Monday, September 26, 2022

 British Columbia

Thousands gather in downtown Vancouver to show support for Iranian protests

It's the 2nd protest this week in Metro Vancouver following death of Mahsa Amini, 22

CBC News · 
Thousands of people rallied in Vancouver on Sunday in solidarity with protesters in Iran over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. (Janella Hamilton/CBC News)

Thousands of people gathered on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday then marched through downtown calling on Iran to end laws requiring women to wear hijabs in public as well as to abolish the country's use of capital punishment.

It's the second protest this week in Metro Vancouver following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22.

The Iranian woman died last week after she was arrested by Iran's morality police for "unsuitable attire" after she allegedly wore a hijab improperly.

Her death has reignited anger over restrictions on personal freedoms in Iran, including the strict dress codes for women and an economy reeling from government sanctions.

Protests over Amini's death have spread across at least 46 cities, towns and villages in Iran. There has also been condemnation from Western countries and the United Nations, as well as protests in solidarity abroad.

On Sunday there were protests in London where violence broke out. In Canada, a protest similar to Vancouver's was held in Ottawa.

Tammy Sadeghi was one of the organizers of the rally in Vancouver on Sunday.

"We're here to support the Iranian movement in Iran, especially since women came onto the street because they have been fed up with this regime the last 42 years," Sadeghi said.

"They've been fighting day and night to push back the Islamic regime."

Tammy Sadeghi was one of the organizers of a rally in Vancouver in support of protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini. (Janella Hamilton/CBC News)

Many at the rally said they want an end to laws that require women to wear hijabs. They also want an end to capital punishment in Iran and the release of political prisoners — all examples of the regime's brutality.

Iranian police have denied mistreating Amini and claim she died of a heart attack. The country's authorities say they are investigating.

Protests in Iran have resulted in the deaths of both protesters and police and the arrests of demonstrators.

After gathering at the Vancouver Art Gallery, protesters against Iran's regime marched through the downtown area of the city. (Isabelle Raghem/CBC News)

Honieh Barzegari said she attended the rally in Vancouver to speak out for human rights in Iran. She said she was impressed with how diverse the crowd was.

"We need to stay united, not just Iranian people. We want the world to stand with us. Hold our hands, tap on our shoulders and be our voices," she said.

'Human lives matter, Iranian lives matter. Iranian women's lives matter. We all matter."

Honieh Barzegari attended the rally for Iran in Vancouver on Sunday Sept. 25, 2022. (Janella Hamilton/CBC News)

With files from Janella Hamilton, Jon Azpiri, Thomson Reuters and the Associated Press

Protesters march through downtown Ottawa, burn headscarf in demonstration against Iran

Crowds pledged solidarity with Iranians after woman dies in custody of morality police

Michelle Allan · CBC News · 
Protesters gather while a headscarf burns in the picture's foreground.
Demonstrators burn a scarf at a protest against the Iranian government on Sunday. The protest was inspired by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who'd been arrested by Iran's morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. (David Bates/CBC)

With the death of a young Iranian woman in police custody sparking demonstrations around the world, hundreds of people also took to the streets of Ottawa Sunday to protest against the Iranian government.

The 22-year-old woman died last week while in custody of Iran's morality police. Mahsa Amini was arrested for allegedly wearing a hijab improperly, and while police said she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, her family has cast doubt on that account. 

"This could have happened to [any] one of us," said Taraneh, a protester who lived in Iran for about 30 years. CBC is withholding her last name due to her safety concerns. 

Taraneh said she and her sister were once arrested by the morality police while in Iran and held for five or six hours.  She said she's frustrated that Iranian women are forced to comply with the strict hijab requirements. 

"The women in Iran are not free at all," she said. "We are tired of this system."

Movement larger than just opposition to hijab 

The protesters marched past Parliament Hill on Wellington Street, down Metcalfe Street and onto Queen Street, where they gathered to chant and burn a scarf in protest.

Police estimated about 1,000 people took part.

"It's not just a matter of hijab anymore. It's not a matter of the morality police forces anymore," said organizer Rosa Kheirandish, who was born in Iran and moved to Canada in 2001.

"They just want the mandatory Islamic Republic to go."

Kheirandish said she helped organize the protest so that other Iranians could claw back their freedom from the oppressive government — starting with freedom of religion.

"[They want] that same kind of freedom that we have here in Canada," said Kheirandish. "I mean, thank God we have it here." 

