How are the “hijab revolutions” and “white sheets” similar in Iran and China

PThat’s why the protesters in the countries important to Russia have achieved different results. Two strategically important countries for Russia, Iran and China, are gripped by prolonged protests. So far, the demonstrators have achieved different results. What do these movements have in common, RBC understood

What are the

How the hijab law came into question

Over the weekend, world media reported that the Iranian authorities are ready to relax the rules that regulate the appearance of women in the country. On Saturday, according to The Guardian, the Prosecutor General of the Islamic Republic, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, said that the law on the mandatory wearing of the hijab in public spaces, in force almostforty years, can be revised. “Both the parliament and the judiciary are working [on the question] of whether any changes in the law are necessary,” the publication quotes him. According to Montazeri, the law analysis group has held consultations with the parliamentary commission on culture and a decision may be made in the coming weeks.

On December 3, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, speaking at the national conference, recalled that the Constitution of the republic fixes both the rights of citizens and the duties of officials. Supervision of the implementation of the Constitution is an effective tool through which rights holders can know what rights they have, and officials can understand,they observe their duties. “The Constitution contains principles and values, such as Republicanism, Islamism, independence and freedom, which are unchanged, but the methods and mechanisms for implementing the Constitution can be changed and improved, and if necessary, the mechanisms for implementing [the Constitution] can be revised,” Raisi quotes the Tehran Times.

This statement was perceived as a sign of possible changes in women’s rights and as an attempt to weaken the current protest movement aimed at this, writes The Wall Street Journal.

The next day, the Prosecutor General of Iran announced the dissolution of the so-called morality police, whose patrols control the wearing of hijab by women and monitor how their appearance meets the established norms. “The vice police has nothing to do with the judicial system and has been abolished,” Montazeri quotes Al Arabia. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken managed to comment on this decision, noting that the abolition of the policemorals « can be a positive thing». Later, Iran’s state television denied this information and announced that “no Iranian official has confirmed the closure of the vice police.” Montazeri’s words, the TV channel explained, were misinterpreted by foreign media. The VOA publication emphasizes that the vice police is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Iran and the country’s prosecutor General does not have the authority to declare its dissolution.

According to Euronews, on December 5, the status of the vice police remained uncertain. Not a single Iranian official has come forward with explanations; the TV channel has not been able to verify the status of the vice police. Journalists refer to analysts who repeat earlier statements that statements about the dissolution of the vice police could be an attempt by the authorities to weaken the protests without making real concessions.

As RBC wrote, demonstrations in Iran began in mid-September, after reports of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained by the vice police in Tehran for wearing the hijab incorrectly. A few hours after the arrest, the girl fell into a coma and died in the hospital without regaining consciousness. According to the official version, Amini died of a stroke and cardiac arrest, but her parents claim that the girl was healthy. Photos of Amini’s intubation in the hospital appeared online, and information began to spread that her death was the result of a beating in the department.

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Among the main demands of the protesters are not only the abolition of harsh rules regarding the appearance of women, but also calls for regime change, caused, among other things, by tough attempts to suppress the current protests. Two and a half months after they began, non-governmental organizations report almost 500 dead.

Why is China softening “zero tolerance”

Unlike Iran, the attacks in China are not so massive and decisive, but they also turned out to be quite sensitive for the authorities, since they received a wide response outside the PRC and were recognized as the largest after the events on Tiananmen Square in 1989. They were called the “revolution of white sheets” due to the fact that many protesters hold blank sheets of paper in their hands, not banners, so as not to be criminally punished for criticizing the authorities.

The Chinese began publicly demanding the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions after the death of ten people in a fire in the residential sector of Urumqi at the end of November. This metropolis was partially in one of the toughest lockdowns: 4 million residents of Urumqi were ordered not to leave their homes for 100 days. In the Chinese segmentthe Internet began to spread information that the cause of death of people were severe restrictions on movement: they were unable to get out of the building engulfed in fire because the exits were blocked. The city authorities denied this version, but their words did not stop the protests. Starting in Urumqi, they covered the largest cities of China.

As part of Beijing’s policy of “zero tolerance” for coronavirus, entire cities or their individual districts may be sent to a prolonged lockdown in the event of an increase in the number of new cases of the disease. Strict rules for testing and visiting public places have also been introduced. Nevertheless, since the third decade of November, there has been a strong increase in the incidence of COVID-19 in China, at least 30 thousand cases are recorded daily.

However, Beijing has gone to some easing of pandemic-related restrictions. Vice Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Sun Chunlan, who is responsible for implementing the strategy to combat the pandemic, said that the omicron variant is less dangerous than previous strains (such a statement was made from the mouth of a Chinese official for the first time). “The country is facingwith the new situation and new challenges in the field of prevention and control of epidemics, as the pathogenicity of the omicron strain is weakening, more people are being vaccinated, and experience in containing the virus is accumulating,” she said. The Deputy Prime Minister also announced measures to optimize testing, increase vaccination coverage and other innovations.

Earlier, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China proposed a strategy for vaccination of elderly people over 80 years old, calling for bringing the number of vaccinated with the first dose in this age group to 90%. After Sun’s statements, lockdown was canceled in several major cities, including Guangzhou, on November 30, and in Beijing, people with mild symptoms of infection were allowed to isolate themselves at home, which goes against the current protocol prescribing isolation in designated centers.

What do the protests in the two countries have in common

China and Iran, which have a reputation as authoritarian states that tightly control media and social networks, are long-standing allies on the world stage, united by strong trade, economic and political ties (China is Iran’s main trading partner). Both countries are seen as strategic allies of Moscow after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine. Experts believe that the protests that broke out in them have common features.

According to the Indian Express, the protests are similar in that the trigger in both cases was a situation that in other circumstances was of secondary importance. In Iran, the protests began in a small Kurdish town, where Mahsa Amini was from. Kurds are a national minority in Iran, and usually their problems do not get on the national agenda.Urumqi is also very disconnected from the rest of the country – it is the administrative center of Xinjiang Province with a predominantly Uighur Muslim population, of which Beijing has been accused of discrimination more than once. Indian Express stipulates that, despite the similarity of the conditions of the origin of the protests, it is impossible to predict whether they will develop according to the same scenario.

James Chin, professor of Asian Studies at The University of Tasmania, in an article for The Conversation, notes that the main driving force behind the protests in Iran and China was the youth, and the demonstrations themselves have an obvious social implication to solve specific problems. “Young people in China and Iran want political freedoms and reforms, they want their voices to beheard», — considers the Rank. He does not undertake to predict the options for the development of the protest movement in the two countries, but reminds that China has a proven system of suppressing protests. The expert also mentions the inability of other countries to influence what is happening in Iran and China, since the authorities of both countries can ignore the opinion of the rest of the world.

The Diplomat, on the contrary, notes that these peoples are at a “turning point” and that the further development of the situation depends on the level of international support provided to the protesters. According to the publication, democratic countries should try to establish contacts with the leaders of civil societies in Iran and China.

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