The people of Iran have shown extraordinary bravery and courage over the past two months.
They should know they have the support of millions of people around the globe who admire the stand they have taken for freedom.
While these protests are indeed unprecedented in their scale and longevity, they are a continuation of an anti-regime trend that began in 2017 – and one which unifies all sections of Iranian society.
My Institute has been committed to raising global awareness of the growing chasm between the Iranian people and the increasingly hardline Islamist regime that has ruled over Iran for 43 years.
As Iranian protestors continue to risk their lives in greater numbers for the most basic freedoms, my Institute launches a new series of papers – in partnership with the research foundation, the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN) – that will confirm beyond doubt that these protests are about so much more than the right to – or not to – wear the hijab.
The evidence is overwhelming. The Iranian people have undergone a secularisation and liberalisation faster than any society in the Islamic world, despite having lived under the rule of Islamists for decades.
When polled in June 2020 and again in February 2022, our paper shows that Iranians – whether young or old, women or men, living in rural or urban areas – overwhelmingly disagree with the mandatory imposition of the hijab. And 84 per cent of those who oppose the compulsory hijab also want to live under a secular state; an aspiration that has proved impossible under this theocratic regime.
Despite the ongoing internet blackouts, killings and arrests, and credible accounts of kidnappings, torture and intimidation, the Iranian people are actively resisting and bravely continuing their protests on the streets. They show no signs of relenting. I have always said, and I stand by this more so today, that the
single most liberating event for the Middle East will come when the Iranian people finally have their freedom.
For the ordinary people of Iran, the values that many may describe as “Western” are in fact their own.
Neither they nor their country should be defined by the Islamic Republic. As a great people, whose
history and civilisation are rich and varied, it is they and they alone who should define their own future.
This is why I firmly believe it is in our interests today, in the West, to show our deep solidarity with the protestors risking their lives for what we so often take for granted.
It is time we in the West recalibrate our policy in a way that draws a clear distinction between the people of Iran and the Islamic Republic.
Our efforts should serve the former.
Tony Blair, Executive Chairman
They should know they have the support of millions of people around the globe who admire the stand they have taken for freedom.
While these protests are indeed unprecedented in their scale and longevity, they are a continuation of an anti-regime trend that began in 2017 – and one which unifies all sections of Iranian society.
My Institute has been committed to raising global awareness of the growing chasm between the Iranian people and the increasingly hardline Islamist regime that has ruled over Iran for 43 years.
As Iranian protestors continue to risk their lives in greater numbers for the most basic freedoms, my Institute launches a new series of papers – in partnership with the research foundation, the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN) – that will confirm beyond doubt that these protests are about so much more than the right to – or not to – wear the hijab.
The evidence is overwhelming. The Iranian people have undergone a secularisation and liberalisation faster than any society in the Islamic world, despite having lived under the rule of Islamists for decades.
When polled in June 2020 and again in February 2022, our paper shows that Iranians – whether young or old, women or men, living in rural or urban areas – overwhelmingly disagree with the mandatory imposition of the hijab. And 84 per cent of those who oppose the compulsory hijab also want to live under a secular state; an aspiration that has proved impossible under this theocratic regime.
Despite the ongoing internet blackouts, killings and arrests, and credible accounts of kidnappings, torture and intimidation, the Iranian people are actively resisting and bravely continuing their protests on the streets. They show no signs of relenting. I have always said, and I stand by this more so today, that the
single most liberating event for the Middle East will come when the Iranian people finally have their freedom.
For the ordinary people of Iran, the values that many may describe as “Western” are in fact their own.
Neither they nor their country should be defined by the Islamic Republic. As a great people, whose
history and civilisation are rich and varied, it is they and they alone who should define their own future.
This is why I firmly believe it is in our interests today, in the West, to show our deep solidarity with the protestors risking their lives for what we so often take for granted.
It is time we in the West recalibrate our policy in a way that draws a clear distinction between the people of Iran and the Islamic Republic.
Our efforts should serve the former.
Tony Blair, Executive Chairman
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Laimonas Stoncius
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