Irish Examiner view: People will always fight for freedom

Public protests against repressive regimes

A protester in a top reading "Respect For Iranian Women" waving a rainbow flag invades the pitch during the Fifa World Cup Group H match at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail, Qatar. 

The protests in Iran reached a new level of awareness at the World Cup in Qatar a couple of days ago, when a sympathetic pitch invader publicised the unrest in that country during the game between Uruguay and Portugal.

Students of history will recognise that all four nations mentioned above have current or recent experience of repressive regimes, but Iran’s are not the only street demonstrations grabbing attention in recent days. Protests against the governing authorities in Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities in China have also attracted attention from around the world.

There is no immediate similarity between the protest-inciting incidents. The spark in Iran was the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini earlier this year. China’s stringent lockdown protocols have been causing unhappiness in that country for some time but were specifically blamed for the slow response to an apartment fire last week in the far western city of Urumqi, which resulted in the deaths of 10 people.

We have been here before with China, which saw a severe clampdown on protests in 1989 following the famous stand-off in Tiananmen Square between a lone protester and an army tank, one of the most arresting news images of the 20th century. In an ironic twist, there are as yet no comparable images from the recent protests in China, despite the proliferation of cameraphones all over the world.

The bravery of that protester remains undimmed in the memory, but those demonstrations ultimately came to nothing, and the power structure in China remains in place.

It is arguably even less concerned with its image around the world now, to judge by the way a BBC journalist was manhandled in China earlier this week while reporting on the protests.

Yet in both China and Iran, people are still willing to take to the streets to express their dissatisfaction with their rulers.

In doing so, they are embodying an imperishable truth — that people will always want to be free and will brave anything to achieve that freedom.