A fearless generation that breaks taboos

Thousands of young men and women, their hair uncovered, in jeans and T-shirts, jumped, danced and sang at a sold-out outdoor pop concert. In another part of town, young people bobbed their heads to the beat of a hard rock street band. And dozens of people crossed the city to experience Design Week, a festival of giant, colorful art installations, light shows and live music at multiple locations.

These are not scenes from New York or Berlin. This is Tehran, the capital of Iran, where young people have been leading a social renaissance in recent months. Last month, a five-day jazz festival transformed cafes and art galleries into concert stages.

This image is in stark contrast to that of just five years ago, when women could be beaten and dragged into police vehicles simply because a few strands of hair were sticking out of their headscarves, when security forces raided homes to break up house parties, and dancing in public places was banned.

“Society is changing extremely quickly, almost like shedding skin. In addition to opening up social space, we also have a fearless young generation that is breaking taboos,” said Donja Amiri, a 33-year-old fashion critic and designer from Tehran. “The young generation wants basic freedoms and they are getting them through sheer persistence.”

Numerous videos shared on social media, as well as interviews conducted with more than twenty Iranians - including artists, designers, musicians, entrepreneurs, students, as well as sociologists and political analysts - show the country in a vortex of citizen-driven change.

Political dissent remains intolerant, death sentences and executions are common, and security services arrested at least four academics, economists, and writers who publicly criticized the system in early November. Yet the government of President Massoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon who campaigned on the promise of greater social freedoms, appears unwilling, or unable, to confront the tide of change, perhaps fearing that repression could backfire and spark unrest.

The government is already facing crisis after crisis, from a difficult economic situation, to recovering from the war with Israel, to acute shortages of water and energy resources. Dance, at least briefly, relieves the darkness.

The celebrations are not limited to Tehran. Concerts and festivals are being held across the country, in cities and towns, attracting huge crowds. In Yazd, a religious and conservative city, there was a concert where the audience sang along to pop songs from the pre-revolutionary era, once banned. The city of Kerman hosted a marathon in the desert in October, in which men and women ran side by side; morning yoga classes and group exercises have become a common sight in many parks; street musicians, including women singing solos, are a common sight; hip-hop dancers have appeared in Shiraz and other cities; and spontaneous parties in cafes, such as the one in Karaj, and shopping malls with DJs are becoming a growing trend.

“We need to feel joy and happiness,” Parniya, a 26-year-old beautician, said in an interview from Tehran, asking not to be named for fear of reprisals. “I go to these concerts to listen to the music - while I’m there, I don’t think about the war or the conflicts, I’m completely in the moment and enjoying this special night.”

Political dissent remains largely unheeded, death sentences and executions are common, and security services arrested at least four academics, economists, and writers who publicly criticized the system in early November. Yet the government appears unwilling, or unable, to confront the tide of change.

In the desert near Isfahan, travel agencies are organizing rave parties where people dance around giant sculptures and bonfires, in the style of the Burning Man festival in the US state of Nevada. Tehran's Grand Bazaar, known as a stronghold of tradition, hosted a fashion show where models walked the red carpet in fur coats and cashmere scarves. In some restaurants in Tehran, wine is served discreetly, and a shot of vodka is secretly added to cocktails.

Musical theater, rarely seen in Iran due to restrictions on female singing and dancing, has arrived in Tehran. Broadway-style performances based on the stories of Oliver Twist and Robin Hood, according to social media posts, fill the halls to capacity every night.

It is a change that is coming from below, from a new generation of Iranians who are connected to the outside world through social media, less afraid of arrest and pushing boundaries by appropriating public space that has long been under the control of Islamic authorities, known for their strict bans on gatherings of men and women, dancing, singing, alcohol and Western-style events.

Fateme Hasani, a sociologist who studies social processes, said that the boundaries between public and private life are increasingly blurred, as young people refuse to live a double life.

"Over the past four decades, much of Iranian culture existed in private spaces - in homes, at parties and in closed circles. But today, those same values, emotions and lifestyles are re-emerging in the public sphere," Hasani said.

The government itself has joined the trend, albeit hesitantly. In September, it organized a series of free outdoor music events across the country, called “happiness concerts,” inviting top singers and bands to perform for citizens, in an effort to cement the national unity built during the country’s response to the 12-day war with Israel in June. The move was the first of its kind: Iranian authorities usually hold celebrations in mosques, with public prayers rather than pop concerts.

“Holding concerts that bring together millions of people strengthens our unity,” Fatemeh Mohajerani, a government spokeswoman, told local media in September. She added that events like street concerts could help “increase collective happiness.”

The move drew both praise and criticism. Some said the government was finally doing something that pleased the people, while others said it was a hypocritical attempt to divert attention from the country's many problems. Nevertheless, the concerts were a huge success, with local media reporting that more than a million people attended, and they inadvertently became an indicator of the widening gap between the Islamic authorities and the new generation.

Bahman Babazadeh, a 42-year-old journalist and concert organizer, said by phone from Tehran that the war has changed the way concerts can be held in Iran. He said authorities are easing restrictions such as controls on lyrics and song selection, a ban on dancing and the requirement for women to wear the hijab. Babazadeh said that on average, at least four concerts are held every night in major cities, attended by thousands of people.

The departure from Islamic rules has sparked outrage among conservatives, who have called on the judiciary and security services to respond, warning that at this rate the Islamic Revolution will soon fade away. In some cases, authorities have responded by canceling events or fining organizers. But such actions are essentially futile.

Iranian media reported last week that the Ministry of Intelligence had delivered a confidential report to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the departure from Islamic social norms and the decline in the number of women wearing the hijab, and that Khamenei had ordered the government to bring youth and women back into line.

However, Elias Hazrati, President Pezeshkian's communications chief, told Iranian media that the government was "sensitive" to the issue but did not plan to "use the failed methods of the past" and that its positions on the hijab were "based on logic."

“Generation Z is indifferent to the authorities and has reached a collective state of disrespect,” wrote Abdolreza Davari, who was a senior advisor to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a series of social media posts about the phenomenon. He added that Generation Z Iranians “do not tolerate imposed interference in their daily lives” and that “from now on, the future of Iran will take a different course.”

Analysts point out that the joy and fun seen across Iran these days does not mean that the younger generation is indifferent to the economic problems plaguing the country, nor to the Islamic regime's occasional attempts to crack down. Some of them describe the celebrations as a form of resilience and defiance, similar to the movement led by women, collectively rejecting the mandatory hijab after mass protests in 2022, when a young woman, Mahsa Amini, died in the custody of the morality police.

“Iranian society, through these forms of resistance, has managed to create cracks in the power structure and force the regime to give in to some events,” said Mojtaba Najafi, a political analyst based in France who earned his doctorate on political and social movements in Iran.

Amir Sam, an Instagram content creator with around 120.000 followers in Iran, often shares videos from concerts and various events, and wrote that it gives him pleasure to see young people happy, adding: “I hope this freedom and joy will be maintained in every corner of Iran.”

Prepared by: A. Š.