Iran is undergoing an identity crisis. For almost a month, in streets and neighborhoods across the country, people have rebelled against the Islamic Republic, calling for the death of its supreme leader and an end to the theocratic regime’s 43 years of rule, after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of Tehran’s morality police. The protests are mostly led by young women and teenage girls, who have abandoned their state-imposed religious headscarves in rejection of the very premise of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and the theocracy it birthed.
The nature and scope of the protests have made many wonder whether this could be another revolution—one that could topple the Islamic Republic and replace it with a more liberal and representative democracy. The success or failure of the current movement in engendering change in Iran could depend on any number of factors, but the primary obstacle standing in the protesters’ way is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the 1979 revolution’s most potent offspring. In that earlier revolution, it was the Iranian military’s decision to declare neutrality and stand down that signaled the end of the Pahlavi dynasty, setting Iran on a new course. The IRGC, by contrast, was designed precisely to stand with the regime no matter what—even if that means standing against the people.
