美国国家公共电台 NPR--Why authorities can't quell the protests in Iran

Why authorities can't quell¹ the protests in Iran

Transcript²

NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Professor Nahid Siamdoust of the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Middle Eastern Studies about large popular protests in Iran.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A protest that began over women's headscarves in Iran represents something more. Iranian authorities have tried for days to stop demonstrations³ after a woman died in police custody⁴. Instead, the protests have grown. And we have a perspective today on why that would be. We called Nahid Siamdoust. She's a former journalist who covered Iran and now teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, which means she can speak more freely than many in Iran can. She has followed the story of Mahsa Amini, a woman who traveled to the capital city, Tehran.

NAHID SIAMDOUST: She was coming off the subway with her brother and was arrested by the morality police, taken into a van and taken to a detention⁵ center.

INSKEEP: She never came out of that center alive. The government has said little about the case, except that she collapsed⁶. The United States has said more. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions against the morality police.

SIAMDOUST: So the morality police are these committees in vans that are sent around Tehran and other cities to apprehend⁷ women who are in their view and the view of the government, not well-dressed. They don't have the proper hijab. Their hair isn't properly covered. Of course, if you look at the images of Mahsa Amini - and this is a debate that has happened since her killing⁸ - we see that she actually was wearing a very long coat and that had a - you know, everything black, had a pretty proper headscarf. So what proper hijab is very much depends on the sitting government.

INSKEEP: And in Iran, the sitting government has changed. Though clerics hold ultimate power, they allow carefully managed elections. President Ebrahim Raisi won the most recent vote. He's a longtime official, accused by the U.S. of past human rights abuses. And he's far more conservative than his predecessor⁹.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ABDULLA SHAHID: (Non-English language spoken).

INSKEEP: This week, Raisi spoke¹⁰ at the United Nations in New York, stepping to the lectern in black robes.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT EBRAHIM RAISI: (Non-English language spoken).

INSKEEP: And after wishing peace on the assembly in the name of God, he accused other countries of abusing human rights. He said Western nations apply a double standard to Iran. He did not detail what's happening back home. Nahid Siamdoust says his government has intensified¹¹ efforts at social control.

SIAMDOUST: And in recent weeks, Raisi's government has had a campaign of trying to sort of tighten¹² the screws on women's clothing in the public sphere, not least because over the last few years, Iranian women have started very slowly a bottom-up street campaign of just almost doing away with headscarves in some situations, in some locations in the city. So, you know, if you look at the last 40 years of Iranian sort of women's dress, you could almost kind of diagram from going, about in the '80s, long, dark clothes to gradually becoming shorter, tighter and more colorful.

INSKEEP: The government's effort to stop those trends is the backdrop of Mahsa Amini's death. And that wider story helps to explain why the protests spread so far.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).

SIAMDOUST: The first protests really happened around the hospital where she died, where Mahsa Amini passed away. And very soon, really, protests started happening in Kurdistan, sort of the province where she's from, and other cities started expressing solidarity¹³. People came into the streets and called her name, shouting slogans such as, I will kill the person who killed my sister, claiming her not as just any woman, but as somebody who could have been anyone's sister or daughter or niece or mother. She really came to represent this woman that any Iranian could relate to. And also, the kinds of display that we see of women burning their headscarves - there's something almost sort of, you know, I wouldn't say joyous¹⁴, but there's definitely something very defiant¹⁵ about the protests that we see.

INSKEEP: Why now, do you think?

SIAMDOUST: I think people are just fed up. The world has changed. Iran has changed. Iranians for the last decade have been very active on social media. Women have been asking for greater freedoms and greater rights, and the government hasn't really been listening. In fact, they've done the opposite. They've sort of securitized public spaces more and tried to clamp down even more severely¹⁶ on certain kinds of expressions of freedom. And, I think, coming on the heels of severe U.S. sanctions, where people have been really struggling economically, you know, on the heels of a pandemic that has affected¹⁷ everybody across the world, I think people are just fed up, and they just don't want to take it anymore.

INSKEEP: It sounds like this is about a lot more than headscarves.

SIAMDOUST: For sure. I mean, I think that in part because the government itself held on to the issue of the headscarf to the extent that it became a sort of central or core issue of identity for the Islamic republic. You know, the supreme¹⁸ leader of the country did have a speech where he said, you know, in the private space, women can do whatever they want. But we just say, in the public spaces, the hijab needs to be worn in a certain way that promotes public morality, right? And so they held on to the issue of the hijab as something that really defines the identity of the Islamic republic. And I think it's because of that that Mahsa Amini's killing could become a sort of lightning rod for attacking some of the core tenets of the state, as opposed to just be about the hijab.

INSKEEP: Nahid Siamdoust. Thanks so much.

SIAMDOUST: Thank you very much for having me.

INSKEEP: She's a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

INSKEEP: Now, while in New York this week, Iran's president, Ebrahim Raisi, had a scheduled interview. He was expected to talk with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. But she says the interview never happened after Amanpour declined a request to wear a headscarf.

1 quell   

v.压制，平息，减轻

参考例句：

• Soldiers were sent in to quell the riots.士兵们被派去平息骚乱。
• The armed force had to be called out to quell violence.不得不出动军队来镇压暴力行动。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

4 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

5 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

6 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

7 apprehend   

vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑

参考例句：

• I apprehend no worsening of the situation.我不担心局势会恶化。
• Police have not apprehended her killer.警察还未抓获谋杀她的凶手。

8 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

9 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 intensified   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
• The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 tighten   

v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧

参考例句：

• Turn the screw to the right to tighten it.向右转动螺钉把它拧紧。
• Some countries tighten monetary policy to avoid inflation.一些国家实行紧缩银根的货币政策，以避免通货膨胀。

13 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

14 joyous   

adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的

参考例句：

• The lively dance heightened the joyous atmosphere of the scene.轻快的舞蹈给这场戏渲染了欢乐气氛。
• They conveyed the joyous news to us soon.他们把这一佳音很快地传递给我们。

15 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

16 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

17 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

18 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。