Therefore, the older cohort were able to enjoy to some extent a prosperous early childhood, but after the Revolution suddenly found their entire lives in turmoil at a young age.
As such, during this period, they were notably a religious generation, seeking comfort in religion, and were made to not question authority, resulting in them sharing much of the Islamic Republic’s ideological beliefs in the 1980s and in the first half of the 1990s.
Due to the turmoil of the late 1970s and 1980s in Iran, the Burnt Generation experienced significant trauma and loss when they were young - it was common to witness much of their family to be killed or displaced during the Iran-Iraq War.
[5] As such, they have notably poor mental health, having high amounts of wartime trauma and PTSD from the war, though much of it remains undiagnosed due to the sense of repression many in the generation imposed on themselves.
In recent years, they have come to take on more positions of power in the country due to such resilience, though as adults they often have a very poor relationship with their parents, who they often blame for the Revolution and resent for destroying their prospects.
In the 1990s, with the war over and Khomeini’s death in 1989 resulting in the establishment of debate over the future of the Islamic Republic, they grew defiant of the values they had once submissively adhered to in their youth, culminating in the 1999 student protests.
[2] Today, as they approach being middle-aged, they are marked by lack of optimism for the future, nihilism, cynicism, skepticism, political apathy, resilience, alienation and distrust in traditional values and institutions, which describe the similarities between Gen X and the Burnt Generation.