Growing Iran’s uprising means appealing to those still sitting on the fence

Many Iranians remain religious – or at least culturally and socially conservative – even if they are disgusted by the abuses, corruption and profound incompetence of the regime, writes Borzou Daragahi

The act of targeting someone wearing clerical garb and walking down the street minding their own business is not a good look for the opposition (AFP via Getty Images)

The young men and women almost tip-toe up to the clerics, sometimes from behind, and sometimes sidling up beside them. Then, in a gesture that combines irreverence, contempt and perhaps a strong dash of juvenility, they knock the mullah’s turban off his head.

The Iranian internet is full of such video clips, showing young people getting their own bit of revenge against the clerics who have lorded over them for decades. You can’t blame the kids, or even the millions of Iranians in the country and in the diaspora cheering them on.

Iran’s clergy generally deserve the humiliation. Supreme leader Ali Khamenei, his clerical adjutants in the various branches of government and their craven hangers-on have been bullying Iranians for nearly 44 years. They have regularly abused citizens like 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose death while in the custody of morality police triggered the ongoing seven-week uprising. The clerics have pilfered the country’s wealth for their own ends. They have turned Iran into a pariah that is mistrusted by its neighbours and avoided by all but other rogue states.