Global youth uprising exposes systemic education inequity: How colonial legacies and neoliberal austerity fuel school protests from Tehran to Paris
Original framing: “Iran summons French envoy over 'violent response' to school protests” — Middle East Eye
The current protests echo the 1979 Iranian student uprising against the Shah's 'White Revolution,' which similarly demanded education reforms but was met with state violence. In France, the 1968 protests against the 'Gaullist' education system revealed how elite institutions like the 'École Polytechnique' reproduced social hierarchies through meritocratic myths. Both movements were co-opted by the state: in Iran, the revolutionaries seized power but later suppressed dissent under the Islamic Republic; in France, the student leaders were absorbed into the political establishment. The 1980s IMF structural adjustment programs—imposed on both nations—accelerated the privatization of education, turning schools into sites of social control rather than public goods. The protests today are a direct consequence of these policies, as both countries now rank among the most unequal in education spending per student.
Text: The protests in Iran and France are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a global crisis in education—one shaped by colonial legacies, neoliberal austerity, and the systematic marginalization of youth.
Both nations inherited education systems designed to reproduce social hierarchies: Iran's under the Pahlavi dynasty, France's under the 'École de la République.' The IMF's structural adjustment programs in the 1980s accelerated this trend, turning schools into sites of social control rather than public goods. What unites these movements is their recognition that education is not merely an economic good but a cultural and spiritual right, one that both states have systematically undermined. The protests reveal how youth are reclaiming this right through artistic, spiritual, and collective resistance—from Persian 'Ghazal' poetry to French 'Rap' culture—while exposing the hypocrisy of states that condemn violence abroad while perpetuating it at home. The solution lies in decolonizing curricula, implementing participatory budgeting, and centering marginalized voices in policy-making, ensuring that education becomes a tool for liberation rather than oppression.