![]() The memory of the Arab Spring and its ultimate demise, embodied by Tunisia's backslide into authoritarianism, is on everyone's mind, activists and autocrats alike. Of course, the Arab Spring is the most relevant example of the protest domino effect, having impacted nearly every country in the MENA region. Across the globe, protest movements have spread across regions, including the Color Revolutions of the post-Soviet states and the more recent Latin American Spring. The occurrence of any large-scale anti-government protest in a country often raises questions of whether a domino effect will occur-in other words, whether the protest movement will spill into neighboring countries. The Struggle for Equality and Representation ![]() To understand the potential implications beyond Iran, Democracy in Exile asked a wide range of experts and observers, including DAWN's own non-resident fellows, the following question: What impacts could the protests in Iran have across the Middle East, both for pro-democracy and human rights activists in Arab countries and their widely repressive governments? How, then, could the ongoing protests in Iran be felt in those Arab countries, from neighboring Iraq to the monarchies of the Gulf? If recent history is any guide, are today's protests in Iran a harbinger of other protests in the Arab world, also seeking dignity and freedom? That description of Iran could apply to many Arab countries, where the suppression of women's rights also reflects broader limits on other basic political and human rights. These men, they feel, seem so separated from the people and yet they have colonized their lives." "People feel that a normal life has been denied to them by a regime of elderly clerical men. "It is as if a 'new Iran' has been born-a 'global Iran,' a collective of diverse people who are separated by geography but are very much together in feelings, in concerns and in dreams," sociologist Asef Bayat, who closely studies protest movements in the Middle East, told a Tehran daily. Those protests followed the mass demonstrations last week that marked 40 days since Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died in the custody of the so-called morality police in Tehran, which set off this revolutionary wave of anti-government protests, led by Iranian women under the banner of "Woman, Life, Freedom!" On Sunday, students at some of Iran's leading universities braved barrages of tear gas and live fire from security forces. Despite a widening crackdown, including an ominous ultimatum from the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps this past Saturday that it would be "the last day" of the protests, which he called "riots," defiant Iranians continue to take to the streets across the country.
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