She said she also hopes the protest raises awareness of what Iranians are facing.

A man in a suit and sunglasses speaks into a microphone while protesters holding signs gather around him and film him.
Some of the hundreds of protesters who rallied in downtown Ottawa on Sunday. (David Bates/CBC)

Protestors concerned about internet access

Iranians have experienced widespread internet disruptions amid days of mass protests against the government, including a loss of access to Instagram and WhatsApp, two of the last Western social media platforms available in the country.

Kheirandish fears that the disconnection will precede government violence.

In November 2019, Iran imposed a five-day nationwide internet shutdown to stifle protests against fuel price hikes. By the time access was restored, Amnesty International said over 100 demonstrators had been killed by security forces — a figure rejected as "speculative" by the government.

Another protester, Lora Solaimani, said she was concerned internet outages may also impede Iranians' ability to call to the international community for help. 

"They've cut the internet so that we can't actually see what's going on," said Solaimani. "I think that needs international attention."

Oppressive government a 'risk' to world

Protestor Rahil Golipoor, a risk analyst for the federal government, said the oppression of human rights happening in Iran could have a harmful impact worldwide.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is a risk for the world," Golipoor said, adding that the actions by the country's morality police could influence other governments. "They are a virus starting in Iran, but they don't stay in Iran." 

Golipoor said she is demonstrating not just against Iran, but to send a global message against all religious and gender-based discrimination. 

"We stand for the future of the world," said Golipoor. "We don't stay silent for any dictator [or] religion."

With files from Darren Major, The Associated Press and Thomson Reuters

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Sunday, September 25, 2022

Kurdish revolution teaches us to be wary of Western solidarity on Ukraine



The Rojava revolution, which broke out with the onset of the Syrian Civil War brought freedom to millions of local Kurds, Arabs, and minorities, and hope to many more people across the globe. But it also showed that the Western left could not be trusted. In the UK and elsewhere, many comrades failed to stand in solidarity with the revolutionary element in that terrible conflict.

As Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, the same sections of the left are repeating the same cruel, cynical slogans. As in Syria, we must listen to local leftists who are taking a principled, democratic stand in the face of the onslaught of imperialist violence by Putin’s Russia.
A failure of solidarity with Rojava

In the course of the Syrian conflict, we learned the hard way that the British left can struggle to take a stance on issues which should be trivially obvious. Some elements of the left struggled to condemn ISIS, framing their rise as the sole result of Western intervention in the region. The authoritarian left struggled to condemn the Assad regime, responsible for mass butchery and the bulk of war crimes committed in the country.

On the other hand, leftists of all stripes found reasons to condemn the Kurdish-led Rojava revolution. Some attacked the direct-democratic political project in North and East Syria (NES) for working alongside US airstrikes to defeat ISIS. Some attacked it for coordinating with the Assad regime to ensure continued supply of basic essentials to civilians in the region under its control.

Neither side stopped to look at the other and realise that the situation in NES was far too complicated to fit their black-and-white narratives. Meanwhile, comrades on the ground were sacrificing their lives, and making whatever tough compromises were necessary, to keep their people alive.

I once heard the region’s top political figure Ilham Ahmed tell a roomful of conservative sheikhs who had happily worked with ISIS but were now complaining about Rojava coordinating with the Syrian government in Damascus:


I know how brutal the regime is. They have tortured and killed my friends. But I will sit down and negotiate with anyone who isn’t actually trying to cut my head off.

No one can claim this is not a courageous or principled position. It is easy for Western leftists to sneer at comrades overseas, to wallow in purity politics which get them off the hook from actually doing anything. It’s difficult to do what Ilham and her comrades are doing. Our job is to stand alongside them and support them.
Standing with comrades on the ground

The conflicts in Syria and Ukraine are linked. Each forms a part of the ongoing contest between hard Russian imperialism and the USA’s subtler attempts to remain the dominant force on the global stage. The USA keeps troops in Syria not only because of the region’s paltry oilfields but in order to maintain a beachhead disrupting the Russian-Iranian axis of influence in the Middle East, while the Ukraine war has drawn previously recalcitrant European powers closer to a US-defined regional policy. Meanwhile, Russia’s naked aggression has darkened the skies in both Ukraine and Syria.

There is not an obvious revolutionary third line in Ukraine, as there is in NES. Nonetheless, we must recognise Russia’s invasion for what it is – the bloody and destructive expansion of a capitalist regime. We do not need to think NATO or the Ukrainian government are worthy of support in and of themselves to recognise the need to stand with Ukrainian people.

