Iran Protests and the Exaggeration about Generation Z
The protests in Iran and the exaggeration about Generation Z. Those born in the 1920s to 1940s made up a significant portion of the revolutionary population of 1979. It was this generation that went to the war fronts. Those born in the 1950s and 1960s were the main carriers of political reforms from 1997 onward. After that, everyone was waiting to see what those born in the 1970s and 1980s would do, a wait that did not last long.
Now, the recent protest movement in Iran has been attributed to this generation, known as the 80s generation in Persian and Generation Z globally. But were the 80s generation really the main drivers of these protests? Has there been an exaggeration about them? How much do the claims align with reality?
Saeed Razavi Faghih, a political activist with a background in reformism, previously warned about potential dangers in his analysis of Iran’s socio-political situation and stated that soon the 80s generation would gain the ability to influence and create changes, turning everything upside down.
The results of a study conducted following the protests in December 2017 showed that besides political, economic, and social discontent, a new factor had been added to the causes of dissatisfaction for the first time, which was the deep generational gap in Iran.
The then Minister of Interior, Rahmani Fazli, had said that the generation that has now reached the age of political activism and has unlimited access to the world and its surroundings through the internet will act differently. The question was whether this generation is truly different from previous generations, who were highly political, or if they practice politics differently.
It wasn’t just the 80s generation on the streets.
Sociologist Ahmad Bokharaei, referring to his observations from the streets in the past month, writes that in my observations during this period, the presence of people on the streets did not recognize age or gender, and all groups, including men and women, were present. Part of this presence was attributed to the 80s generation and indeed had more visibility, but this does not mean that the 80s generation had a larger number in the protests compared to other age groups.
According to his writing, there is a relatively more or less normal distribution in terms of age groups, but because this age group had not previously taken to the streets and now has, and given their age, they are at the front lines, they stand out more. Naturally, the 80s generation, because it is their first time on the streets, shows less conservatism, and therefore, more boldness is seen in them.
Is Generation Z the only anti-charisma generation?
It is said that this generation is anti-charisma. Amanollah Gharayi Moghadam, a sociologist, has said about Generation Z and its impact on Iran’s political and social space that the new generation does not accept the charismatic, sacred, and leader-centric space in politics. As Scottish poet John Davidson puts it, young people shout that there is no action, no thought, no custom, and no sanctity that cannot be defied. The new generation is more radical than previous generations, and now that social media has exacerbated the intergenerational gap, the speed of changes is in no way comparable to the past.
It is said that this generation, in the words of Max Weber, has moved beyond charismatic figures and has reached a kind of rationalism in the political sphere. The experience of recent protests proved this: moving beyond charismatic figures and, more importantly, forming a resistance against the construction of any charisma model. Any figure has the potential, due to a mistake or a wave forming against them for any reason, to be distanced from becoming a charisma in the virtual space.
But was this anti-charisma action feature only related to Generation Z, or are we witnessing a convergence and implicit intergenerational agreement on this matter? Observations in the virtual space indicate that the second proposition is correct.
The Ever-Student Movement
Isn’t it true that a large part of the recent protests has been borne by the student movement in universities, and a large number of recent detainees were these active and inactive university students who protested and went on strike? Can it necessarily be said that these student protests are specific to Generation Z students?
Certainly not, and it cannot be labeled as a specific generational movement. Each generation has witnessed its own student movement, with characteristics, features, and demands aligned with its time. If the student movement of the 1940s was nationalist, the 1950s was strongly leftist, the 1960s took on a religious hue, and in the 1970s, it became liberal, influenced by the spirit of its era. More importantly, if the 80s generation was arrested off the streets,
all those detained at home and workplaces through security information surveillance were related to the political and social activists of the 1960s generation, among whom figures from the student movements of the 1970s and 1980s can also be seen.
This means that although the 80s generation is recognized as the brave operational force on the streets, the previous generation has been present as the theoretical or analytical arm in the virtual space, or at least from the security structure’s perspective, this has been the case, emphasizing that there is no systematic organized connection based on leadership body ideas between these two generations. This, while in a recent BBC interview with a few young people from the 80s generation, one of them believed that for them, not the reformist political activists, but Saeed Sokuei plays the role of an intellectual or leader and reference.
The protests in Iran began due to the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s morality police. Iran Gate has covered this issue extensively from the beginning. You can access these articles by searching for Mahsa Amini.
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