"On January 9, anti-regime protests gripped Iran, and President Trump declared that the northeastern city of Mashhad had "fallen" to the opposition. I happened to be in Mashhad from December 26 to January 14. What I witnessed in those weeks was far more complex-certainly more complex than the American president's pronouncement, but also than the narratives originating either with state propaganda or opposition media."
"Mashhad is Iran's second-largest city and the spiritual capital of the Islamic Republic. It encompasses the burial place of Shiite Islam's eighth imam, Imam Reza. It also houses the tomb of Ferdowsi, the epic poet who preserved the Persian language and imagination through the "Shahnameh," and is the hometown of the current supreme leader. For these reasons and others, what happens in Mashhad reverberates across Iran, perhaps second only to events in Tehran itself."
Anti-regime protests surged in Mashhad amid sharp economic pain after government reforms caused prices of basic goods to spike and strained households. Nearly thirty percent of Iranians already lived below the poverty line, heightening public anger. Mashhad serves as Iran's spiritual capital, hosting the shrine of Imam Reza, the tomb of Ferdowsi, and the hometown of the supreme leader, giving the city outsized national significance. The observer, from nearby Herat and in Mashhad for research and diplomatic engagement, found the reality on the ground more nuanced than binary portrayals by political actors.
Read at The Atlantic
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