On September 16, 2022, a squad of Iranian police officers tasked with the enforcement of Islamic

public morality, arrested, a 22-year-old Iranian woman of Kurdish background named Masa Amini.

She was brought in on charges of breaching the dress code, requiring women to don a head covering

known as a hijab. While in police custody, she died, and suspicion that she was beaten by Iranian

forces and died as a result of her abuse,

combined with the widespread public view that she was accosted unjustly to begin with,

have catalyzed widespread protests in scores of cities and towns across Iran.

This is not the first time that Iranians have protested their own government,

and the question before us now is how these protests relate to those that came before and the

prospects of the current protests for fundamental reform. Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host,

Jonathan Silver. There are any number of very smart academics and analysts of Iran who have built their careers

on scholarship.

But today I'm joined by a young man who was born and grew up there, who grew into a green

movement democracy activist in the aftermath of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election in 2009, who

eventually felt compelled to leave his home and apply for

political asylum in the United States. Shea Kateri has written for us at Mosaic. He's also written

at the Wall Street Journal, The Bullwark, National Review, and several other publications of note.

Now, he joins us to discuss the political context of the current protests

in Iran and where they might lead. If you enjoy this conversation, you can subscribe to the

Tikva podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify. I hope you'll leave us a five-star

review to help us grow this community of ideas. I welcome your feedback on this or any of our

other podcast episodes at ticfund.org. And of course, if you're interested in more of our work at

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