Those of us who are Iran watchers for a long time, we've been pointing out that it doesn't actually take much for the regime to scare people off the streets.

What we're seeing this latest round is that they're actually much more willing to take risks.

You do have a regime that feels that this is part of a plot. I mean, they mention names,

countries specifically, how the U.S. is the mastermind, Israel is the tactician, the Saudis are

financing everything. They're pretty sure the media masters in terms of the soft power propaganda

war that's going on.

Hey, welcome back to the Modern War Institute podcast. I'm John Amble, editorial director at MWI,

and on this episode, I'm joined by Alex Vitanka. He is the director of the Iran program at the

Middle East Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, and the author of a recent book called

The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran. He joins to discuss the ongoing protests in

Iran, helping to place them in context and to add some really important nuance that must be

understood as we think about the events unfolding in the country today. Since mid-September,

when an Iranian woman died after being detained for improperly wearing her headscarf, protests have

gripped the country. But what sets these protests apart from previous periods in which

Iranians took to the streets to demonstrate against the regime? What are the fundamental

grievances driving them? And what are the possible outcomes and the likely ones from these

protests? Alex addresses these and other questions in a fascinating and insightful discussion.

Before we get to it, as always, a few quick notes.

First, I've got a favor to ask, wherever you're listening to this podcast, whether on

Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Tune In, Spotify, or any other app, if you're enjoying it, please

give it a rating or leave a review.

It really does help us to reach new listeners.

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