{"id":22909,"date":"2018-02-09T10:41:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T15:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=22909"},"modified":"2018-02-09T17:23:34","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T22:23:34","slug":"new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"New Data Shed Light on the Dramatic Protests in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Peyman Asadzade, security studies Ph.D. student<\/p>\n<p>The swift spread of Iran\u2019s protests through small cities is perhaps their most notable feature. Of the cities where at least one protest rally took place, 73 percent had a population of less than 380,000. The population size for 25 percent of cities was lower than 105,000.<\/p>\n<p>These numbers are quite surprising for three reasons. First, small cities in Iran are generally apolitical. Second, small cities tend to be more religious, so the Islamic Republic\u2019s restrictive policies on social issues \u2014 a major source of dissatisfaction for the middle-class population of big cities \u2014 do not concern most inhabitants. Third, since residents know one another and are aware of each other\u2019s activities in small localities, joining anti-government protests in small cities mean they are more likely to be identified and arrested by the government. This makes anti-government protests extremely costly in small cities. Why did the protests garner such support in small towns and cities?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/monkey-cage\/files\/2018\/01\/unemployment-RATE.jpg\">Available data<\/a> from 32 out of the 52 small cities on the unemployment rate in cities with a population of less than 400,000 show that unemployment in 81 percent of small cities that joined protests is higher than the average of the country, which is 12.7 percent. Given the available information, the recent protests in small cities are likely to be associated with high unemployment rates.<\/p>\n<p>Emphasizing economic grievances does not necessarily deny the possible effect of other factors. In fact, the most violent, provincially widespread and longest-lasting protests took place in two provinces, Khuzestan and Isfahan, suffering from severe environmental issues such as air pollution and water scarcity. Some protesters, especially in big cities where a substantial number of students and political activists live, could be primarily motivated by political grievances and democratic demands. However, as available evidence suggests, the unanticipated involvement of small cities is most probably driven by economic grievances.<\/p>\n<p>The piece has been translated into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mena-watch.com\/was-demographische-daten-ueber-die-proteste-im-iran-verraten\/\">German<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/ir.voanews.com\/a\/iran-protest-\/4206984.html\">Persian<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/monkey-cage\/wp\/2018\/01\/12\/what-data-show-us-about-irans-protests\/?utm_term=.8126e6cf6c3a\">This article first appeared on the Monkey Cage blog, from the Washington\u00a0Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Peyman Asadzade, security studies Ph.D. student The swift spread of Iran\u2019s protests through small cities is perhaps their most notable feature. Of the cities where at least one protest rally took place, 73 percent had a population of less than 380,000. The population size for 25 percent of cities was lower than 105,000. These [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":22482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[38,13,16,29],"tags":[2664,4933],"class_list":["post-22909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-news","category-political-science-departments","category-ucf-news","tag-peyman-asadzade","tag-security-studies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New Data Shed Light on the Dramatic Protests in Iran - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Data Shed Light on the Dramatic Protests in Iran - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Peyman Asadzade, security studies Ph.D. student The swift spread of Iran\u2019s protests through small cities is perhaps their most notable feature. Of the cities where at least one protest rally took place, 73 percent had a population of less than 380,000. The population size for 25 percent of cities was lower than 105,000. These [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-09T15:41:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-02-09T22:23:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/10\/PeymanAsadzade.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"936\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Allison Hurtado\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Allison Hurtado\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Allison Hurtado\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b\"},\"headline\":\"New Data Shed Light on the Dramatic Protests in Iran\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-09T15:41:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-09T22:23:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":340,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/PeymanAsadzade.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Peyman Asadzade\",\"Security Studies\"],\"articleSection\":[\"COS News\",\"News\",\"School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs\",\"UCF News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\\\/\",\"name\":\"New Data Shed Light on the Dramatic Protests in Iran - College of Sciences News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/PeymanAsadzade.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-09T15:41:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-09T22:23:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/PeymanAsadzade.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/PeymanAsadzade.jpeg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":936,\"caption\":\"Man in a gray suit and purple tie standing before a tree and green foliage.\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"College of Sciences News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b\",\"name\":\"Allison Hurtado\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Allison Hurtado\"},\"url\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Data Shed Light on the Dramatic Protests in Iran - College of Sciences News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Data Shed Light on the Dramatic Protests in Iran - College of Sciences News","og_description":"by Peyman Asadzade, security studies Ph.D. student The swift spread of Iran\u2019s protests through small cities is perhaps their most notable feature. Of the cities where at least one protest rally took place, 73 percent had a population of less than 380,000. The population size for 25 percent of cities was lower than 105,000. These [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/","og_site_name":"College of Sciences News","article_published_time":"2018-02-09T15:41:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-02-09T22:23:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":936,"url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/10\/PeymanAsadzade.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Allison Hurtado","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Allison Hurtado","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/"},"author":{"name":"Allison Hurtado","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b"},"headline":"New Data Shed Light on the Dramatic Protests in Iran","datePublished":"2018-02-09T15:41:54+00:00","dateModified":"2018-02-09T22:23:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/"},"wordCount":340,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/10\/PeymanAsadzade.jpeg","keywords":["Peyman Asadzade","Security Studies"],"articleSection":["COS News","News","School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs","UCF News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/","name":"New Data Shed Light on the Dramatic Protests in Iran - College of Sciences News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/10\/PeymanAsadzade.jpeg","datePublished":"2018-02-09T15:41:54+00:00","dateModified":"2018-02-09T22:23:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/new-data-shed-light-dramatic-protests-iran\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/10\/PeymanAsadzade.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2017\/10\/PeymanAsadzade.jpeg","width":900,"height":936,"caption":"Man in a gray suit and purple tie standing before a tree and green foliage."},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/","name":"College of Sciences News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b","name":"Allison Hurtado","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Allison Hurtado"},"url":""}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}