From BuzzFeed
From the green protests in 2009–2010 to the election of reformer Hassan Rouhani as president, young Iranians are increasingly powerful.
Expert Robin Wright has called them “the determinators” — politically savvy, socially sassy, and media astute. They count, quite literally, as never before.
1. Two-thirds of Iran is under 35 years old.
They are two-thirds of Iran’s population and over half the electorate.
They put new President Hassan Rouhani into office. Now they’re his biggest headache, as he has to deliver on his promises and their hopes.
2. They love rap music.
Ayatollah Khomeini banned all music as “Westoxication.” But for the young today, rap is the rhythm of dissent.
Hip-hop artists hold back little in warnings to the regime, as Yas, Iran’s leading hip-hop artist, defiantly rapped:
“Listen to my words and see the agonies I suffered
What my generation has seen, made our tears fall
Those without such pains — how they saw ours,
They became even more cruel, what a pity for our land!”
3. They’re the first generation born after the 1979 revolution.
Now in their twenties and early thirties, they knew neither the monarchy nor the revolution.
They were tots when revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini died in 1989.
