Social media images of women’s protests in the Islamic Republic: Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and its 1979 Muslim-Republican Revolution
There were online examples Friday from protests in Zahedan. Automatic rifle fire can be heard disrupting prayers at a nearby mosque, while one video shows a number of injured and bleeding men being tended to outside.
Families of people killed by security forces have been intimidated by the authorities in the past. There are videos of funeral services uploaded online with displays of public mourning, such as a woman cutting her hair.
Narges Bajoghli, an assistant professor of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University, noted how similar public mourning rituals for those killed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution were key to support for the revolution’s success. Now, spreading widely online, these scenes help boost antigovernment sentiment, she said.
The Iranian man who lives in the Netherlands said it was important for them to speak out about the deaths on the streets of Iran. This is a revolution in Iran, and it’s not a protest anymore. The people of the world must see it.
As a group of 12 female foreign ministers declared in an October 26 statement, “we have a moral obligation” to support this women-led movement. But the people demanding their freedom in Iran need more than symbolic backing – even if symbols matter.
The President of Iran appealed for unity and tried to allay anger against the country’s rulers as anti-government protests that have engulfed the country for weeks continued to spread.
Raisi acknowledged that the Islamic Republic had “weaknesses and shortcomings,” but repeated the official line that the unrest sparked last month by the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the country’s morality police was nothing short of a plot by Iran’s enemies.
“Today the country’s determination is aimed at cooperation to reduce people’s problems,” he told a parliament session. “Unity and national integrity are necessities that render our enemy hopeless.”
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His claims mirrored those of Tehran’s supreme leader, who accused the US and Israel of inciting the unrest in his first remarks on Monday. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iranian leaders have remained distrustful of Western influence and instead blamed their domestic issues on foreign enemies.
Nearly two dozen children were killed last month during protests in Iran, according to a new report by a human rights watchdog that accuses the country’s security forces of targeting young people “with absolute impunity.”
The demonstrations spread quickly as the new academic year began, and universities were long considered sanctuaries in times of turmoil. Students using social media showed their support for peers who were arrested in the Islamic Republic. Many universities moved their classes online this week because of unrest.
The prestigious Sharif University of Technology in Tehran became a battlefield on Sunday as security forces surrounded the campus from all sides and fired tear gas at protesters who were holed up inside a parking lot, preventing them from leaving. The student union reported that police arrested hundreds of students, although many were later released.
In one video on Monday, students were marching and chanting “Jailed students must be freed!” Tarbiat Modares university is in Tehran. In another, students streamed through the University of Khayyam in a conservative city, shouting “Sharif University has become a jail!” Evin Prison has become a university!” — referring to Iran’s notorious prison in Tehran.
The response by the security forces of Iran has been condemned by many countries. On Monday, President Joe Biden said his administration was “gravely concerned about reports of the intensifying violent crackdown on peaceful protesters in Iran, including students and women.”
In an interview with an independent reformist Iranian newspaper, Iran’s Education Minister Yousef Nouri confirmed that some school students have indeed been detained and referred to what he called “psychological institutions.”
It is possible the students have become anti-social and we want to reform them, he told the Shargh newspaper.
Nearly a month ago, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being taken to a “reeducation center” by state “morality police” for not abiding by the state’s conservative dress code. Amini’s death has sparked weeks of anti-government protests that have spread across the country.
The Fate of Two Missing Teens During the Third Week of the Iran Reconciliation and Prosecusor’s Convulsion
Videos obtained by the pro-reform activist outlet IranWire posted on social media on Wednesday showed demonstrations across Tehran and other Iranian cities.
The United Nations has called for the protection of children and adolescents in Iran, which is now in its third week.
The 19-page report released by Amnesty International on Thursday said at least 23 children – some as young as 11 – were killed by security forces in the last 10 days of September alone.
The death toll reported by Amnesty does not include any children killed during protests in October, including a 7-year-old boy who died in his mother’s arms on Sunday after security forces fired into a crowd of protesters, according to a report by Oslo-based Kurdish rights group Hengaw.
