Iran is roiled by anti-government protests.
And this next part really surprises me. (The bolding is mine.)
There’s a pretty detailed Wikipedia article:
While there are many flavors of the “death to…!” phrasing spoken in Farsi by Iranians, these very rarely mean that the speaker literally wishes death on the target. It’s an artifact of the language and culture that is widely misunderstood by outsiders. While “مرگ بر” (marg bar) does literally mean “death to…” the true connotation is more like “the hell with” or “screw” whatever they’re commenting on.
The linked article below was written to explain to offended Americans why Iranians like to chant “death to America,” but then goes into the general principle of the phrase and provides cultural context and several other similar phrases for illustration.
(My Tehran-born wife uses many of the phrases described in this article. “The appliance repairman didn’t show up for the appointment, dirt on his head!” and so on. She doesn’t really want him to be pushed into a grave and buried. It’s just one of many things Persians say.)
So the protesters are not actually saying they want to drag Khamenei out into the street and execute him. Yes, it’s a strong phrase of rejection, and it’s noteworthy on those grounds. But don’t misinterpret what the protesters are saying or what they want based on the word “death.” As usual, Western media do a shitty job explaining the language and intentions of foreign people.
They aren’t necessarily saying that they want to drag Khamenei into the street and execute him but I think in this particular case that’s precisely what many of the protestors want. And hopefully, they’ll get what they want this time around.
Perhaps, but saying “death to Khamenei” is almost certainly not an explicit expression of that wish. It seems counterintuitive, but that’s how Farsi works.
President Masoud Pezeshkian went on Tucker Carlson last year and assured us regarding Donald Trump just as you suggest:
However:
I’ll accept that lots of “death to” demonstrators do not really believe in capital punishment for bad leaders, but I’d like to see some sort of poll before accepting that it is “very rare”. Are you sure there aren’t multiple common interpretations of the “death to” chants, just like with the fatwas?
Even if it doesn’t literally mean wishing death on someone, it’s still unambiguously a strong criticism of the Leader, of a sort that would be expected to draw harsh consequences in a state like Iran, and people are still saying it out loud in public.
And lots of folk who say “Fuck Trump” are not actually suggesting sexual relations with him.
Anyway. Any chance this doesn’t end with a violent crackdown and severe repression with the morality police back in full enforcement mode?
Read the article I linked to understand “death to” in its proper cultural context.
US ready to intervene if Iran kills protesters, Trump warns
Trump waited to say this until after they already had killed protesters, and the U.S. had failed to come to their rescue. Or maybe Trump thinks making idle threats is the equivalent of coming to the rescue. I realize this is one of those times you cannot take Trump literally.
Well there are multiple common meanings of “come to their rescue” …
Never mind that after people get killed isn’t exactly the right time to “rescue” them.
A serious potable water shortage in Tehran ain’t helping anything.
They’re already firing live rounds at protestors. So it’s already too late for that.
There’s live rounds with a few deaths and there are massacres, with persistent enforcement by violent means. I’m concerned more about the latter.
Maybe he thought the Iranian security forces meant “death to the protestors” metaphorically?
Maybe Trump meant his thoughts and prayers are with them. TACO.
I can see Trump getting a briefing advising him that the CIA was helping foment the protests, and responding with this sort of bloviating.
So if they can kill them non-violently, everything will be okay?
Or violently without a gun.