Protests in Iran over woman’s death reach key oil industry
By JON GAMBRELL
This is a locator map for Iran with its capital, Tehran. (AP Photo)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Workers at refineries crucial for Iran’s oil and natural gas production protested Monday over the death of a 22-year-old woman, online videos appeared to show, escalating the crisis faced by Tehran.
The demonstrations in Abadan and Asaluyeh mark the first time the unrest surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini threatened the industry crucial to the coffers of Iran’s long-sanctioned theocratic government.
While it remains unclear if other workers will follow, the protests come as demonstrations rage on in cities, towns and villages across Iran over the Sept. 16 death of Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police in Tehran. Early on Monday, the sound of apparent gunshots and explosions echoed through the streets of a city in western Iran, while security forces reportedly killed one man in a nearby village, activists said.
Iran’s government insists Amini was not mistreated, but her family says her body showed bruises and other signs of beating. Subsequent videos have shown security forces beating and shoving female protesters, including women who have torn off their mandatory headscarf, or hijab.
From the capital, Tehran, and elsewhere, online videos have emerged despite authorities disrupting the internet. Videos on Monday showed university and high school students demonstrating and chanting, with some women and girls marching through the streets without headscarves as the protests continue into a fourth week. The demonstrations represent one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 2009 Green Movement protests.
Online videos analyzed by The Associated Press showed dozens of workers gathered at the refineries in Asaluyeh, some 925 kilometers (575 miles) south of Tehran, on the Persian Gulf. The vast complex takes in natural gas from the massive offshore natural gas field that Iran shares with Qatar.
In one video, the gathered workers — some with their faces covered — chant “shameless” and “death to the dictator.” The chants have been features across protests dealing with Amini’s death.
“This is the bloody year Seyyed Ali will be overthrown,” the protesters chanted, refusing to use the title ayatollah to refer to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. An ayatollah is a high-ranking Shiite cleric.
The details in the videos correspond with each and to known features of the facility compared against satellite photos taken Sunday.
Iran did not acknowledge any disruption at the facility, though the semiofficial Tasnim news agency described the incident as a salary dispute. Iran is one of the world’s top natural gas suppliers, just after the U.S. and Russia.
In Abadan, a city once home to the world’s largest oil refinery, videos also showed workers walking off the job. The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran cited a statement it said came from the Contractual Oil Workers Protest Organizing Council that called for a strike over “the suppression and killings.”
“We declare that now is the time for widespread protests and to prepare ourselves for nationwide and back-breaking strikes,” the statement said. “This is the beginning of the road and we will continue our protests together with the entire nation day after day.”
The violence early Monday in western Iran occurred in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan province, as well as in the village of Salas Babajani near the border with Iraq, according to a Kurdish group called the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. Amini was Kurdish and her death has been felt particularly in Iran’s Kurdish region, where demonstrations began Sept. 17 at her funeral there.
Hengaw posted footage it described as smoke rising in one neighborhood in Sanandaj, with what sounded like rapid rifle fire echoing through the night sky. The shouts of people could be heard.
There was no immediate word if people had been hurt in the violence. Hengaw later posted a video online of what appeared to be collected shell casings from rifles and shotguns, as well as spent tear gas canisters.
Authorities offered no immediate explanation about the violence early Monday in Sanandaj, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Tehran. Esmail Zarei Kousha, the governor of Iran’s Kurdistan province, alleged without providing evidence that unknown groups “plotted to kill young people on the streets” on Saturday, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported Monday.
Kousha also accused these unnamed groups that day of shooting a young man in the head and killing him — an attack that activists have roundly blamed on Iranian security forces. They say Iranian forces opened fire after the man honked his car horn at them. Honking has become one of the ways activists have been expressing civil disobedience — an action that has seen riot police in other videos smashing the windshields of passing vehicles.
In the village of Salas Babajani, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Sanandaj, Iranian security forces repeatedly shot a 22-year-old man protesting there who later died of his wounds, Hengaw said. It said others had been wounded in the shooting.
It remains unclear how many people have been killed so far. State television last suggested at least 41 people had been killed in the demonstrations as of Sept. 24. There’s been no update from Iran’s government since.
An Oslo-based group, Iran Human Rights, estimates at least 185 people have been killed. This includes an estimated 90 people killed by security forces in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan amid demonstrations against a police officer accused of rape in a separate case. Iranian authorities have described the Zahedan violence as involving unnamed separatists, without providing details or evidence.
Meanwhile, a prison riot has struck the city of Rasht, killing several inmates there, a prosecutor reportedly said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the riot at Lakan Prison was linked to the ongoing protests, though Rasht has seen heavy demonstrations in recent weeks since Amini’s death.
The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Gilan provincial prosecutor Mehdi Fallah Miri as saying, “some prisoners died because of their wounds as the electricity was cut (at the prison) because of the damage.” He also alleged prisoners refused to allow authorities access to those wounded.
Miri described the riot as breaking out in a wing of a prison housing death penalty inmates.
___
Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
By JON GAMBRELL
This is a locator map for Iran with its capital, Tehran. (AP Photo)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Workers at refineries crucial for Iran’s oil and natural gas production protested Monday over the death of a 22-year-old woman, online videos appeared to show, escalating the crisis faced by Tehran.
The demonstrations in Abadan and Asaluyeh mark the first time the unrest surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini threatened the industry crucial to the coffers of Iran’s long-sanctioned theocratic government.
While it remains unclear if other workers will follow, the protests come as demonstrations rage on in cities, towns and villages across Iran over the Sept. 16 death of Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police in Tehran. Early on Monday, the sound of apparent gunshots and explosions echoed through the streets of a city in western Iran, while security forces reportedly killed one man in a nearby village, activists said.
Iran’s government insists Amini was not mistreated, but her family says her body showed bruises and other signs of beating. Subsequent videos have shown security forces beating and shoving female protesters, including women who have torn off their mandatory headscarf, or hijab.
From the capital, Tehran, and elsewhere, online videos have emerged despite authorities disrupting the internet. Videos on Monday showed university and high school students demonstrating and chanting, with some women and girls marching through the streets without headscarves as the protests continue into a fourth week. The demonstrations represent one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 2009 Green Movement protests.
