Hassan Hakimian — What’s Driving Iran’s Protests?

Not a bad article considering that Project Syndicate is an organ of the corporate elite.

The author does recognize that the economic protest is the result of President Rouhani's neoliberal program to deliver the promised increase in prosperity that neoliberals assume to be widely distribute by trickle down.

So, even though the article is written from the neoliberal point of view, it does admit the failure of neoliberal reformers to deliver on their promises to the country as a whole, even though growth has improved under Rouhani.

What the author does not mention is that the economic aspect of the protest is exacerbated by the cutting back of welfare, with the result that the have-nots protesting have been severely disadvantaged even with the economy "improving."

Project Syndicate
What’s Driving Iran’s Protests?
Hassan Hakimian, Director of the London Middle East Institute and Reader in Economics at SOAS, University of London