The telltale signs that Iran's mullah regime losing its grip on power

In 1979, the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Shah, the last Shahan Shah or the king of kings of Pahlavi dynasty. Since then, the Mullah regime has been deep enmity with USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia. The government is split into wings. One wing comprises with elected officials and the other one is non-elected clerics who have the final say in every decision, but the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the ultimate say on state matters.

So in the recent protests, the angry and upset demonstrators showed their utter disregard to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by desecrating and trampling on his portrait. They chanted ''Death to the dictator''. The violent unrests and demonstrations took place in almost every town and city all across the country. They protested against the rising food prices, high unemployment, political and economic corruption.

The general discontent was over poverty, skyrocketing food prices, high inflation, and slashing of some social works, and also exorbitant fuel prices as the country is abundant with oil. When people live below poverty line, demonstration, unrest, violent protest take place in every society and Iran is no exception.

High prices of essential commodities put families in constant concerns about their day to day life. The middle class working people are affected by the dire-economic situations. Many of the protesters, who are doctors and engineers, participated in the demonstrations with the working class people. The adult unemployment rate is more than 12% and youth unemployment rate is more than double of that. If people had work and food on their table they would not come out to the streets. They wanted to have a better living standard and job after graduation. The Protesters were against the government's raising taxes and against the budget. They have said they were tired of elected government's lies and deception.

The middle-class Iranians are very much fed up with how Iran has been intervening in the internal politics of Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, Palestine and Bahrain. They see lots of their resources getting funneled off to those countries. They find their essential commodities going up due to cutting off subsidizes on them. When they cannot put food on their table due to high inflation, they don't care what is going on in Gaza and Palestine or other parts of Arabia.

The Mullah regime of Iran contributes hundreds of millions of dollars in its proxy wars all across the Middle East. During the protests, it restricted on the internet and put blames on its enemy countries such as USA, UK and Saudi Arabia for the unrests in the country. These were the typical accusations. President Hassan Rouhani, who won two elections, could not keep his election promises. The elected officials came to power to eliminate poverty and corruption but basking in happiness. It is humorously said that top mullahs and elected officials hide their ill-earned money under their long robes.

No US administration has been a fan of Iran and its people and neither is Trump admiration. Trump called Iran is a terrorist nation. The political analysts believe that very few Iranians care what Trump says about Iran and Iranian people. During the recent protests, he openly fanned the protests and urged them via his multiple tweets to overthrow the theocratic regime.

They knew the Trump's true intentions. So his tweets were not taken by the protesters as a gesture of goodwill towards them but the regime used them as tools to convince the demonstrators about Trump's hand in destabilizing Iran. The anti-government protesters don't like a theocratic government in Tehran and don't have any illusions about Trump who displayed a number of treacle tweets about them to topple the mullah regime. Maybe Trump wanted to make Iran another Iraq or Afghanistan.

Trump talks about human rights violation in Iran but being silent about how human rights violations taking place in other Arab countries. He was actually shedding crocodile tears for the hungry and angry Iranians because, in the recent past, he threatened to cancel Iran Nuclear Deal if it was not strengthened. His administration imposed sanctions on many Iranian companies and individuals suspected of supporting foreign armed groups and its involvement in Iranian missile program.

Many private banks became bankrupt because of sanctions and many hundreds of people lost their jobs. Iran's growth rate is around 4% which comes from oil export and no foreign investment comes in due to sanctions. Foreign investors, who can create jobs inside the country, are not interested in coming in due to the sanctions.

Most of the demonstrators are not only against the Mullah regime but also against its morality police who enforce moral behavior and dress code on the women. Though the protests began against exorbitant egg and bread prices and ended up with some gains against the mullah regime. Before the theocratic regime of 1979, the Iranian women had the full freedom regarding their clothing choices.

They would wear the skirt in public place and use bikini in beaches and swimming pools. The Women protesters showed their resentment and anger against women's forceful veils wearing. Iran became a cradle of civilization. Its women would not wear veils until 1979 revolution. The beautiful Iranian women love to show their beauty and wavy hear in the party and public places. After the revolution, the mullah regime enforced veils on the women. In Toronto, I have the opportunity to meet with numerous Iranian women who hardly wear any sort of veils.

Now religious leaders say that if a woman is found not wearing veils won't be arrested. It is a great victory over the morality police who would dictate women about their clothes and behavior in the public places. The majority of protesters showed their resentment against their bad economic conditions instead of the establishment. If the regime doesn't take some actions to fulfill the popular demands by reforming its policies, the country will be noticing more unrest and violent protests in the future. For some obvious reasons, the USA praised the anti-government unrests but downplayed the economic reasons for the unrests.

Thank God, in the recent protest, 23 protesters got killed but in 2009; it is believed that hundreds of protesters got killed in clashes with the police. It is ostensibly true that US sanction against Iranian companies and individuals has been taking its tolls on Iran's economy. The Iranians are divided over many issues and they have common resentment against the mullah regime which will have to address some of the issues, or the future path doesn't seem brighter.

The writer, a Bangladeshi freethinker,  is based in Toronto, Canada