"The appointment appears to have been part of an effort by the moderate administration, which promised improved social freedoms and lifted sanctions during election campaigns, to connect with younger generations, who have been driving political change across Asia and globally. Pezeshkian and his administration have struggled, though partly as a result of indifference from many young Iranians to their overtures, and partly because many of the Iranian establishment's more hardline factions have little interest in appeasing the youth."
"Sanam Vakil, director of Chatham House's Middle East and North Africa Programme, said the Iranian state is struggling to speak the language of a generation that grew up online and outside its ideological frame. People in the Tajrish Bazaar after ceasefire between Iran and Israel, in Tehran, June 26, 2025 [Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters] As such, she added, its outreach feels transactional rather than transformative and ultimately is directed to staving off unrest and protests,"
President Masoud Pezeshkian appointed a Gen Z adviser, Amirreza Ahmadi, who publicized his mobile number but then blocked comments after critics questioned his authenticity and ties to youth movements. The moderate administration campaigned on promises of greater social freedoms and sanctions relief to appeal to younger generations who have driven recent political change. Many young Iranians remain indifferent to official overtures, while hardline factions resist concessions. State outreach often appears transactional and aimed at preventing unrest rather than delivering transformative change. Fear among hardliners of losing control sustains a politics of repression over renewal.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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