Online videos analyzed by The Associated Press showed dozens of workers gathered at the refineries in Asaluyeh, some 925 kilometers (575 miles) south of Tehran, on the Persian Gulf. The vast complex takes in natural gas from the massive offshore natural gas field that Iran shares with Qatar.
In one video, the gathered workers — some with their faces covered — chant “shameless” and “death to the dictator.” The chants have been features across protests dealing with Amini’s death.
“This is the bloody year Seyyed Ali will be overthrown,” the protesters chanted, refusing to use the title ayatollah to refer to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. An ayatollah is a high-ranking Shiite cleric.
The details in the videos correspond with each and to known features of the facility compared against satellite photos taken Sunday.
Iran did not acknowledge any disruption at the facility, though the semiofficial Tasnim news agency described the incident as a salary dispute. Iran is one of the world’s top natural gas suppliers, just after the U.S. and Russia.
In Abadan, a city once home to the world’s largest oil refinery, videos also showed workers walking off the job. The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran cited a statement it said came from the Contractual Oil Workers Protest Organizing Council that called for a strike over “the suppression and killings.”
“We declare that now is the time for widespread protests and to prepare ourselves for nationwide and back-breaking strikes,” the statement said. “This is the beginning of the road and we will continue our protests together with the entire nation day after day.”
The violence early Monday in western Iran occurred in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan province, as well as in the village of Salas Babajani near the border with Iraq, according to a Kurdish group called the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. Amini was Kurdish and her death has been felt particularly in Iran’s Kurdish region, where demonstrations began Sept. 17 at her funeral there.
Hengaw posted footage it described as smoke rising in one neighborhood in Sanandaj, with what sounded like rapid rifle fire echoing through the night sky. The shouts of people could be heard.
There was no immediate word if people had been hurt in the violence. Hengaw later posted a video online of what appeared to be collected shell casings from rifles and shotguns, as well as spent tear gas canisters.
Authorities offered no immediate explanation about the violence early Monday in Sanandaj, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Tehran. Esmail Zarei Kousha, the governor of Iran’s Kurdistan province, alleged without providing evidence that unknown groups “plotted to kill young people on the streets” on Saturday, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported Monday.
Kousha also accused these unnamed groups that day of shooting a young man in the head and killing him — an attack that activists have roundly blamed on Iranian security forces. They say Iranian forces opened fire after the man honked his car horn at them. Honking has become one of the ways activists have been expressing civil disobedience — an action that has seen riot police in other videos smashing the windshields of passing vehicles.
In the village of Salas Babajani, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Sanandaj, Iranian security forces repeatedly shot a 22-year-old man protesting there who later died of his wounds, Hengaw said. It said others had been wounded in the shooting.
It remains unclear how many people have been killed so far. State television last suggested at least 41 people had been killed in the demonstrations as of Sept. 24. There’s been no update from Iran’s government since.
An Oslo-based group, Iran Human Rights, estimates at least 185 people have been killed. This includes an estimated 90 people killed by security forces in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan amid demonstrations against a police officer accused of rape in a separate case. Iranian authorities have described the Zahedan violence as involving unnamed separatists, without providing details or evidence.
Meanwhile, a prison riot has struck the city of Rasht, killing several inmates there, a prosecutor reportedly said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the riot at Lakan Prison was linked to the ongoing protests, though Rasht has seen heavy demonstrations in recent weeks since Amini’s death.
The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Gilan provincial prosecutor Mehdi Fallah Miri as saying, “some prisoners died because of their wounds as the electricity was cut (at the prison) because of the damage.” He also alleged prisoners refused to allow authorities access to those wounded.
Miri described the riot as breaking out in a wing of a prison housing death penalty inmates.
___
Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
John M. Crisp: The amazing courage of Iranian women and girls
TRIBUNE PUBLISHING
2022/10/10
2022/10/10
A picture obtained by AFP outside Iran, on Sept. 21, 2022, shows Iranian demonstrators taking to the streets of the capital Tehran during a protest for Mahsa Amini, days after she died in police custody. - -/Getty Images North America/TNS
It’s important to celebrate courage wherever we find it.
Since Sept. 16, we’ve witnessed amazing courage in dozens of Iranian cities, as thousands have protested the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in Tehran in the custody of the so-called morality police.
Her offense? She was allegedly in violation of the hijab rule, a mandate imposed shortly after the Islamic revolution of 1979. Iranian women are forbidden to appear in public without a long, loose robe and a head covering.
Women in violation of this rule may be accosted on the streets, lectured, fined or arrested. Mahsa Amini was reportedly beaten by the police. Photos on social media show her unconscious in a hospital bed, with bruises around her eyes and bleeding from an ear.
Thousands marched in protests largely driven by women. It’s impressive to see videos of Iranian women and girls tearing off their much-hated hijabs and throwing them into fires.
The danger these women face cannot be overstated. Iranian officials have responded with brutality. Many protesters have been arrested. They likely face torture and imprisonment. More than 130 have been killed, and some sources say that the figure is likely much higher.
The anger — and the courage — of these Iranian women reflects deep discontent. Many are just tired of being forced to wear a scarf over their hair when they go out in public. Many Iranian women despise the hijab because it symbolizes their supposed inferior status and the “right” of men to tell women how to look and behave.
But these protests represent something larger, as well: an intense craving for modernity and the freedoms of the West that permeates much of Iranian society. This longing for freedom is eloquently described in the books of Iran experts Sandra Mackey and Elaine Sciolino. In “The Shia Revival,” Vali Nasr notes that in 2006 Persian was the third most common language on the internet, and that young Iranians maintained over 80,000 blogs. The writings of Immanuel Kant, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and other Westerners sell well in Iran.
A primary narrative of Middle Eastern tension is Iran (Shia) versus Saudi Arabia (Sunni). To the extent that we have any business taking sides, we’ve chosen poorly.
Iran has a democratic tradition that dates to 1905, when a revolution diminished monarchical power and established a parliament. Most Americans are unaware of the systematic subversion of democracy in Iran by the U.S. and Britain throughout the 20th century, including a CIA-driven coup in 1953 that kept an autocratic shah in power until his tyranny made the 1979 Islamic Revolution almost inevitable.
