Whose Revolution Is It?

The stakes and the bloodshed continue to mount by the minute. An interesting take on the demographics of those who are filling the streets of Tehran, suprisingly it's the same sort of folks who led the Revolution in '79.

From the New Yorker...

Iran has a traditional and a modern lower class, a traditional and a modern middle class, even a traditional and a modern élite. The new generation of activists (students, democrats, feminists, journalists) comes largely from the traditional lower middle class—the same demographic that brought us the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and no less authentic a part of the social fabric.

To dismiss these Iranians’ aspirations as the vain fancies of the isolated rich is insulting and misguided. Those élite North Tehranis have not been the ones populating rallies and prison cells. That work has been done by those whose lives are difficult and dangerous enough to feel that change is urgent at any price.