As such, we must support comrades working to stop or mitigate the brutal invasion – on both sides of the frontline. Like our comrades in the Rojava revolution, Ukrainian socialists and anarchists are not only risking their lives, but setting aside their own ideological disagreements with the Ukrainian state to fight for what is self-evidently right.

Even if they are not willing to listen to comrades from the region when they call on the Western left to avoid “leftist Westsplaining” and ‘moral relativizing’, anyone who sits in their bedroom in the UK and praises Assad or Putin in the name of ‘anti-imperialism’ need only count the bodies.




Resist Russia in Ukraine and the West at home

We live in a world of uneven but multiple imperial capitalist poles, of which the USA is the richest, most powerful, and all-pervasive, and Russia the most brutal on the battlefield. In the Syrian conflict, Russia and its allies have been by far the most brutal on the battlefield, bearing responsibility for the majority of civilian deaths outside of the Syrian regime itself. Meanwhile post-Iraq the USA has adopted a subtler military doctrine of proxy warfare and power projection. Each must be resisted in their own way. Supporting the resistance against Russia does not diminish our efforts to challenge Western capitalist hegemony at home.

In different ways, both the Ukranians and the Kurds have felt the sting of Western indifference, exceptionalism, and – in the Kurds’ case – orientalism. At the same time, the Rojava revolution reawakened a spirit of socialist internationalism in this country and elsewhere. In this spirit, we must stand alongside our comrades making tough choices in Syria, Ukraine, and across the globe.

Featured image via the author, courtesy of the Internationalist Commune of Rojava

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UPDATE 3
Iranians protest for tenth night, defying judiciary warning
Iranians march during a pro-hijab rally in the capital Tehran on September 23, 2022. Thousands of people marched through Iran's capital during a pro-hijab rally Friday, paying tribute to security forces who have moved to quell a week of protests by what media called ‘conspirators’. — AFP pic
Monday, 26 Sep 2022 7:15 AM MYT

PARIS, Sept 26 — Iranians took to the streets for a tenth consecutive night Sunday, defying a warning from the judiciary, to protest the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in morality police custody.

At least 41 people have died since the unrest began, mostly protesters but including members of the Islamic republic’s security forces, according to an official toll, although other sources say the real figure is higher

Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) on Sunday evening said the death toll was at least 57, but noted that ongoing internet blackouts were making it increasingly difficult to confirm fatalities in a context where the women-led protests have spread to scores of cities.

Echoing an earlier warning by President Ebrahim Raisi, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei on Sunday “emphasised the need for decisive action without leniency” against the core instigators of the “riots”, the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said.

Hundreds of demonstrators, reformist activists and journalists have been arrested amid the mostly night-time demonstrations since unrest first broke out after Amini’s death on September 16.

Amini, whose Kurdish first name was Jhina, was detained three days before that for allegedly breaching rules mandating tightly-fitted hijab head coverings and which ban, among other things, ripped jeans and brightly coloured clothes.

Images circulated by IHR showed protesters on the streets of Tehran, shouting “death to the dictator”, purportedly after nightfall on Sunday.

Witnesses told AFP that protests were ongoing in several locations. Video footage showed demonstrations in Tabriz and Shiraz, among other places, with women removing their headscarves and protesters shouting against the authorities.

‘Rolling blackouts’

Iran’s largest protests in almost three years have seen security forces fire live rounds and bird shot, rights groups charge, while protesters have hurled rocks, torched police cars and set ablaze state buildings.

Some women protesters have burnt their hijabs in the rallies and cut off their hair, some dancing near large bonfires to the applause of crowds that have chanted “zan, zendegi, azadi” or “woman, life, freedom”.

Video of demonstrations on Saturday, verified by AFP, showed students ripping down a picture of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei outside a university in the northern province of Mazandaran.

Web monitor NetBlocks noted “rolling blackouts” and “widespread internet platform restrictions” on Sunday, with WhatsApp, Instagram and Skype having already been blocked.

This followed older bans on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Telegram.

Protests abroad have been held in solidarity with Iranian women in Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Istanbul, Madrid, New York and Paris, among other cities.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell deplored the security forces’ response to the unrest as “disproportionate... unjustifiable and unacceptable”.

Iran, which has been hit with tough economic sanctions over its nuclear programme, has blamed “foreign plots” for the unrest.