But every Iranian is aware of this history. Nevertheless, many of them still long for the modernity and moderation of the West.
In the meantime, we’ve courted Saudi Arabia, a brutal, oppressive monarchy that, last week, betrayed us by conniving with Russia to cut OPEC production and keep oil prices high.
One of the great blunders of the Trump administration was the abrogation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a 2015 agreement between Iran and the U.S. that limited Iran’s nuclear development in exchange for sanctions relief.
The deal was working. Even Trump’s Defense secretary, Jim Mattis, said that the JCPOA’s verification procedures were “robust,” and he did not dispute the findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which confirmed Iran’s compliance.
The JCPOA bolstered the standing of Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani; Trump’s rejection of the deal in 2018 helped Iranian hard-liners elect the rigid, reactionary Ebrahim Raisi. In short, Trump gave the hard-line mullahs what they need most — a treacherous, deal-breaking external enemy.
A new iteration of the JCPOA should be a top priority of the Biden administration, even if it requires easing our sanctions to achieve it. The goal isn’t to appease the hard-liners. It’s to strengthen the moderates — there are more of them than we think — and to prevent Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon.
If Iranian women and girls have the courage to protest the tyranny of the mullahs, we should have the courage to say that we made a mistake.
It’s important to celebrate courage wherever we find it.
Since Sept. 16, we’ve witnessed amazing courage in dozens of Iranian cities, as thousands have protested the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in Tehran in the custody of the so-called morality police.
Her offense? She was allegedly in violation of the hijab rule, a mandate imposed shortly after the Islamic revolution of 1979. Iranian women are forbidden to appear in public without a long, loose robe and a head covering.
Women in violation of this rule may be accosted on the streets, lectured, fined or arrested. Mahsa Amini was reportedly beaten by the police. Photos on social media show her unconscious in a hospital bed, with bruises around her eyes and bleeding from an ear.
Thousands marched in protests largely driven by women. It’s impressive to see videos of Iranian women and girls tearing off their much-hated hijabs and throwing them into fires.
The danger these women face cannot be overstated. Iranian officials have responded with brutality. Many protesters have been arrested. They likely face torture and imprisonment. More than 130 have been killed, and some sources say that the figure is likely much higher.
The anger — and the courage — of these Iranian women reflects deep discontent. Many are just tired of being forced to wear a scarf over their hair when they go out in public. Many Iranian women despise the hijab because it symbolizes their supposed inferior status and the “right” of men to tell women how to look and behave.
But these protests represent something larger, as well: an intense craving for modernity and the freedoms of the West that permeates much of Iranian society. This longing for freedom is eloquently described in the books of Iran experts Sandra Mackey and Elaine Sciolino. In “The Shia Revival,” Vali Nasr notes that in 2006 Persian was the third most common language on the internet, and that young Iranians maintained over 80,000 blogs. The writings of Immanuel Kant, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and other Westerners sell well in Iran.
A primary narrative of Middle Eastern tension is Iran (Shia) versus Saudi Arabia (Sunni). To the extent that we have any business taking sides, we’ve chosen poorly.
Iran has a democratic tradition that dates to 1905, when a revolution diminished monarchical power and established a parliament. Most Americans are unaware of the systematic subversion of democracy in Iran by the U.S. and Britain throughout the 20th century, including a CIA-driven coup in 1953 that kept an autocratic shah in power until his tyranny made the 1979 Islamic Revolution almost inevitable.
But every Iranian is aware of this history. Nevertheless, many of them still long for the modernity and moderation of the West.
In the meantime, we’ve courted Saudi Arabia, a brutal, oppressive monarchy that, last week, betrayed us by conniving with Russia to cut OPEC production and keep oil prices high.
One of the great blunders of the Trump administration was the abrogation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a 2015 agreement between Iran and the U.S. that limited Iran’s nuclear development in exchange for sanctions relief.
The deal was working. Even Trump’s Defense secretary, Jim Mattis, said that the JCPOA’s verification procedures were “robust,” and he did not dispute the findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which confirmed Iran’s compliance.
The JCPOA bolstered the standing of Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani; Trump’s rejection of the deal in 2018 helped Iranian hard-liners elect the rigid, reactionary Ebrahim Raisi. In short, Trump gave the hard-line mullahs what they need most — a treacherous, deal-breaking external enemy.
A new iteration of the JCPOA should be a top priority of the Biden administration, even if it requires easing our sanctions to achieve it. The goal isn’t to appease the hard-liners. It’s to strengthen the moderates — there are more of them than we think — and to prevent Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon.
If Iranian women and girls have the courage to protest the tyranny of the mullahs, we should have the courage to say that we made a mistake.
Fame no shield from 'frightening' Iran arrest wave
Agence France-Presse
October 10, 2022
The Iranian protests over Mahsa Amini's death has drawn support from around the world
Well known figures
Even before the current surge in arrests, Iran was in the throes of a crackdown that had seen the detentions of prominent figures including filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, both of whom remain under arrest.
The list of those rounded up so far includes prominent athletes, artists, journalists, lawyers, activists, technology experts as well as students and ordinary members of the public.
International footballer Hossein Mahini was arrested for supporting the protests, while ex-football legend Ali Karimi, believed to be living outside Iran, has been charged over his social media activity.
Ali Daei, once the world's top international goalscorer in men's football, had his passport confiscated on returning to Tehran from abroad after bitterly criticising the Islamic republic on social media.
Reports from Iran also said the passports of traditional singer Homayoun Shajarian, the son the of legendary singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian and an acclaimed performer himself, and prominent actress Sahar Dolatshahi had been confiscated at the airport.
Singer Shervin Hajipour, whose song about the protests became a viral sensation, was detained although he has since been released on bail and posted a video shared by media inside Iran where he described the situation as a "misunderstanding".
Meanwhile, four Tehran lawyers known for dealing with sensitive cases -- Mahsa Gholamalizadeh, Saeid Jalilian, Milad Panahipour and Babak Paknia -- are all under arrest, the CHRI said.
'Frightening sign'
The Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says over two dozen journalists are being held including two female reporters, Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who exposed Amini's case by reporting respectively from her hospital and funeral.
