Iran Has a New Moral Order

In the last 15 years, Iranians have quietly constructed an alternative moral order rooted not in revolutionary sacrifice but in dignity, bodily autonomy, and truth-telling, including about the victims of the state. This bottom-up civil religion now challenges the core of the Islamic republic’s political theology more effectively than any party or organized opposition.

Iran is undergoing a profound transformation: one not of institutions or leadership, but of meaning. The Islamic republic continues to project strength through its security services and regional networks, yet it no longer controls the symbolic universe that once anchored its legitimacy.

Iran is undergoing a profound transformation: one not of institutions or leadership, but of meaning. The Islamic republic continues to project strength through its security services and regional networks, yet it no longer controls the symbolic universe that once anchored its legitimacy.

In the last 15 years, Iranians have quietly constructed an alternative moral order rooted not in revolutionary sacrifice but in dignity, bodily autonomy, and truth-telling, including about the victims of the state. This bottom-up civil religion now challenges the core of the Islamic republic’s political theology more effectively than any party or organized opposition.

The shift did not happen overnight. It was built through a sequence of shocks that accumulated over time: the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan during the Green Movement protests in 2009, which transformed a protester into an unsanctioned national martyr; the mass killings during the nationwide economic protests of 2019; the execution of wrestler Navid Afkari in 2020, which underscored the regime’s indifference to public and international outrage; and the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022.

Each episode widened the gap between the regime’s sacred order and Iranian society. By the time protests erupted after Amini’s death, the state had lost the emotional authority to define who counts as a martyr, what is sacred, and what moral language could unify the nation.

The symbolic rupture has not receded, and this revolt of meaning is now one of the most consequential political developments in Iran. It has not toppled the Islamic republic and may not anytime soon, but it has reoriented the moral center of Iranian society in ways that will shape the country’s political future.

A woman wearing a pink headscarf raises her fist in the air as she yells.