Who are the protesters in Iran and what do they want?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 4 January 2018
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Twenty people have been killed and hundreds arrested after a series of protests in Iran this week - but what's behind these demonstrations?
Iran is a strategically important country and so when protests happen, the world takes notice - but who are the protesters and what do they want? And how will the Iranian government and the outside world respond?
CONTRIBUTORS
Roham Alvandi, Associate Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science
Behrang Tajdin and Jiyar Gol, reporters for the BBC Persian Service
Hassan Hakimian, Director of the Middle East Centre at SOAS, University of London.
Azedor Moaveni, Iranian writer
Producer: Jim Frank
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. You open the auditory door, you come in, |
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| 0:15.8 | you can think of, really. And a thanks to those of you who've recently reviewed us, including |
| 0:20.3 | Joanna, |
| 0:21.2 | Vite Vujig, Vince B, I. I see Mac, Adam Zax, |
| 0:25.3 | Claude Verde, Dr. Stardust, Bear Gwills. |
| 0:28.7 | Look, I didn't write this. |
| 0:30.0 | And O'NR, keep them coming. |
| 0:32.5 | And if you enjoy this, you might enjoy other editions of the briefing room, |
| 0:35.4 | particularly given the news, our podcast from last year about NHS funding. |
| 0:40.5 | In this edition, I'm getting briefed on Iran. |
| 0:43.2 | Why are the latest protests happening? |
| 0:45.2 | Who are the protesters? |
| 0:46.8 | And how will the authorities respond? |
| 1:10.4 | Music That was Ardabil in North East Iran earlier this week, but it could have been any one of a large number of towns and cities. |
| 1:15.2 | So far, 21 people have been killed, perhaps over 1,000 have been arrested. |
| 1:20.4 | Iran is a strategically important country with a violent recent history, |
| 1:24.0 | so when big process happened there, the world takes notice. |
| 1:29.4 | There were last large numbers of people on the streets in 2009, mostly in the capital Tehran. So what's going on this time? Who are the protesters and what do they want? And how will |
| 1:35.6 | the Iranian government react and how might the outside world respond? Step into the briefing room |
| 1:41.3 | to find out. |
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