Iran’s New Protest Generation

Even before the recent round of demonstrations, young Iranians were pushing against the regime’s restrictive social norms.

Alaei’s mission to photograph Iran’s Zoomers has been complicated by the growing public fear of cameras. Iran’s security forces use technology—including drones and CCTV—to identity protesters. They track social media, which is why many videos of the protests are deliberately blurred. Convincing people to let Alaei into their lives has been difficult, she told me. But like the women who duck illegally into soccer matches, many have accepted the risks. As a result, she said, “it is not easy to oppress them without any costs to society.”