The Iranian people have again had enough. Protests have erupted across the country in anger at the beating death of a 22-year-old woman detained by morality police for allegedly showing too much hair. Certainly, there is an irony when Western diplomats and journalists don headscarves in deference to Iranian culture, while Iranian women shed theirs, knowing they face detention, torture, and even death for defying the idea that isolated and corrupt octogenarian ayatollahs can define culture and how women should dress.

It is clear Iranians want change. Protests occur with increasing frequency and include Iranians from almost every social strata. Iranians have taken to the streets across the country to protest student crackdowns (1999), alleged soccer match-fixing (2001), working conditions (2005), election fraud (2009), the economy (2018-2019), the environment (2021), and now the treatment of women (2022). But if so many Iranians want change, why have protests not yet been successful?