Another prominent victim of the arrest wave was Amiremad Mirmirani, better known as Jadi, one of Iran's most prominent technology bloggers who was picked up on October 5 when security agents stormed his house.
"This latest crackdown on technologists is a frightening sign that no voice or form of expression is being spared in this fiercely securitised atmosphere," rights organizations including Article 19, a freedom of expression group, said in a statement.
Campaigner Hossein Ronaghi, who as a Wall Street Journal contributor was bitterly critical of soft Western media coverage of Iran, has now been held for two weeks in solitary confinement and is suffering from a broken leg sustained in custody, according to his brother Hassan.
The repression has sparked protests around the world, including France JULIEN DE ROSA AFP
Young Iranian woman Donya Rad was detained in late September after a picture that went viral on social media showed her and a friend enjoying breakfast in a Tehran cafe without their headscarves.
She was finally released over the weekend after 10 days in detention, her sister Dina wrote on Twitter.
"This isn't a crackdown, it's an attempt to obliterate civil society," said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the CHRI. "Iran's government keeps revealing that it's terrified of its own people."
© 2022 AFP
Agence France-Presse
October 10, 2022
The Iranian protests over Mahsa Amini's death has drawn support from around the world
RINGO CHIU AFP
An international footballer, an influential tech-blogger, a woman who was merely eating her breakfast without a headscarf.
In Iran no-one who expresses dissent from the ruling theocratic system, including the famous, is safe from being caught in the dragnet of a crackdown that has seen hundreds arrested in more than three weeks of protests.
Activists say that when the unrest erupted last month over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested by the notorious morality police, the authorities initially resorted to lethal force, killing dozens in the space of days.
But, as well as keeping up the threat of force, authorities are increasingly resorting to arrests, with a particular focus on those who promote videos of protests or anti-regime messages on social media.
"They have gone for all for them -- cultural activists, women's rights activists and journalists. Anyone who could transmit information to the outside world or to the internal networks," said Roya Boroumand, director of the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center.
"There have been mass arrests," she added.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), a New York-based non-government group, said that according to its count at least 1,200 people have been arrested, including at least 92 members of civil society who were detained not at street protests but arbitrarily at their homes or at work.
'Most important tactic'
The nature of the current protests, and the authorities' reaction, are different to the last major street protests, in November 2019, when Amnesty International accused the authorities of killing at least 321 people in a week of bloodletting.
This time the demonstrations are spread across the country, involve a wide range of social groups, and have already lasted over three weeks.
They have taken many different forms, from street marches and student protests to individual acts of defiance such as women removing or even burning the obligatory headscarf.
The authorities' "most important tactic now is detaining hundreds, even thousands of people," said Shadi Sadr, director of the London-based Justice for Iran group, which seeks accountability for human rights violations in the Islamic republic.
"They don't kill on the scale they are capable of –- though they may do in the near future -- but by detaining hundreds of people who would be considered to be leading figures of these protests.
"They believe they can control the protests so that they slowly and gradually die down.
"If they conclude that this tactic is not working, they can use a final and decisive move," she warned. "We have to be ready for that."
An international footballer, an influential tech-blogger, a woman who was merely eating her breakfast without a headscarf.
In Iran no-one who expresses dissent from the ruling theocratic system, including the famous, is safe from being caught in the dragnet of a crackdown that has seen hundreds arrested in more than three weeks of protests.
Activists say that when the unrest erupted last month over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested by the notorious morality police, the authorities initially resorted to lethal force, killing dozens in the space of days.
But, as well as keeping up the threat of force, authorities are increasingly resorting to arrests, with a particular focus on those who promote videos of protests or anti-regime messages on social media.
"They have gone for all for them -- cultural activists, women's rights activists and journalists. Anyone who could transmit information to the outside world or to the internal networks," said Roya Boroumand, director of the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center.
"There have been mass arrests," she added.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), a New York-based non-government group, said that according to its count at least 1,200 people have been arrested, including at least 92 members of civil society who were detained not at street protests but arbitrarily at their homes or at work.
'Most important tactic'
The nature of the current protests, and the authorities' reaction, are different to the last major street protests, in November 2019, when Amnesty International accused the authorities of killing at least 321 people in a week of bloodletting.
This time the demonstrations are spread across the country, involve a wide range of social groups, and have already lasted over three weeks.
They have taken many different forms, from street marches and student protests to individual acts of defiance such as women removing or even burning the obligatory headscarf.
The authorities' "most important tactic now is detaining hundreds, even thousands of people," said Shadi Sadr, director of the London-based Justice for Iran group, which seeks accountability for human rights violations in the Islamic republic.
"They don't kill on the scale they are capable of –- though they may do in the near future -- but by detaining hundreds of people who would be considered to be leading figures of these protests.
"They believe they can control the protests so that they slowly and gradually die down.
"If they conclude that this tactic is not working, they can use a final and decisive move," she warned. "We have to be ready for that."
Well known figures
Even before the current surge in arrests, Iran was in the throes of a crackdown that had seen the detentions of prominent figures including filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, both of whom remain under arrest.
The list of those rounded up so far includes prominent athletes, artists, journalists, lawyers, activists, technology experts as well as students and ordinary members of the public.
International footballer Hossein Mahini was arrested for supporting the protests, while ex-football legend Ali Karimi, believed to be living outside Iran, has been charged over his social media activity.
Ali Daei, once the world's top international goalscorer in men's football, had his passport confiscated on returning to Tehran from abroad after bitterly criticising the Islamic republic on social media.
Reports from Iran also said the passports of traditional singer Homayoun Shajarian, the son the of legendary singer Mohammad Reza Shajarian and an acclaimed performer himself, and prominent actress Sahar Dolatshahi had been confiscated at the airport.
Singer Shervin Hajipour, whose song about the protests became a viral sensation, was detained although he has since been released on bail and posted a video shared by media inside Iran where he described the situation as a "misunderstanding".
Meanwhile, four Tehran lawyers known for dealing with sensitive cases -- Mahsa Gholamalizadeh, Saeid Jalilian, Milad Panahipour and Babak Paknia -- are all under arrest, the CHRI said.
'Frightening sign'
The Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says over two dozen journalists are being held including two female reporters, Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who exposed Amini's case by reporting respectively from her hospital and funeral.