Iran’s foreign ministry said Sunday it had summoned Britain’s ambassador over what it described as an “invitation to riots” by Farsi-speaking media based in London, and Norway’s envoy over “unconstructive comments” made by his country’s parliament speaker.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Amir-Abdollahian criticised “the US interventionist approach in the affairs of Iran... including its provocative actions in supporting the rioters”.

Pro-government rally

Iran has also organised large rallies in defence of the hijab and conservative values.

Pro-government rallies were held Sunday, with the main event taking place in Enghelab (Revolution) Square in central Tehran, where demonstrators voiced support for mandatory hijab laws.

“Martyrs died so that this hijab will be on our head,” said demonstrator Nafiseh, 28, adding that she was opposed to making the wearing of the hijab voluntary.

Another demonstrator, 21-year-old student Atyieh, called for “strong action against the people who are leading” the protests.

The main reformist group inside Iran, the Union of Islamic Iran People’s Party, however, has called for the repeal of the mandatory dress code.

IHR reported on Sunday that an umbrella of Iranian teachers’ unions were calling on teachers and students to boycott classes on Monday and Wednesday in support of the protests.

Iranian authorities have yet to state the cause of death of Amini, who activists say died as a result of a blow to the head.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi has said Amini was not beaten and that “we must wait for the final opinion of the medical examiner”. — AFP

Thousands take part in anti-government protests in Iran | WNT


‘We’ll give our lives to Ayatollah Khamenei’ – Tehran recruits radical militias to crush Iranian protests over hijab woman who died in police custody
A woman takes part in a protest in Nicosia, Cyprus, following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran. Photo: Reuters/Yiannis Kourtoglou


Ahmed Vahdat

September 26 2022
Iran has recruited extremist foreign militias to clamp down on growing demonstrations in cities across the country, it emerged yesterday.

Militias from Syria, Lebanon and Iraq calling themselves “the volunteers from Islamic lands” announced in a social media post online that they were joining the Tehran regime’s clampdown on public dissent.

As demonstrators continued to protest against the fate of Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested for incorrectly wearing a hijab, the militia group said it was “spontaneously formed” and its members are “willing to give their lives to Ayatollah Khamenei”.

Its members are followers of Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force who was killed by a US drone attack in January last year.

Iranian opposition groups have identified them as radical Shia militias that take their orders directly from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Iran’s foreign ministry yesterday summoned the British ambassador to complain about “the presence of media outlets in London that instigate riot and destruction in Iran”. BBC Persian, ManoTo and Iran International TV operate from London and have covered Iran’s protests through their satellite channels.

Also yesterday, hundreds of British Iranians gathered at Iran’s embassy in London to support the protests and call on the British government to sever diplomatic ties with Tehran. There were clashes with police during the demonstration and at least one person was arrested.

Protests continued across Iranian cities yesterday with public figures increasingly siding with the protesters and condemning the regime’s heavy-handed response, which has led to at least 80 deaths, according to unconfirmed reports.

Demonstrations also took place around the world, including in Glasgow where a large group carried signs which read “Hijab murder” and “no to Islamic Republic of Iran”. Women were seen shaving their heads as part of the protest.

In a video message from Zurich, where he is president of the international competition jury at the city’s film festival, Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi invited artists all around the world to demonstrate their solidarity with the Iranian people “during these challenging times”.

“This society, especially these women, has travelled a harsh and painful path to this point, and now they have clearly reached a landmark,” he said.

Internet and phone lines have been cut off in Ms Amini’s home province of Kurdistan. In the Kurdish town of Oshnaviyeh, protesters drove the local Revolutionary Guards out of their barracks and seized bases used by the Basij militias, who act as the regime’s foot soldiers.

Meanwhile, Iranian lawyers have called on the United Nations to hold a referendum on the governance of the country.

“In the previous historic cases of free elections in Chile and South Africa, where the UN acted in accordance with its charter to uphold peace and security of the world, the outcome led to change of regimes in a peaceful way,” Saeid Dehghan, a member of the International Association of Lawyers, said.

“There is no reason why the same cannot be applied to Iran’s situation, where a repressive regime is rejected by millions of its citizens,” he added.


Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]

Mass protests in Iran over death of Mahsa 

Amini may assume dimensions of social 

uprising

ANI
26th September 2022, 11:55 GMT+10



















By John SolomouNicosia [Cyprus], 

September 26 (ANI): For more than a week, mass protests are being held in more than 80 towns and cities across the 31 provinces of Iran over the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman called Mahsa Amini, who died shortly after she was arrested by the hated morality police of the Theocratic regime. At least 41 people, including members of the security forces, were so far killed in clashes between protesters and anti-riot police and militia in escalating street violence which may rapidly assume the dimensions of a social uprising.

Mahsa Amini was arrested on September 13 as she was leaving a Tehran metro station with her brother and other relatives. She was arrested along with other women whose clothes did not comply with state regulations and taken away in a morality police van. Mahsa was in a coma for three days, then died "of natural causes," as the authorities claim, but according to activists, the cause of her death was a fatal blow to the head.

The incident unleashed huge anger among ordinary Iranians, who find it extremely difficult to make ends meet, living under international sanctions, without seeing any visible sign of improvement in the economy of the country, which is badly mismanaged. Many Iranians realize that they have less and less to lose and feel strongly repressed by the strict rules imposed by the Iranian regime.

Women in Iran are even more repressed as they must obey a strict dress code or risk being arrested and ill-treated by the morality police, known as Gasht-e Ershad, which means Islamic Guidance Patrol.

The regulations mandate that women cover their hair, usually with a headscarf known as a hijab, and wear clothing that is loose-fitting and does not expose their chests. To enter some mosques, women are required to wear chadors - a large piece of cloth that leaves only the face or the eyes visible.

Once more, following the death of Mahsa, women in Iran are at the forefront of the current protests, as they did back in 2009 during the Green Movement protests that demanded the removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office when hundreds were arrested and many died, and the brutally suppressed protests in November 2019 when the government ordered a 50 per cent increase in the subsidized price of gasoline. It is estimated that more than 1500 people were killed during the gasoline protests.

After Mahsa Amina's death, some women publicly cut their hair and burned their headscarves, in defiance of the Iranian authorities. Immediately, Mahsa became a symbol of the protest movement.

The incident has triggered angry protests not only by women but also by hundreds of thousands of men who had a woman relative insulted or mistreated by the morality police and who want to express their resentment for the repressive policies of the Iranian state.

Initially protests concentrated in Iran's Kurdish populated regions, which have declared a general strike, but later spread like a wildfire to more than 80 cities and towns.

Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian President, has promised a thorough investigation to be carried out into Mahsa's death. While blaming conspirators for inciting unrest, he called the events "a riot." Raisi pledged to crack down on "those who oppose the country's security and tranquillity" and said it was necessary to distinguish between protest and disturbing public order and security.

According to Iranian state-backed news agency Tasmin, at least 1,200 people have been arrested.

In southern Iran, protesters burned a huge portrait of General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in January 2020 by a US strike in Iraq. In Tehran and many other towns, protesters set fire to police stations and police cars and chanted anti-regime slogans, Irna news agency reported.

Protesters express their deep resentment and anger that has been building over the years and they clash with the police and paramilitary groups sent to dispel them, torching police stations and shouting slogans against the "dictator", meaning Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Yalda Zarbakch, Head of Deutsche Welle Persian Service says: "Demonstrators are tearing down posters of the revolutionary leaders Khamenei and Khomeini, burning them, and loudly demanding the fall of the entire political system. More and more people have turned their backs on the regime, its ideology and even Islam as a whole. And this is now true even of people from more traditional classes of society."Last Thursday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) called on the judiciary to prosecute people who are circulating "false news and rumours."Trying to prevent protestors from gathering and stop images of the protests from reaching the outside world, the Iranian regime has imposed tough restrictions on the use of the internet and access to Instagram and WhatsApp, according to residents and internet watchdog NetBlocks. On Saturday one of the biggest mobile phone operators disrupted its service.

SpaceX and Starlink owner Elon Musk said he would seek an exemption from sanctions to offer his company's Starlink satellite service, which has a network of 2200 satellites in orbit, to Iranian people.

The US administration immediately responded by announcing that it was easing the relevant export restrictions. Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State said that Starlink will "help counter the Iranian government's efforts to surveil and censor its citizens" and pointedly added: " It is clear that the Iranian government is afraid of its own people."Iran's Theocracy is currently faced with a huge dilemma: Either relax the strict hijab rules that are a distinguishing feature of the Islamic Republic, calming in this way popular anger against it- but risking more protests demanding a change in the regime- or continue its relentless crackdown on dissent, increasing further popular anger- risking eventually a big social uprising that could bring about its final downfall. (ANI)

Protesters take to Iran’s streets for 10th night but situation obscure as regime takes country offline

Protesters take to Iran’s streets for 10th night but situation obscure as regime takes country offline
The challenge to the authorities is now said to be the biggest since 2009's Green Revolution movement. / Social media.

