Crisis and Concession: The Regime Reaches Out to Society

Historically, Iran has responded to internal and external threats with heightened domestic repression. However, amid the persistent threat of renewed Israeli aggression, the threat of armed insurgency in the peripheral regions, and mounting water and energy crises, former officials have now been permitted to advocate for changing the regime’s approach toward society – and President Masoud Pezeshkian reached out to the reformist opposition. 

• July 19: Ezzatollah Zarghami, former director general of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, in an interview with Islamic Republic News Agency, called on the regime to “behave differently toward the people in the wake of the war.” 

• • “A few nights ago, I was watching TV, and … an expert very openly and rightly spoke out against the morality police. Could anyone have uttered a single word against them a couple of years ago? Apparently, it takes something like the Mahsa Amini incident. We are now in the ‘post-Mahsa’ era. When that event occurred, a process like unveiling – which might have taken five more years – suddenly swept through society. And our security apparatus and the Supreme National Security Council preferred to suspend the implementation of the hijab and chastity law. Now, we are seeing the result … even those who disagreed showed in this war that we are all Iranian, we love our homeland, and we stand firm. It is the people who were martyred, because even ordinary people’s homes were targeted. I went and spoke with these people. They have proved that they stand by their country.” 

• July 21: In a post on X, Ali Akbar Velayati, senior foreign policy adviser to the supreme leader, urged decision makers to change “some of the state’s prevailing social approaches to a focus on public satisfaction, in ways tangible to the people.” 

• July 23: Meeting an assembly of reformist political activists, President Masoud Pezeshkian said his government is ready to engage in conversations with the opposition, since “the country is in need of dialogue and not confrontation.” Etemad reported that Pezeshkian spoke about reforming Iran:  

• • “Certain things are easier said than done in practice. Reforms are time consuming, and certain things may need a decade to be changed.” 

• • Speaking about the water crisis, Pezeshkian said: “The Cabinet inherited many imbalances from the past … Some of the factors limiting the government’s freedom of action are these imbalances. Forced closure of government offices are mostly due to this reason. By reducing consumption, the people should help put water scarcity behind us.” 

• July 23: Centrist Asr-e Iran reported on the deaths of three Iranian border guards in Iran’s Kurdistan province in a fight against “oppositional and counterrevolutionaries attempting to infiltrate Iran.” 

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