During recent months, Iran’s society has experienced an unprecedented acceleration in sociopolitical crises. These conditions put the regime in a tougher and tighter state.
The fact is authorities are unable to resolve any problem in this status quo, which resulted in raising and emerging catastrophic conditions. In other words, rulers’ mismanagement and irresponsible policies led the country to a deeper rift between the people and the mullahs.
After downing the Ukrainian passenger airliner by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) anti-aircraft system, officials vehemently rejected any skepticism about the IRGC’s involvement.
However, three days later, the same officials initially competed to evade consequences of the drama when the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Amir Ali Hajizadeh admitted the truth. The history of lying and concealing is as old as the regime’s lifetime but Hajizadeh’s admission concluded to more rift between the governing system and those who are governed.
Even though, today the regime’s advocates warn each other about the bipolarization of the “country” in many sectors, including political, social, economic, and cultural. In this respect, the mullahs relentlessly try to mobilize their forces loyal to the regime to disguise this truth. However, they frankly announce that their goal from holding several governmental ceremonies such as Qassem Soleimani’s funeral, Friday prayer ceremony, and parliamentary elections is to drag the people in front of cameras and boast about “popular support” for the regime.
What Are the Attributes of Bipolarization in Iran?
Bipolarization is a normal phenomenon in democratic states. As we witness, the competition among different nominees is escalating while the United States approaches to the presidential elections. However, when we look at the Iranian regime, its officials are wholeheartedly concerned about the bipolarization of society.
They are genuinely terrified of the consequences of the explosion of their mismanagement, plunder, corruption, and more importantly their crimes against innocent people like what they have committed last November against barehanded protesters.
On the other hand, bipolarization in Iran deepens the distance between society and the ruling system. Moving forward, the regime has different choices, but all of them have a common ending.
On the one hand, they can resort to foreign powers to maintain their rule, which translates to contributing the national wealth to the benefit of foreigners. On the other, they can resort to aggression and warmongering in the region and export terrorism to European soil and even the U.S., which will further lead to their isolation.
In such circumstances, “reformist” politicians are making effort to incite the ordinary people, who recently lost 1,500 of their youths and teenagers, to come to the ballot boxes in upcoming parliamentary elections.
Abbas Abdi, well-known ally of regime president Hassan Rouhani, raises the alarm about the acceleration of deepening rift between the people and the regime. He describes this state as a “great challenge” toward the government and immediately tries to downplay its political importance by portraying this challenge as “psychological tension.”
“Tolerating of this scale of psychological tension is not only too hard for ordinary people but is also unimaginable for political activists. This is a warning… The people will confront these issues on various fronts, they will look at the future with despair,” Abdi wrote in Shahrvand newspaper on January 21.
Significantly, these days, every development is driving the regime’s supporters away from the mullahs, which deeply frightens the regime’s authorities. “Another problem is the extreme bipolarization of society; in the short distance from the November events to the assassination of Commander Soleimani and his funeral, then the events of Kerman, the attack on the US base, then the plane crash and subsequent protests, and now escalating tensions in foreign relations. There is a dangerous bipartization in the heart of society. Some people’s speeches on air invite others to leave the country. Additionally, artists’ protests and boycotting the official programs and some responses indicate that the ‘society’ is going to be more bipolarized. A bipolarized society has no place for ordinary citizens. Therefore, it leads the ordinary people toward a specific pole and confronts the opposite pole,” the same newspaper published.
Economic and Political Issues Fuel Bipolarization
The consequences of the regime’s failure in deterring the society from bipolarization are reflecting in citizens’ livelihoods, which worsens daily. Dissidents describe the mullah’s mismanagement as an economic crime along with a political one. These conditions pave the way for the creation of numerous crises in different areas of social life. However, the mullahs are lying about the reasons for these crises as they have lied over other issues over the past 40 years.
Now, foreign powers, as well as the Iranian people well, grasp that adventurism of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei is the root of Iran’s problems, in particular, economic ones. For four decades, the mullahs’ regime squandered the Iranian people’s properties to establish a “Shiite Crescent.” These days, the people are challenging this costly policy and reject it in their protests across the country. Both in November and January, youths chanted the slogans, “Leave Syria and think about us,” “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my life is only for Iran,” and “Death to Khamenei.”
The fact is Khamenei’s adventurism, as his predecessor Ruhollah Khomeini, boosted extremist proxies in the Middle East at the expense of Iranians who struggle hard to make ends meet. In this context, Iranian officials are concerns about society’s more reactions and blame each other about the revelation of the scope of corruption and plunder under the pretext of “export the revolution.”
Which Pole Is Stronger?
During recent weeks, the regime’s propaganda apparatus recklessly attempted to publicize that the mullahs enjoy dramatical support among Iranians and even regional people. It made many films in this regard and tried to portray Soleimani’s funeral as a unique occasion. Also, different officials honestly say their goal of elections is the same goal of Khamenei, which is dragging poor people on the ballot boxes.
However, these efforts unveil that in these circumstances the pole that tries to remove the mullahs from power is more popular, stronger. Otherwise, why is the regime’s propaganda trying to show the regime has a strong backing? Meanwhile, this regime’s apparatus endeavors to persuade Iranian viewers and affect Iran’s society not foreign or international policies. Particularly, whereas the people’s struggle being more radical and brave youths daily target the regime’s icons in different cities. Notably, the majority of the mullahs’ misinformation campaign targets the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) inside Iran and abroad.
In July, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the NCRI, mentioned the Iranian regime’s real concern is about the Iranian people and their organized resistance. “And we say and reiterate that if the regime’s claims are true, why it does not allow us to hold peaceful gatherings and demonstrations across Iran for one single day and only one day?” Mrs. Rajavi said in her speech at a conference held in Albania on July 13.
Source » irannewsupdate