By bne IntelIiNews September 25, 2022



Establishing the latest situation in Iran, a country on September 25 torn by violent unrest for a tenth straight night, has become a formidable task for foreign media. Most communication with the country is restricted to telephone calls, given the government’s decision to largely take Iranians offline to disrupt those who want to topple the regime. There is little reporting from the ground.

Whether the authorities have substantially stepped up their attempts to put down the protests is not even clear to many at different ends of the country. President Ebrahim Raisi on September 25 pledged to crack down on “those who oppose the country’s security and tranquility”. The protesters, he said, would be dealt with “decisively”. The head of Iran's powerful judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, earlier in the day was reported by the judiciary's official Mizan Online media channel as emphasising "the need for decisive action without leniency" against the primary instigators of what he described as "riots".

Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, called Iran's crackdown "unjustifiable" and "unacceptable."

The authorities are referring to around 40 people killed during clashes between protesters and security forces, including five security personnel. But activists say the death toll is at least 50 and likely to be even higher. Many hundreds have been arrested.

Demonstrations have spread to most of Iran’s 31 provinces and almost all urban centres. The weekend saw demonstrators rally in support of the protesters in Iran in countries including Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Lebanon, Turkey, the UK, Canada and the United States.

The protests in the theocratic state began as a reaction to the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, an ethnic Kurd who fell into a coma and died after an encounter with Tehran morality police who were enforcing laws on the wearing of the hijab head covering and other legally decreed attire by women. Witnesses have claimed Amini was beaten. Officials have denied that was the case but have promised a probe into the events that led up to her death. The cause of death would be established by a medical examiner, they said.

Observers have started referring to the demonstrations as the biggest challenge to the regime since the anti-government protest in 2009, known as the green revolution, which followed contentious presidential elections.

“The main difference between the current protest compared to the green movement in 2009 is that now people are fighting back; they are not afraid of the brutal regime,” Sima Sabet, an Iranian journalist and presenter on the Iran International TV station, told the Guardian.

“Demonstrators are now burning ambulances because the government is using ambulances to move their security forces not to rescue people. The protesters are now using different tactics; they move between all cities and make it hard for security forces to control all locations,” Sabet added, also noting: “They have tactics about how to send their videos outside of Iran despite the cut-off of the internet… [and] for the first time now in Iran women are burning their hijabs with the support of men.”

Meir Javedanfar, who teaches Iranian politics at Reichman University in Israel, was quoted by Reuters as describing the protests as a milestone for Iranians angered by "a corrupt and incompetent regime". "These protests will not be the last. We will see more. But we are unlikely to see a revolution until and unless there is a leader and at least part of Iran's armed forces starts siding with the people against the regime. None of this has happened yet," he said.

One tactic used by the state against the protesters is the organising of counter-demonstrations. Such events, in which some sections of crowds called for the execution of “conspirators” behind the unrest, took place in several Iranian cities on September 23.

Sources described to the BBC how in parts of at least one small city, Oshnavieh, in northwest Iran’s West Azerbaijan province, government forces fled after losing effective control. They were said to have retreated to the outskirts before returning and regaining control.

State media denied the claims, saying protesters had stormed three outposts of the Basij Organisation, a paramilitary associated with the government's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In terms of the level of the security forces’ response to the protests, Amnesty International has warned that evidence it gathered indicated "a harrowing pattern of Iranian security forces deliberately and unlawfully firing live ammunition at protesters". Government forces, it alleged, shot 19 people dead—including three children—on the night of September 21 alone.

US-based media watchdog the Committee to Protect Journalists said 11 journalists have been detained in Iran in the past week.

Radio Farda reported that on September 25 in Tehran, students gathered at Tehran University to chant slogans including "Freedom, freedom, freedom!" and "We will fight, we will die, we will take back Iran!"

On September 23, the US announced that it was easing export restrictions on Iran to expand access to internet services. The Treasury said in a statement that it intended to increase support for internet freedom in Iran by updating a general licence allowing access to certain services, software and hardware.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk responded to the US announcement by saying that he would activate the firm's satellite internet service, Starlink, to cover Iran.

