The most dramatic rebellion broke out in 2022, sparked by the murder of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the ayatollahs’ morality police. The regime was shaken to its core, but savage repression eventually worked its ugly magic. The current protests began in the bazaars — ordinarily a conservative locale in Iranian society — and they’ve spread to students and rural areas. But, as is common in police states, the protests are leaderless by necessity. The absence of an effective and disciplined leadership in the Iranian diaspora has not helped, with mainline liberal democrats stuck between the eccentric Maryam Rajavi at one end and at the other, the son of the former shah, Reza Pahlavi. Iran’s current rebellion, if that’s what it is, is an uprising of abject misery and despair.