Iran’s Government Fears the Country’s Third Generation

In recent days, the Iranian state-run media showed their fear of Iran’s new generation. What is the nature of this fear?

The story began when the state-run daily “Sobh-e-Sadegh”, the Journal of the Political Deputy of the Revolutionary Guards, on March 7, under the title “The Z generation and the Future of Iran” investigated the characteristics of the new generation born in Iran from 2000 onwards.

This daily wrote: “Investigating some of the indexes of this generation, especially in cyberspace, shows that they are not as easily governable as the previous generation; because this generation contrary to previous generations mainly have a passion to protest against the status quo.”

It added: “The neglect of this generation has provided the ground for part of this generation to become a serious threat to the cultural and even political system of the country. This generation considers its problems to be due to the decisions of previous generations, so it quickly moves on the path to obtaining new decisions. This can be well abused by the political and cultural enemies of the government.”

It pointed to the government’s failure to have control of the internet and wrote: “A significant part of young people and adolescents are present in cyberspace, which is essentially opposed to the Islamic Revolution.”

So, this daily considered the main part of the country’s youth to be in the ‘hands of the enemy’, and it warned that the government ‘should find a solution to fix and deal with the threat ahead.”

In analyzing these comments, some points are significant:

1. It is considered that this generation is a protesting and rebellious generation which does not tolerate the rule of the regime’s supreme leader anymore.
2. The government has no control and surveillance over this generation.
3. In front of the regime’s oppression, they are in a position of protest.
4. They pose a serious threat to the future of the Iranian regime.
5. This generation can join the side of the ‘enemy’, which for the regime is a mainly a reference to the main opposition the MEK as well as the NCRI.
6. Despite the regime’s oppression and intelligence and police and military control, this new generation is synced with other youth around the world and are developing mentally and gaining the world’s accepted human values and want to establish it in Iran.

But this is not the end of the story. In a short time of 10 days, another government paper the Jahan-e-Sanat daily on March 16 in an article entitled, “Does the third generation of the revolution has the nature of protest?” showed its concern and analyzed it.

It criticized the article of the Sobh-e-Sadegh and said that this paper “does not go to the rules of the causes and it has not stated what is the reason of the third generation’s current state.”

“Why is it recognizing the current conditions of the third generation in the present time and paying attention and making this public?” or “is there another goal about the analysis and its publication in this situation?”

It suggested some of the reasons about the special situation of the third generation and wrote: “The current situation on the third generation’s conditions have other reasons, and it is nothing but our passivity in responding to the needs of the third generation”, and “this generation is constantly disrupting social norms.”

Analyzing the facts of this paper shows some significant points:

1. The government did not try to discover the reasons for the situation of the third generation.
2. The special situation of this generation is related to the oppression by the government.
3. This was not a good time for expressing and speaking and even writing about this generation.
4. The government not only did not answer the necessities of this generation but oppressed them in any situation.
5. This generation in the views of this regime are a generation who constantly disrupt social norms.

Both papers fail to mention the main reason for the current volatile situation in Iran and especially the third generation’s situation, which, according to opposition activists, is the actions of the regime itself.