I've been studying, you know, Iranian history going back all the way to the dawn of the 20th century. KELLY: As an Iranian, what's it been like to watch everything happening today in Iran from outside - from afar?ĪSLAN: I've been watching Iran for 40 years now. We have the ability to make sure that the cries for freedom that are coming out of Iran are actually heard and responded to by insisting that the Iranian government pay a price for this brutal crackdown. But the truth is is that we have something even more powerful than guns and weapons. That's not really, of course, possible today, nor is it advisable. What parallels do you see there?ĪSLAN: Well, of course, in 1906, people came from all over the world with guns and bombs and actually physically joined the revolution.
KELLY: The other big takeaway that you see is what the rest of the world does - how the rest of the world is watching and responding. In 1906, in 1953 and in 1979, these three groups were able to come together, and that coalition is what ultimately resulted in radical change in the Iranian government. And then, most crucially, the business class - the merchant class - the bazaari merchants. And I'm talking not about the grand ayatollahs, but sort of the mid-level clerics and the seminary students. But the ones that had been able to elevate from protests to revolutions were the ones that were able to bring in a coalition of the educated middle class - the clerics who maintain an enormous amount of control and power over the pious masses in Iran. People who have been watching Iran or who understand Iranian history know that there have been countless uprisings and popular protests over the last hundred years or so.
The first is about that you need a diverse coalition of people for anything to change. KELLY: But you argue - you come away from this and say, there's kind of two main lessons that you think we could learn from what was happening in Iran during the Constitutional Revolution more than a century ago.
And in each one of those revolutions, just like today, women were at the forefront. This was the first democratic revolution in the Middle East, and it was the first of three major revolutions that Iran has experienced over the course of the 20th century. KELLY: So tell me, briefly - what was happening in Iran around 1905, 1906? Who was protesting and why?ĪSLAN: In 1905, a band of educated, young revolutionaries poured out onto the streets of Iran, backed by the clergy and by the business interests in order to demand the creation of a constitution that would outline the rights and privileges of all citizens and, of course, the creation of a parliament - an elected parliament that would be able to pass legislation and, in general, curtail the absolute authority of the shah. He argues it's the closest parallel to what is happening in Iran today. Aslan is writing there not about today but about a different moment in Iranian history - one most Americans have probably never heard of - the Constitutional Revolution of 1905. In a new piece for Time magazine, Aslan writes about women throwing off their veils, cropping their hair and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with men to fight. Iranian American writer Reza Aslan has been pondering the moment. Coming up on a month after Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran's so-called morality police, Iranians continue to protest in the streets of cities and towns across the country.
Women and girls in Iran are still not backing down.
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