Another prominent victim of the arrest wave was Amiremad Mirmirani, better known as Jadi, one of Iran's most prominent technology bloggers who was picked up on October 5 when security agents stormed his house.
"This latest crackdown on technologists is a frightening sign that no voice or form of expression is being spared in this fiercely securitised atmosphere," rights organizations including Article 19, a freedom of expression group, said in a statement.
Campaigner Hossein Ronaghi, who as a Wall Street Journal contributor was bitterly critical of soft Western media coverage of Iran, has now been held for two weeks in solitary confinement and is suffering from a broken leg sustained in custody, according to his brother Hassan.
The repression has sparked protests around the world, including France JULIEN DE ROSA AFPYoung Iranian woman Donya Rad was detained in late September after a picture that went viral on social media showed her and a friend enjoying breakfast in a Tehran cafe without their headscarves.
She was finally released over the weekend after 10 days in detention, her sister Dina wrote on Twitter.
"This isn't a crackdown, it's an attempt to obliterate civil society," said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the CHRI. "Iran's government keeps revealing that it's terrified of its own people."
© 2022 AFP
Gunfire, blasts in western Iran amid Mahsa Amini protests
By JON GAMBRELL
The violence early Monday occurred in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan province, as well as in the village of Salas Babajani near the border with Iraq, according to a Kurdish group called the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. Amini was a Kurdish woman and her death has been particularly felt in Iran’s Kurdish region, where demonstrations began Sept. 17 at her funeral there.
Hengaw posted footage it described as smoke rising in one neighborhood in Sanandaj, with what sounded like rapid rifle fire echoing through the night sky as the shouts of people could be heard.
There was no immediate word if people had been hurt in the violence. Hengaw later posted a video online of what appeared to be collected shell casings from rifles and shotguns, as well as spent tear gas canisters.
Authorities offered no immediate explanation about the violence early Monday in Sanandaj, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Tehran. Esmail Zarei Kousha, the governor of Iran’s Kurdistan province, alleged without providing evidence that unknown groups “plotted to kill young people on the streets” on Saturday, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported Monday.
Kousha also accused these unnamed groups that day of shooting a young man in the head and killing him — an attack that activists roundly have blamed on Iranian security forces. They say Iranian forces opened fire after the man honked his car horn at them. Honking has become one of the ways activists have been expressing civil disobedience — an action that has seen riot police in other videos smashing the windshields of passing vehicles.
In the village of Salas Babajani, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Sanandaj, Iranian security forces repeatedly shot a 22-year-old man protesting there who later died of his wounds, Hengaw said. It said others had been wounded in the shooting.
It remains unclear how many people have been killed in the demonstrations and the security force crackdown targeting them. State television last suggested at least 41 people had been killed in the demonstrations as of Sept. 24. In the over two weeks since, there’s been no update from Iran’s government.
An Oslo-based group called Iran Human Rights estimates at least 185 people have been killed, though that includes an estimated 90 people killed in violence in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan. Iranian authorities have described the Zahedan violence as involving unnamed separatists, though Iran Human Rights said the incident began as a protest over a separate incident involving rape allegations against a local police officer.
Meanwhile, a prison riot has struck the city of Rasht, killing some inmates there, a prosecutor reportedly said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the riot at Lakan Prison involved the ongoing protests, though Rasht has seen heavy demonstrations in recent weeks since Amini’s death.
The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Gilan provincial prosecutor Mehdi Fallah Miri as saying “some prisoners died because of their wounds as the electricity was cut (at the prison) because of the damage.” He also alleged prisoners refused to allow authorities to access those wounded.
Miri described the riot as breaking out in a wing of a prison housing death penalty inmates.
___
Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
By JON GAMBRELL
36 minutes ago
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The sound of apparent gunshots and explosions echoed early Monday through the streets of a western Iranian city at the epicenter of protests over the death of a 22-year-old woman, with at least one man reportedly killed by security forces in a village nearby, activists said.
The incidents come as demonstrations rage on in cities, towns and villages across Iran over the Sept. 16 death of Mahsa Amini, who died days after being detained by the morality police in Tehran. While Iran’s government insists Amini was not mistreated, videos of violent confrontations between women wearing their mandatory headscarf, or hijab, loosely have sparked suspicion she suffered physical abuse during her detention.
From Tehran and elsewhere, online videos have emerged despite authorities disrupting the internet showing women marching through the streets without the hijab, while others confront authorities and light fires in the street as the protests continue into a fourth week. The demonstrations represent one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 2009 Green Movement protests.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The sound of apparent gunshots and explosions echoed early Monday through the streets of a western Iranian city at the epicenter of protests over the death of a 22-year-old woman, with at least one man reportedly killed by security forces in a village nearby, activists said.
The incidents come as demonstrations rage on in cities, towns and villages across Iran over the Sept. 16 death of Mahsa Amini, who died days after being detained by the morality police in Tehran. While Iran’s government insists Amini was not mistreated, videos of violent confrontations between women wearing their mandatory headscarf, or hijab, loosely have sparked suspicion she suffered physical abuse during her detention.
From Tehran and elsewhere, online videos have emerged despite authorities disrupting the internet showing women marching through the streets without the hijab, while others confront authorities and light fires in the street as the protests continue into a fourth week. The demonstrations represent one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 2009 Green Movement protests.
The violence early Monday occurred in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan province, as well as in the village of Salas Babajani near the border with Iraq, according to a Kurdish group called the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. Amini was a Kurdish woman and her death has been particularly felt in Iran’s Kurdish region, where demonstrations began Sept. 17 at her funeral there.
Hengaw posted footage it described as smoke rising in one neighborhood in Sanandaj, with what sounded like rapid rifle fire echoing through the night sky as the shouts of people could be heard.
There was no immediate word if people had been hurt in the violence. Hengaw later posted a video online of what appeared to be collected shell casings from rifles and shotguns, as well as spent tear gas canisters.
Authorities offered no immediate explanation about the violence early Monday in Sanandaj, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Tehran. Esmail Zarei Kousha, the governor of Iran’s Kurdistan province, alleged without providing evidence that unknown groups “plotted to kill young people on the streets” on Saturday, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported Monday.