CNN cannot independently verify the figure as non-state media, the internet, and protest movements in Iran have all been suppressed. Death tolls vary by opposition groups, international rights organizations and journalists tracking the ongoing protests.
IRNA states that the supreme leader of Iran called the protesters agents of the west and called for them to be punished.
Their relatives would no longer see them alive. One family searched frantically for their daughter for 10 days, posting desperate appeals for information on social media; the other found out the fate of their daughter within hours of her disappearance.
But the grim result was the same. The security forces killed the missing teens, their families and human rights groups said. One girl’s skull was smashed, and the other girl’s head was cracked by baton blows. The bodies were badly burned and handed back to their families. They were both just 16.
The new faces of the protests that have convulsed the country for the past month are two teenagers, Nika Shakarami and Sarina Esmailzadeh. Their images appear on posters secretly plastered on walls in cities across Iran and on banners carried by protesters, their names a rallying cry for the fury being directed against the rulers of the Islamic Republic.
The Tasnim news agency said the death toll from the fire at Tehran’s Evin prison has risen to eight. IRNA said that prisoners set fire to a warehouse, causing injuries to dozens of others.
The notoriously brutal facility is known for housing political prisoners in the country, which has seen mass protests in recent weeks against the Islamic regime that has ruled it for decades.
His wife said that Panahi said guards fired tear gas at inmates.
In an interview with Radio Farda, the Iranian branch of the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Saeedi said she received a call from her husband telling her that he and another imprisoned film maker are doing well.
The incident at Evin Prison: A victim of extremism, interrogation and solitary confinement in Iran, a human rights activist says
The worst hour of her life was when her husband called her the next day after the fire broke out.
Activist group 1500tasvir said that in videos posted on social media, gunshots were heard and Iranian special forces were seen headed to the area where the prison is believed to be located.
Inmates on Ward 8 have no water, gas, or bread and 45 of them were transferred “to an unknown place,” Daemi said. Everyone is ok but they are worried about being moved to other prisons, solitary confinement and interrogation.
Many inmates had been transferred to Rajaei Shahr prison, about 20 kilometers west (12 miles) of Tehran, Mostafa Nili, a lawyer who represents a number of prisoners, said on Twitter. Video shows a bus taking prisoners away from Evin.
“She told me she didn’t know what had happened at Evin last night but said that she heard the terrifying sounds and thought something terrible happened,” Hosein said his wife told him, adding she was doing well.
He said that there was no information about other parts of the prison, and that he was held in Evin’s Section 209, which is notorious for housing prisoners of conscience.
The lawyer for the family of Siamak Namazi, who has been in prison in Iran for seven years, said that his client is safe.
Speaking earlier to state broadcaster IRIB, Tehran’s prosecutor Ali Salehi said the “conflict” at the prison was not linked to the protests that have swept the country following the death of a young woman in police custody.
The head of a New York-based Human Rights organization in Iran claims that no prisoner is safe in the country, where people are killed for speaking out. “Political prisoners in Evin & Iran should be freed. All prisoners should have proper medical treatment + access to counsel/families.”
Ghaemi also urged the United Nations to hold Iran’s leaders accountable in a call echoed by Amnesty International secretary general and former UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard.
“Baraye”: A Persian Song of the Iranian Revolution and the Death of a 22-Year-Old Lawyer
Washington. Chanting crowds marched in the streets of Berlin, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles on Saturday in a show of international support for demonstrators facing a violent government crackdown in Iran, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of that country’s morality police.
On the U.S. National Mall, thousands of women and men of all ages — wearing green, white and red, the colors of the Iran flag — shouted in rhythm. “Be scared. Be afraid. Protesters shouted, before marching to the White House. Say her name! Mahsa!”
Iranians from all over Washington D.C. traveled to join the demonstrations put together by grassroots organizers.
Shooka is an attorney who was born in the U.S. after her parents fled the Iranian revolution and she wore a shirt with a slogan in English and Farsi. Women in Iran are sick of being second-class citizens.
