A woman raises her fist as she’s engulfed by a cloud from a smoke grenade during a protest at the University of Tehran on Dec. 30. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Some of the most inspiring images of the new year — and therefore, in this age of Trump, some of the least noticed — have come from Iran. In sometimes grainy photos and videos posted on the Internet, Iranian women are seen standing atop utility boxes on busy streets, silent and alone, having taken off their mandatory head coverings and holding them up on sticks. At least 29 women have been arrested for these astounding displays of courage and defiance, which risk a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
The women’s demonstrations began during a week of mass protests across Iran beginning in late December, driven not by the country’s educated elite but its working class. The discontent started with rising prices for eggs, but by the time the demonstrations ended, the slogans included“death to the dictator” and “leave Syria,” where the Revolutionary Guard Corps is squandering money and lives.
No, it’s not likely that Iran is on the brink of a revolution that will overthrow a regime that has been the source of so many U.S. strategic problems. But this new season of unrest in the Persian heartland ought to change some calculations in Washington about how best to push back against Tehran’s aggressions across the Middle East — and what to think about the nuclear deal that President Trump is threatening to tear u
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