Iran's president says protests have failed as resistance continues

Tehran [Iran], February 12: The nationwide protests, which have been directed by foreign countries, especially the United States, have failed, Iran's President EbrahimRaisi said on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"The Iranian people have made the foreign enemies' project of (promoting) unrest and a media war fail," Raisi said on Saturday. He said Iran has neutralized what he called another foreign-directed conspiracy and achieved another victory for the revolution.
However, the reality in Iran is different from what he portrayed.
While fewer street demonstrations are taking place, protests in other forms persist.
Among other things, more and more women are ignoring the headscarf requirement in public and thus the Islamic rules. In addition, there are increasing demands for a constitutional amendment and a referendum to determine the country's new political course.
Raisi again accused foreign countries - namely the US - of directing and financing the protests. According to Raisi, foreign portrayals of the role of women in Iran are also simply wrong.
Women are free and represented in all top positions, he said, but unlike in the West, they are "not marketed as objects." Moreover, in Iran, the family is in the foreground and not issues such as homosexuality, Raisi added.
"This (homosexuality) nullifies the status of the family and ultimately erases the human generation," the cleric said.
Sex between members of the same sex is illegal in Iran and can be punished with the death penalty.
Raisi's government faces more than political unrest. Economically it is in the worst crisis in Iranian history. The national currency, the rial, has continued to plummet in value and there is no improvement in sight. Because of the violent crackdown on protesters, further sanctions have been imposed on the theocracy, leading to the country's international isolation.
The protests were sparked when a Kurdish-Iranian woman died in police custody after allegedly improperly wearing her headscarf. The demonstrations were initially directed against the clothing requirement, but have expanded. Demonstrators now want the entire Islamic system abolished and replaced with a secular democracy.
Human rights activists estimate that more than 500 people have been killed and nearly 20,000 protesters arrested since the protests began in September 2022.
Amid protests critical of government, celebrations for the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution were held, with the state broadcaster IRIB reporting millions of people at state-organized rallies on Saturday in Tehran and other cities.
In February 1979, an uprising under revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led to the collapse of the monarchy.
On the anniversary of the revolution, Iran's head of state Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pardoned tens of thousands of prisoners. Among them are said to be demonstrators who had been imprisoned during the recent wave of protests.
Source: Qatar Tribune