Between chants, protesters in D.C. broke into song, singing traditional Persian music about life and freedom — all written after the revolution in 1979 brought religious fundamentalists to power in Iran. They sang one in particular in unison — “Baraye,” meaning because of, which has become the unofficial anthem of the Iran protests. The artist of that song, Shervin Hajipour, was arrested shortly after posting the song to his Instagram in late September. It accrued more than 40 million views.
What have we learned about Amini’s birthplace of a martyred young woman? Investigating the killing of Zhina, a 22-year-old, buried in a raid on the Islamic Revolution
Ghitis is a former CNN producer and correspondent. She is employed by CNN, The Washington Post, and World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.
In Amini’s birthplace of Saqqez, where the 22-year-old also known as Zhina is now buried, thousands of people defied the police and turned out to mark an important day in the mourning process, even as security forces fired live bullets and tear gas to stop them.
Nika later turned up dead. CNN investigated her death and found that she was hunted down by plain clothed Basiji militias, the security forces used by the regime to suppress the uprising. Eyewitnesses told CNN they saw Nika among groups of protesters being detained later that night. Before her body was returned to her grieving family, she was last seen. Her mother is also in favor of protesters.
The protests are going on. Seven weeks in, they have lasted longer than any uprising since the 1979 revolution toppled the Pahlavi regime and brought to power today’s theocracy. And these protests are different from their predecessors. The Green Movement supported a candidate. In 2019, demonstrators called out harsh economic conditions.
This time, women, and the men who have joined them, are crying out, “Death to the dictator.” This is not related to reform. This is about fundamental change.
I would like to be honest. This is inspiring, but also terrifying to watch. We have seen what the Islamic Republic is capable of. It seems irresponsible to encourage people who are brave because of fears for their safety. The odds, after all, are stacked against them. And yet, they have made the choice to continue the fight. They are deserving of our solidarity.
The US, its other allies, democracies across the world and any country that rejects the regime’s actions should join in isolating Iran diplomatically. Diplomatic relations should not be lowered until Iran kills protesters. And Iran must be expelled from the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Its presence there is a travesty.
According to Germany this week, business can’t continue with Iran due to their current situation and that they are launching a wide-ranging diplomatic response that consists of a review of bilateral trade and financial relations and expanded protections for vulnerable Iranians.
The Biden administration has been trying to reestablish the JCPOA, the abandoned 2015 nuclear deal. Iran keeps raising the stakes and the negotiations to revive the deal are stuck. The Secretary of State believes that there won’t be a return to the JCPOA in the near term. Such phrasing likely means the goal of reviving it has not died entirely.
The US and allies want to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. The current regime that has killed peaceful protesters and supported terrorist groups in the Middle East could see hundreds of billions of dollars come from restarting the deal. At the very least, the wisdom of reviving the nuclear deal must be reevaluated.
An Iranian court sentences an unnamed person for “enmity against God” and “spreading corruption on Earth” amidst recent anti-government protests
An Iranian court has issued the first death sentence linked to recent protests, convicting the unnamed person of “enmity against God” and “spreading corruption on Earth,” state media reports.
They were convicted on the charge of “disturbing public order and peace, community, and colluding to commit a crime against national security, war and corruption on Earth, war through arson, and intentional destruction,” according to state news agency IRNA on Sunday.
Five others were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit a crime against national security and disrupting public peace and order.
IRNA added that these decisions are preliminary and can be appealed. The person who received the death sentence was not named and no information was given about when or where they committed the crime.
The group said that the figure was an “absolute minimum”, and that 43 children and 25 women were included.
Despite the threat of arrests – and harsher punishments for those involved – Iranian celebrities and athletes have stepped forward to support the anti-government protests in recent weeks.
On Friday, United Nations experts urged Iranian authorities “to stop indicting people with charges punishable by death for participation, or alleged participation, in peaceful demonstrations” and “to stop using the death penalty as a tool to squash protests.”