Three days after Iran’s morality police detained 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini on September 13, 2022, for failure to cover her hair properly, her family retrieved her corpse from Tehran’s Kasra hospital. Protests erupted at her funeral in Iranian Kurdistan and spread rapidly across the country, becoming the largest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Importantly, the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests became Iran’s first movement led by women of all social classes, from the elites of Tajrish to the poor of Islamshahr, from Kurds like Jina to Persian nationalists in the center of Tehran, and from high school students to grandmothers.
In his monograph, Harounoff, a British-Iranian journalist, who now serves as spokesman for Israel’s UN mission, masterly delves into the history of the protest movement. His writing is clear, flowing, and accessible. He approaches his subject with a reporter’s eye while delving deeply into it.
Unveiled recounts the Islamic Republic’s repression of both women and ethnic minorities. Harounoff sketches the history of protest in Iran, correctly showing how Islamists hijacked the 1979 Revolution as well as how Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini proceeded to purge more nationalist elements from his broad but fissiparous anti-shah coalition. In rapid succession, Harounoff then details the 2009, 2017, and 2019 protests, each of which had a diverse spark that shook the Islamic Republic.
Harounoff’s exploration of social media in Iran makes Unveiled important to the specialist. He shows how key posts and videos became force multipliers for channeling dissent against the regime. He also describes the uses of VPNs and secure platforms, such as Telegram, and details the aftermath of the protests largely ignored by Western media: continued spontaneous demonstrations, arbitrary arrests, and executions.
A separate chapter highlights the arts, music, and dance, so important to Iran’s cosmopolitan culture. While American diplomats discuss sanctions and the military strikes of Pentagon games, Harounoff shows the importance of symbolism: for example, the US soccer team having removed the Islamic Republic’s emblems from the Iranian flag and then defeating Iran 1-0 in the 2022 World Cup.
Harounoff concludes by exploring the perfect storm in which the regime now finds itself. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, 86, is unwell. The public is restive, and the regime’s previous tactics of distraction or temporary social relaxation no longer work. A brain drain cripples the country’s future. The opposition, however, remains beset by division and infighting, undermining its hopes of leading regime change, even as it succeeds in delegitimizing the Islamic Republic.