Kousha also accused these unnamed groups that day of shooting a young man in the head and killing him — an attack that activists roundly have blamed on Iranian security forces. They say Iranian forces opened fire after the man honked his car horn at them. Honking has become one of the ways activists have been expressing civil disobedience — an action that has seen riot police in other videos smashing the windshields of passing vehicles.
In the village of Salas Babajani, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Sanandaj, Iranian security forces repeatedly shot a 22-year-old man protesting there who later died of his wounds, Hengaw said. It said others had been wounded in the shooting.
It remains unclear how many people have been killed in the demonstrations and the security force crackdown targeting them. State television last suggested at least 41 people had been killed in the demonstrations as of Sept. 24. In the over two weeks since, there’s been no update from Iran’s government.
An Oslo-based group called Iran Human Rights estimates at least 185 people have been killed, though that includes an estimated 90 people killed in violence in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan. Iranian authorities have described the Zahedan violence as involving unnamed separatists, though Iran Human Rights said the incident began as a protest over a separate incident involving rape allegations against a local police officer.
Meanwhile, a prison riot has struck the city of Rasht, killing some inmates there, a prosecutor reportedly said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the riot at Lakan Prison involved the ongoing protests, though Rasht has seen heavy demonstrations in recent weeks since Amini’s death.
The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Gilan provincial prosecutor Mehdi Fallah Miri as saying “some prisoners died because of their wounds as the electricity was cut (at the prison) because of the damage.” He also alleged prisoners refused to allow authorities to access those wounded.
Miri described the riot as breaking out in a wing of a prison housing death penalty inmates.
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Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
By SAMYA KULLAB and SALAR SALIM
yesterday
Protesters gather outside the UN headquarters in Erbil on Sept. 24, 2022, to protest the death of Masha Amini, who had fallen into a coma for three days after being detained by the morality police in Tehran, Iran. Spontaneous mass gatherings to persistent scattered demonstrations have unfolded in Iran, as nationwide protests over the death of a young woman in the custody of the morality police enter their fourth week. (AP Photo/Hawre Khalid, Metrography, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022, photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, tear gas is fired by security to disperse protestors in front of the Tehran University, Iran. Spontaneous mass gatherings to persistent scattered demonstrations have unfolded elsewhere in Iran, as nationwide protests over the death of a young woman in the custody of the morality police enter their fourth week. (AP Photo, File)
SULIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Growing up under a repressive system, Sharo, a 35-year-old university graduate, never thought she would hear words of open rebellion spoken out loud. Now she herself chants slogans like “Death to the Dictator!” with a fury she didn’t know she had, as she joins protests calling for toppling the country’s rulers.
Sharo said that after three weeks of protests, triggered by the death of a young woman in the custody of the feared morality police, anger at the authorities is only rising, despite a bloody crackdown that has left dozens dead and hundreds in detention.
“The situation here is tense and volatile,” she said, referring to the city of Sanandaj in the majority Kurdish home district of the same name in northwestern Iran, one of the hot spots of the protests.
“We are just waiting for something to happen, like a time-bomb,” she said, speaking to The Associated Press via Telegram messenger service.
The anti-government protests in Sanandaj, 300 miles (500 kilometers) from the capital, are a microcosm of the leaderless protests that have roiled Iran.
Led largely by women and youth, they have evolved from spontaneous mass gatherings in central areas to scattered demonstrations in residential areas, schools and universities as activists try to evade an increasingly brutal crackdown.
Tensions rose again Saturday in Sanandaj after rights monitors said two protesters were shot dead and several were wounded, following a resumption of demonstrations. Residents said there has been a heavy security presence in the city, with constant patrols and security personnel stationed on major streets.
The Associated Press spoke to six female activists in Sanandaj who said suppression tactics, including beatings, arrests, the use of live ammunition and internet disruptions make it difficult at times to keep the momentum going. Yet protests persist, along with other expressions of civil disobedience, such as commercial strikes and drivers honking horns at security forces.
The activists in the city spoke on the condition their full names be withheld fearing reprisals by Iranian authorities. Their accounts were corroborated by three human rights monitors.
THE BURIAL
Three weeks ago, the news of the death of 22-year old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in Tehran spread rapidly across her home province of Kurdistan, of which Sanandaj is the capital. The response was swift in the impoverished and historically marginalized area.
As the burial was underway in Amini’s town of Saqqez on Sept. 17, protesters were already filling Sanandaj’s main thoroughfare, activists said.
People of all ages were present and began chanting slogans that would be repeated in cities across Iran: “Woman. Life. Freedom.”
The Amini family had been under pressure from the government to bury Mahsa quickly before a critical mass of protesters formed, said Afsanah, a 38-year-old clothing designer from Saqqez. She was at the burial that day and followed the crowds from the cemetery to the city square.
Rozan, a 32-year old housewife, didn’t know Amini personally. But when she heard the young woman had died in the custody of the morality police in Tehran and had been arrested for violating the Islamic Republic’s hijab rules, she felt compelled to take to the street that day.
“The same thing happened to me,” she said. In 2013, like Amini, she had ventured to the capital with a friend when she was apprehended by the morality police because her abaya, or loose robe that is part of the mandatory dress code, was too short. She was taken to the same facility where Amini later died, and fingerprinted and made to sign a declaration of guilt.
“It could have been me,” she said. In the years since then Rozan, a former nurse, was fired from the local government health department for being too vocal about her views about women’s rights.
After the funeral, she saw an elderly woman take a step forward and in one swift gesture, remove her headscarf. “I felt inspired to do the same,” she said.
SULIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Growing up under a repressive system, Sharo, a 35-year-old university graduate, never thought she would hear words of open rebellion spoken out loud. Now she herself chants slogans like “Death to the Dictator!” with a fury she didn’t know she had, as she joins protests calling for toppling the country’s rulers.
Sharo said that after three weeks of protests, triggered by the death of a young woman in the custody of the feared morality police, anger at the authorities is only rising, despite a bloody crackdown that has left dozens dead and hundreds in detention.
“The situation here is tense and volatile,” she said, referring to the city of Sanandaj in the majority Kurdish home district of the same name in northwestern Iran, one of the hot spots of the protests.
“We are just waiting for something to happen, like a time-bomb,” she said, speaking to The Associated Press via Telegram messenger service.