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UPDATE 2

French police use tear gas on Iran protesters in Paris

People face riot police as they take part in a demonstration in support of Iranian 
protesters in Paris, on September 25, 2022. — AFP pic
Monday, 26 Sep 2022 7:18 AM MYT

PARIS, Sept 26 — French police on Sunday used tear gas and employed anti-riot tactics to prevent hundreds of people protesting in Paris from marching on Tehran’s embassy, AFP reporters and eyewitnesses said.

In London meanwhile, police made several arrests as officers clashed with protesters trying to break through barriers protecting Iran’s UK embassy.

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The protesters in Paris had gathered for the second day running to express outrage at the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by Iran’s morality police last week — and to show solidarity with the protests that have erupted in Iran.

The demonstration had begun peacefully at Trocadero Square in the centre of the capital. Some demonstrators chanted “Death to the Islamic Republic” and slogans against supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But police in full anti-riot armour, backed by a line of vans, blocked the path of the protesters as they sought to approach the Iranian embassy a short distance away.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.

In a statement, Paris police confirmed that tear gas had been used saying “on several occasions groups tried to break through the roadblock set up near the Iranian embassy. The police used... tear gas to repel them.”

They said some 4,000 people had gathered for the demonstration. One person was arrested for “outrage and rebellion” and one officer was slightly hurt, said police.

Breach police lines

The use of tear gas angered activists already upset by President Emmanuel Macron’s talks and public handshake with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week.

“Police used tear gas to disperse Iranian protesters in Paris in an effort to protect the Islamic Republic embassy,” tweeted the US-based Iranian women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad.

“Meanwhile, @EmmanuelMacron shook hands with the murderous president of Iran.”

Protesters also repeated the viral Persian chants used by protesters inside Iran such as “zan, zendegi, azadi!” (woman, life, freedom!) and also its Kurdish equivalent “jin, jiyan, azadi!” Amini, also known as Jhina Amini, was Kurdish.

“In view of what is happening, we Iranians are fully mobilised,” said Nina, a Paris-based French Iranian who asked that her last name was not given. “We must react given that we are far from our homeland, our country.

“It’s really time we all come together so we can really speak up so the whole world can really hear our voice,” she added.

Similarly tense scenes took place in London, where images posted on social media showed protesters seeking to break through police security barriers outside the Iranian embassy there.

London police said a large number of protesters had gathered outside the embassy, “with a substantial group intent on causing disorder.”

“Further police resources were brought in to support those on the ground after protesters attempted to breach police lines and had thrown missiles at officers,” the police said in a statement.

Police made five arrests and several officers received minor injuries, the statement added. — AFP


Unrest erupts near Iranian embassy in

 London over Mahsa Amini's death

Violent street protests erupted outside the Iranian embassy in London on Sunday, with rocks thrown at police and five protesters arrested.

Associated Press, London , September 26, 2022


Demonstrators hold placards outside the Iranian Embassy in London. (Photo: AP)

Violent street protests erupted outside the Iranian embassy in London on Sunday, with rocks thrown at police and five protesters arrested.

Large crowds have been gathering all week outside the Knightsbridge compound in protest against the death in Iranian police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iran. She had been arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly breaking headscarf rules and died on Sept. 16.

London’s Metropolitan Police said that “a substantial group” of the large crowd were “intent on causing disorder” and confirmed that reinforcements had been called in when protesters tried to break police lines and storm towards the embassy compound.

A number of police officers were injured in the skirmishes though none seriously, and some arrests were made for violent disorder.

The London street protest comes at a time of growing hostility between Britain and Iran over the death in custody of Amini. The Iranian police said she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, but her family has cast doubt on that account.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry’s website said it summoned Simon Shercliff, the U.K.’s ambassador to Iran, on Saturday and protested the hosting of critical Farsi-language media outlets. The ministry alleges the news outlets have provoked disturbances and the spread of riots in Iran at the top of their programs. Protests over Amini’s death have spread across at least 46 cities, towns and villages in Iran.

Iran said it considers the news agencies’ reporting to be interference in Iran’s internal affairs and acts against its sovereignty.

The beefed-up police operation in the vicinity of the Iranian Embassy in London’s Princes Gate will remain in place.


Police clash with Iran protesters in London

and Paris

Sun, September 25, 2022 


Police clashed with demonstrators trying to reach Iran's embassies in London and Paris on Sunday.

