The protests in Iran have been going on for more than two months, even though the regime is cracking down on its own people. What chances does the revolution of the Tiktok generation have? And how can the West support the demonstrators? Also by giving refugees protection status, says CDU leader Merz at Maybrit Illner.
In mid-September, a young Kurdish woman dies after being arrested by the Iranian vice squad. Anger at her death drives thousands of people onto the streets. And since then the protests have not stopped. It's no longer just about the dress code. It is the third time in fifteen years that the Iranian regime has faced unrest. But this protest is different. For the first time, the mullahs' regime in Tehran seems unable to get the protests under control. Iran could be facing a revolution. What does this mean for the west? And how can Western countries support the protesters? The guests discuss this with Maybrit Illner on ZDF.
Women's rights activist Alice Schwarzer is particularly annoyed by the West's inaction. Half of Iran's population is oppressed by the regime. You have to help these people. She calls on filmmakers in particular to do this. But politicians must also act. Iran, of all places, is a member of the UN Commission on Women's Rights, says Schwarzer. "The State Department must do everything it can to put an end to this disgrace," she demands, adding: "We didn't just look the other way, we made this terror regime socially acceptable. We supported it for far too long."
The appearance of the young photographer Ghazall Abdollahi is impressive. She recounts the demonstrations she took part in and the police threats she faced. "Support the people who put their lives on the line again and again," she says. "One should isolate the Iranian regime, one should not negotiate with it. I wish Iran would become a free country." She demands that the West should give people who are currently having to flee the Islamic Republic the opportunity to learn and study so that they can prove their skills.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz also admires the courage of women in Iran. "We're probably just realizing what freedom is and that we have this freedom. But freedom also includes the responsibility that we accept these people here and give them the protection status that allows them to stay to study and work. That is a humanitarian obligation," says Merz. And he agrees with Green leader Nouripour, who complains that support for the demonstrators and the fight against the mullahs' regime in Tehran are progressing too slowly. Many decisions were made in the EU. "We agree that the European Union needs to move faster," he says. Nevertheless, he is pleased about the sanctions that have been imposed on Iran in Brussels. "This is a step in the right direction."
Nouripour, Merz and the human rights activist Düzen Tekkal agree on one thing: The regime in Iran is dangerous, and not only for the people who want to speak their minds in Iran. In this country, too, people would be threatened. In fact, the federal prosecutor is currently examining whether he is investigating attacks on three synagogues. The perpetrator is said to have come from Iran and fled there again. "We are dealing here with a political Islam and with an aggressive anti-Semitism that is spreading throughout Europe," says Merz.
"I believe that the appeasement policy of the last 43 years has meant that the Iranian regime has been able to murder secretly here in Europe, too," says activist Tekkal. In Europe, a turning point must also begin in Iran policy. It is unacceptable that an entire Tiktok generation in Iran is "simply jumping over the blade." The regime in Tehran is murdering its own people, whose courage it is thanks to "that we are confronted with a new reality of life in Iran, and it hurts." Tekkal continues: "If the process of rethinking doesn't start now, then when? If you want to put the unjust mullah regime, the murderous regime, the medieval regime in its place, then you have to isolate it as much as possible."
Tekkal calls for the focus of politics to be on the people of Iran, on all people. To this end, she calls for human rights-based sanctions against the regime.
For them there is also an opportunity in the unrest: They are not driven by religion. "We're talking about Generation Z here, which is non-religious and pro-Western," she says. These people wanted nothing to do with the regime in Tehran. "This regime has basically failed ideologically, and Europe must finally understand that. The regime is under pressure like never before in its entire 43-year history." The West will have to look for new allies in the Middle East. Tekkal hopes that this could include Iran as well as Israel one day.