The anti-government protests in Sanandaj, 300 miles (500 kilometers) from the capital, are a microcosm of the leaderless protests that have roiled Iran.
Led largely by women and youth, they have evolved from spontaneous mass gatherings in central areas to scattered demonstrations in residential areas, schools and universities as activists try to evade an increasingly brutal crackdown.
Tensions rose again Saturday in Sanandaj after rights monitors said two protesters were shot dead and several were wounded, following a resumption of demonstrations. Residents said there has been a heavy security presence in the city, with constant patrols and security personnel stationed on major streets.
The Associated Press spoke to six female activists in Sanandaj who said suppression tactics, including beatings, arrests, the use of live ammunition and internet disruptions make it difficult at times to keep the momentum going. Yet protests persist, along with other expressions of civil disobedience, such as commercial strikes and drivers honking horns at security forces.
The activists in the city spoke on the condition their full names be withheld fearing reprisals by Iranian authorities. Their accounts were corroborated by three human rights monitors.
THE BURIAL
Three weeks ago, the news of the death of 22-year old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in Tehran spread rapidly across her home province of Kurdistan, of which Sanandaj is the capital. The response was swift in the impoverished and historically marginalized area.
As the burial was underway in Amini’s town of Saqqez on Sept. 17, protesters were already filling Sanandaj’s main thoroughfare, activists said.
People of all ages were present and began chanting slogans that would be repeated in cities across Iran: “Woman. Life. Freedom.”
The Amini family had been under pressure from the government to bury Mahsa quickly before a critical mass of protesters formed, said Afsanah, a 38-year-old clothing designer from Saqqez. She was at the burial that day and followed the crowds from the cemetery to the city square.
Rozan, a 32-year old housewife, didn’t know Amini personally. But when she heard the young woman had died in the custody of the morality police in Tehran and had been arrested for violating the Islamic Republic’s hijab rules, she felt compelled to take to the street that day.
“The same thing happened to me,” she said. In 2013, like Amini, she had ventured to the capital with a friend when she was apprehended by the morality police because her abaya, or loose robe that is part of the mandatory dress code, was too short. She was taken to the same facility where Amini later died, and fingerprinted and made to sign a declaration of guilt.
“It could have been me,” she said. In the years since then Rozan, a former nurse, was fired from the local government health department for being too vocal about her views about women’s rights.
After the funeral, she saw an elderly woman take a step forward and in one swift gesture, remove her headscarf. “I felt inspired to do the same,” she said.
SUPPRESSION
In the first three days after the burial, protesters were plucked from the demonstrations in arrest sweeps in Sanandaj. By the end of the week, arrests targeted known activists and protest organizers.
Dunya, a lawyer, said she was one among a small group of women’s rights activists who helped organize protests. They also asked shopkeepers to respect a call for a commercial strike along the city’s main streets.
“Almost all the women in our group are in jail now,” she said.
Internet blackouts made it difficult for protesters to communicate with one another across cities and with the outside world.
“We would wake up in the morning and have no idea what was happening,” said Sharo, the university graduate. The internet would return intermittently, often late at night or during working hours, but swiftly cut off in the late afternoon, the time many would gather to protest.
The heavy security presence also prevented mass gatherings.
“There are patrols in almost every street, and they break up groups, even if its just two or three people walking on the street,” said Sharo.
During demonstrations security forces fired pellet guns and tear gas at the crowd causing many to run. Security personnel on motorcycles also drove into crowds in an effort to disperse them.
All activists interviewed said they either witnessed or heard live ammunition. Iranian authorities have so far denied this, blaming separatist groups on occasions when the use of live fire was verified. The two protesters killed Saturday in Sanandaj were killed by live fire, according to the France-based Kurdistan Human Rights network.
Protesters say fear is a close companion. The wounded were often reluctant to use ambulances or go to hospitals, worried they might get arrested. Activists also suspected government informants were trying to blend in with the crowds.
But acts of resistance have continued.
“I assure you the protests are not over,” said Sharo. “The people are angry, they are talking back to the police in ways I have never seen.”
DISOBEDIENCE
The anger runs deep. In Sanandaj the confluence of three factors has rendered the city a ripe ground for protest activity — a history of Kurdish resistance, rising poverty and a long history of women’s rights activism.
Yet the protests are not defined along ethnic or regional lines even though they were sparked in a predominantly Kurdish area, said Tara Sepehri Fars, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. “It’s been very unique in that sense,” she said.
There have been waves of protest in Iran in recent years, the largest in 2009 bringing large crowds into the streets after what protesters felt was a stolen election. But the continued defiance and demands for regime change during the current wave seem to pose the most serious challenge in years to the Islamic Republic.
Like most of Iran, Sanandaj has suffered as U.S. sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic devastated the economy and spurred inflation. Far from the capital, in the fringes of the country, its majority Kurdish residents are eyed with suspicion by the regime.
By the third week, with the opening of universities and schools, students began holding small rallies and joined the movement.
Videos circulated on social media showing students jeering school masters, school girls removing their headscarves on the street and chanting: “One by one they will kill us, if we don’t stand together.”
One university student said they were planning on boycotting classes altogether.
Afsanah, the clothing designer, said that she likes wearing the headscarf. “But I am protesting because it was never my choice.”
Her parents, fearing for her safety, tried to persuade her to stay home. But she disobeyed them, pretending to go to work in the morning only to search for protest gatherings around the city.
“I am angry, and I am without fear — we just need this feeling to overflow on the street,” she said.
2 killed as demonstrations around Iran enter 4th week
By SAMYA KULLAB
By SAMYA KULLAB
yesterday
A protester shows a portrait of Mahsa Amini during a demonstration to support Iranian protesters standing up to their leadership over the death of a young woman in police custody, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022 in Paris. Anti-government demonstrations erupted Saturday, Oct. 8, in several locations across Iran as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy entered their fourth week. The protests erupted Sept. 17, after the burial of 22-year-old Amini, a Kurdish woman who had died in the custody of Iran's feared morality police. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
SULIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Anti-government demonstrations erupted Saturday in several locations across Iran as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy entered their fourth week. At least two people were killed.
