Will Iran see more repression or reform in 2023?

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% :Iran also hasn't made much progress when it comes to deepening its economic cooperation with China.
57% : The case with Saudi Arabia shows how China defines its interests and views its relationship with Iran."
56% : They also stressed "the need to strengthen cooperation to ensure the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program" and called on Tehran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and "maintain the non-proliferation regime."
56% : What about cooperation with Russia?Increased cooperation with Russia, meanwhile, brings little economic benefit to Iran.
55% : But Russia has little interest in economic cooperation with Iran.
53% : "What these women are doing in Iran is a revolution, at least a cultural revolution," Azadeh Kian, a sociologist, told DW.
53% : The issues the protesters are fighting for can be heard in a song that became the anthem of the protests in Iran: "Baraye" means "For this.
53% : Qatar and Iran share a natural gas field in the Persian Gulf that accounts for 18% of global natural gas reserves.
51% :Chinese investors are holding back due to fears over potential US sanctions for doing business with Iran.
50% : Wearing a headscarf has been compulsory for girls and women in Iran since the 1979 revolution.
49% : The negotiations in Vienna to revive the nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers have been at a standstill for months.
49% :China wants Tehran to cooperate on nuclear rowDuring Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Saudi Arabia in December, the two countries not only agreed to expand their cooperation in areas such as technology and security, but also announced their intention to coordinate their policies toward Iran.
49% : Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US and the UK have reported arms deliveries from Iran to Russia.
48% : Of nearly 100 joint projects in Iran, such as infrastructure development or the establishment of free trade zones, not a single one has seen progress.
46% : The women-led mass protests in Iran this year demanding equal rights and more freedoms have posed the biggest challenge to the country's clerical regime since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
46% : "We are seeing for the first time that a large number of women have overcome their fear and are showing themselves in public without the obligatory hijab, at least in the big cities," said Khan, who is director of the Center for Gender and Feminist Studies at the University of Paris and has long been researching the women's movement in Iran.
45% : On the foreign policy front, Tehran has reached an impasse.
45% : Since 2006, around 60% of students in Iran have been female, according to official figures.
44% :"Tehran has expanded its relationship with China in the last 10 years and sees China and Russia as its main allies against the West," said Kamran Matin, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Sussex in the UK.
42% : In addition to ballistic missiles, Moscow is also said to have received drones from Iran, which have allegedly been used to attack and severely damage energy infrastructure in Ukraine.
40% : The year 2023 will not be an easy one for Iran as the rift between the rulers and the ruled becomes greater than ever.
40% : Protests from all parts of societyThis year Iran witnessed the most severe and longest protest wave since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
39% : The Shiite clerics in Iran as well as the Sunni royal family in Saudi Arabia see themselves as religious leaders of the Islamic world and are involved in proxy wars in countries across the region.
38% : Even more painful for Iran is China's backing of Saudi Arabia, Tehran's archrival in the Middle East.
38% : Iran, however, has been unable to produce or sell gas to the West because of US sanctions and Iran's ailing infrastructure.
38% :Moscow can use its veto power in the body to prevent the Security Council from adopting sanctions against Iran.
37% : This year Iran witnessed the most severe and longest protest wave since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979
37% : The World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Report shows the extent to which women in Iran are disadvantaged because of their gender.
36% : Tehran under regional and global pressure
33% :"The regime fails to understand how deeply dissatisfied the people are with the political system," said Sadegh Zibakalam, an Iranian academic who has been barred from teaching at any university since October because of his criticism of hardliners in Iran.

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