French police used tear gas and employed anti-riot tactics to prevent hundreds of people protesting in the capital from marching on Tehran's diplomatic mission, AFP reporters and eyewitnesses said.

In London, police said they made 12 arrests and five officers were "seriously injured" as demonstrators tried to break through barriers protecting Iran's UK embassy.

The protesters in Paris had gathered for the second day running to express outrage at the death of Mahsa Amini following her arrest by Iran's morality police -- and to show solidarity with the protests that have erupted in Iran, at a cost of at least 41 lives.

Similar rallies in support of Iranian women have occurred around the world.

The demonstration had began peacefully at Trocadero Square in the centre of the French capital. Some protesters chanted "Death to the Islamic Republic" and slogans against supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But police in full anti-riot armour, backed by a line of vans, blocked the path of the protesters as they sought to approach the Iranian embassy a short distance away.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters.

In a statement, Paris police said that "on several occasions groups tried to break through the roadblock set up near the Iranian embassy. The police used... tear gas to repel them."

They said about 4,000 people had gathered for the demonstration. One person was arrested for "outrage and rebellion" and one officer was slightly hurt, said police.
- Breach police lines -

The use of tear gas angered activists already upset by President Emmanuel Macron's talks and public handshake with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last week.

"Police used tear gas to disperse Iranian protesters in Paris in an effort to protect the Islamic Republic embassy," tweeted the US-based Iranian women's rights activist Masih Alinejad.

"Meanwhile, @EmmanuelMacron shook hands with the murderous president of Iran."

Protesters also repeated the viral Persian chants used by protesters inside Iran such as "zan, zendegi, azadi!" (woman, life, freedom!) and also its Kurdish equivalent "jin, jiyan, azadi!" Amini, also known as Jhina Amini, was Kurdish.

"In view of what is happening, we Iranians are fully mobilised," said Nina, a Paris-based French Iranian who asked that her last name was not given. "We must react given that we are far from our homeland, our country.


"It's really time we all come together so we can really speak up so the whole world can really hear our voice," she added.

Similarly tense scenes took place in London, where images posted on social media showed protesters seeking to break through police security barriers outside the Iranian embassy there.

London's Metropolitan Police said "masonry, bottles and other projectiles were thrown and a number of officers were injured. At least five are in hospital with injuries including broken bones."

Earlier, police said a large number of protesters had gathered outside the embassy "with a substantial group intent on causing disorder."

sjw/jj/lcm/it


Watch | Police clash with protesters in

central London and Paris, several injured

wionnewsweb@gmail.com (Wion Web Team) - 

Protesters clashed with police in London and Paris when they attempted to enter Iran's embassies on Sunday.

Watch | Police clash with protesters in central London and Paris, 

several injured© Provided by WION

As per AFP witnesses, French police deployed tear gas and anti-riot techniques to stop hundreds of protesters from moving toward Tehran's diplomatic mission while protesting in the capital.

In London, police reported that till now 12 arrests have been made, along with five police officers "severely injured" as protesters attempted to storm through barricades surrounding the embassy. Several offenders were injured as masonry, bottles, and other objects were thrown. At least five people were severely injured.



Also read | Iran: Iranians continue to protest for the 10th consecutive night, violating judiciary's warning

For the second consecutive day in Paris, hundreds gathered to voice their outrage over the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran and to show their support for the unrest that began in the country. As per Iran's official toll, 41 lives have been claimed within 10 days of the protest.



The protest at Trocadero Square started calmly. The protesters tried to approach the nearby Iranian embassy but were blocked by the police using tear gas. The French police, in a statement, said, "on several occasions groups tried to break through the roadblock set up near the Iranian embassy. The police used... tear gas to repel them," AFP reported.

Also read | Iran expresses displeasure over US support for Mahsa Amini stir, calls protesters 'rioters'

Death to the Islamic Republic and other anti-supreme leaders Ayatollah Ali Khamenei chants were screamed by the protesters. Almost 4,000 people showed up for the protest.

Agitated protesters were already unhappy because French President Emmanuel Macron shook hands with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi last week outside the UN General Assembly.

Similar protests have been taking place in several parts of the world, showing their support for Iranian women.

(With inputs from agencies)

Iranian Americans demonstrate in Atlanta

Sep 25, 2022
Associated Press

Iranian Americans in Atlanta demonstrated on Sunday in support of protesters in Iran. (Sept. 25)

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