Marchers chanted anti-government slogans and twirled headscarves in repudiation of coercive religious dress codes. In some areas, merchants shuttered shops in response to a call by activists for a commercial strike or to protect their wares from damage.
Later Saturday, hackers broke into the evening news on Iran’s state TV for 15 seconds, just as footage of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was being broadcast. The hackers flashed an image of Khamenei surrounded by flames. A caption read “Join us and stand up!” and “The blood of our youth is dripping from your claws,” a reference to Khamenei.
A song with the lyrics “Woman. Life. Freedom” — a common chant of the protesters — played in the background.
The protests erupted Sept. 17, after the burial of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who had died in the custody of Iran’s feared morality police. Amini had been detained for an alleged violation of strict Islamic dress codes for women. Since then, protests spread across the country and were met by a fierce crackdown, in which dozens are estimated to have been killed and hundreds arrested.
In the city of Sanandaj in the Kurdish-majority northern region, one man was shot dead Saturday while driving a car in a major thoroughfare, rights monitors said. The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network and the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, said the man was shot after honking at security forces stationed on the street. Honking has become one of the ways activists have been expressing civil disobedience. Video circulating online showed the slain man slumped over the steering wheel, as distraught witnesses shouted for help.
The semi-official Fars news agency, believed to be close to the elite paramilitary force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, said Kurdistan’s police chief denied reports of using live rounds against protesters.
Fars claimed that people in Sanandaj’s Pasdaran Street said the victim was shot from inside the car without elaborating. But photos of the dead man indicate that he was shot from his left side, meaning he likely was not shot from inside the car. The blood can be seen running down the inside of the door on the driver’s side.
A second protester was killed after security forces fired gunshots to disperse crowds in the city and 10 protesters were wounded, the rights monitors said.
A general strike was observed in the city’s main streets amid a heavy security presence and protesters burned tires in some areas. Patrols have deterred mass gatherings in Sanandaj but isolated protests have continued in the city’s densely populated neighborhoods.
Demonstrations were also reported in the capital Tehran on Saturday, including small ones near the Sharif University of Technology, one of Iran’s premier centers of learning and the scene of a violent government crackdown last weekend. Authorities have closed the campus until further notice.
Images on social media showed protests also took place in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Other protests erupted at Azad University in northern Tehran, in other neighborhoods of the capital and in the city’s bazaar. Many shops were closed in central Tehran and near the University of Tehran.
President Ebrahim Raisi in a meeting with students from the all-female Al-Zahra University in Tehran alleged again that foreign enemies were responsible for fomenting the protests. He has made the claim without giving specifics or providing any evidence.
“The enemy thought that it can pursue its desires in universities while unaware that our students and teachers are aware and they will not allow the enemies’ vain plans to be realized,” he said.
Meanwhile, thousands of people in The Hague, Netherlands chanted and sang in a solidarity demonstration in support of the protesters in Iran.
A protester shows a portrait of Mahsa Amini during a demonstration to support Iranian protesters standing up to their leadership over the death of a young woman in police custody, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022 in Paris. Anti-government demonstrations erupted Saturday, Oct. 8, in several locations across Iran as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy entered their fourth week. The protests erupted Sept. 17, after the burial of 22-year-old Amini, a Kurdish woman who had died in the custody of Iran's feared morality police. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
SULIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Anti-government demonstrations erupted Saturday in several locations across Iran as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy entered their fourth week. At least two people were killed.
Marchers chanted anti-government slogans and twirled headscarves in repudiation of coercive religious dress codes. In some areas, merchants shuttered shops in response to a call by activists for a commercial strike or to protect their wares from damage.
Later Saturday, hackers broke into the evening news on Iran’s state TV for 15 seconds, just as footage of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was being broadcast. The hackers flashed an image of Khamenei surrounded by flames. A caption read “Join us and stand up!” and “The blood of our youth is dripping from your claws,” a reference to Khamenei.
A song with the lyrics “Woman. Life. Freedom” — a common chant of the protesters — played in the background.
The protests erupted Sept. 17, after the burial of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who had died in the custody of Iran’s feared morality police. Amini had been detained for an alleged violation of strict Islamic dress codes for women. Since then, protests spread across the country and were met by a fierce crackdown, in which dozens are estimated to have been killed and hundreds arrested.
In the city of Sanandaj in the Kurdish-majority northern region, one man was shot dead Saturday while driving a car in a major thoroughfare, rights monitors said. The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network and the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, said the man was shot after honking at security forces stationed on the street. Honking has become one of the ways activists have been expressing civil disobedience. Video circulating online showed the slain man slumped over the steering wheel, as distraught witnesses shouted for help.
The semi-official Fars news agency, believed to be close to the elite paramilitary force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, said Kurdistan’s police chief denied reports of using live rounds against protesters.
Fars claimed that people in Sanandaj’s Pasdaran Street said the victim was shot from inside the car without elaborating. But photos of the dead man indicate that he was shot from his left side, meaning he likely was not shot from inside the car. The blood can be seen running down the inside of the door on the driver’s side.
A second protester was killed after security forces fired gunshots to disperse crowds in the city and 10 protesters were wounded, the rights monitors said.
A general strike was observed in the city’s main streets amid a heavy security presence and protesters burned tires in some areas. Patrols have deterred mass gatherings in Sanandaj but isolated protests have continued in the city’s densely populated neighborhoods.
Demonstrations were also reported in the capital Tehran on Saturday, including small ones near the Sharif University of Technology, one of Iran’s premier centers of learning and the scene of a violent government crackdown last weekend. Authorities have closed the campus until further notice.
Images on social media showed protests also took place in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Other protests erupted at Azad University in northern Tehran, in other neighborhoods of the capital and in the city’s bazaar. Many shops were closed in central Tehran and near the University of Tehran.
President Ebrahim Raisi in a meeting with students from the all-female Al-Zahra University in Tehran alleged again that foreign enemies were responsible for fomenting the protests. He has made the claim without giving specifics or providing any evidence.
“The enemy thought that it can pursue its desires in universities while unaware that our students and teachers are aware and they will not allow the enemies’ vain plans to be realized,” he said.
Meanwhile, thousands of people in The Hague, Netherlands chanted and sang in a solidarity demonstration in support of the protesters in Iran.
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