expressen, saying that he had no financial ties to the Islamic Republic. He emphasized that his role as an academic allowed him to engage with different parties without political consequences.
“Unlike states, I do not represent any party and can therefore speak to everyone,” he wrote.
He also said that he participated in the Iran-led initiative on behalf of the British Foreign Office, not the Swedish Institute for International Affairs, arguing that TV4 and Löwenmark had omitted that detail.
“Certainly, Iran's aim with the initiative was to influence the West, but the participants' motives were something else entirely,” Parsi noted, adding that Western governments used such interactions to strengthen their positions in nuclear negotiations with Iran.
He dismissed criticisms from some Swedish-Iranians over his alleged ties to the Islamic Republic, saying, “My ‘crime’ is that I refuse to follow their lead and don't paint everything related to the Middle East and Iran in bright colors consistent with their ideologies.”
Löwenmark responded in Expressen, challenging Parsi’s arguments. She argued that he acknowledged Iran’s intent to influence Western perspectives but failed to address leaked data showing that participants actively collaborated with Tehran’s interests through ghostwriting and other methods. She also noted his lack of transparency about how he joined the network or why he kept his participation hidden from colleagues.
“More importantly, he doesn’t seem to mind being part of a confidential circle convened by one of the world’s most brutal and repressive states,” she wrote. “It is inexplicable that he does not seem to realize the significance of the fact that the agenda of this secret network was not human rights, taxes, or welfare—but nuclear programs.”
Swedish MP says Parsi promoting Iran's interests
Swedish lawmaker Nima Gholam Ali Pour on Saturday accused Parsi of "promoting the interests of the Iranian regime", vowing to follow up his dismissal from taxpayer-funded the Swedish Institute for International Affairs at the Parliament as his employment is "completely unacceptable."
"If individuals like Rouzbeh Parsi—who sympathize with Sweden’s enemies—are to work at the Institute, why should the Swedish people fund such an organization? The Institute might as well reach out to the mullahs and ask for money," the Swedish MP of Iranian origin said in a post on his X account.
