The ayatollah under the apple tree is one of the early images of the Islamic revolution. Grey-bearded Ruhollah Khomeini became a media star in the final months of his exile in a Paris suburb. The Shiite theologian received comrades-in-arms, diplomats and journalists in Neauphle-le-Château in the garden of his house, sitting under the said apple tree. International interest, solidarity and world sympathy fueled the uprising in Iran, eroding further ground from the Pahlavi regime, thus contributing to the victory of Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Today the world cares about Iran again. The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died at the hands of the vice police, the shots fired at demonstrators, women in the front row, two young Instagrammers who were apparently killed by police officers: outsiders cannot help, but they strengthen the protesters’ spirit The back. Whether they demonstrate in front of Tehran’s embassies worldwide or cut their hair in front of the camera – even these actions, which at first glance seem so helpless, deprive the rule of the Shiite theocrats of the last bit of legitimacy.
Far more important is what is happening in the country. The fire at Evin prison highlights the brutality with which the regime is responding. Political prisoners have been held in the notorious prison for decades; apparently many of the protesters are also being deported there. The gunshots, explosions and fire at Evin indicate that the inmates attempted a prison revolt. When it becomes known what happened – and it will become known – the likely bloodbath is likely to fuel the uprising. It is not individual misdeeds, but their often random sequence, that break the back of unjust regimes in the end. In the Islamic Republic there is now at least a chance that this will happen.