Iran has deployed thousands of paramilitary Basij members across the country to suppress anti-government protests
An Iranian student from the Islamic Basij volunteer militia burns a US flag in Tehran, during a protest on 16 July against President Biden's visits to Israel and Saudi Arabia (AFP)
By MEE correspondent in Tehran
Published date: 22 October 2022
Elnaz* was returning from a protest in central Tehran in late September over the death of Mahsa Amini when four men on motorbikes pulled up and blocked her way.
The men were members of Iran's Basij paramilitary force, who have been central to the suppression of demonstrations against mandatory headscarves and the "morality police" since the 22-year old Kurdish woman's death in mid-September.
Elnaz told Middle East Eye that she was detained and transferred to Al-Javad mosque in Haft-e Tir square.
"They dragged me to the mosque basement where other girls were under arrest," she said. "Then a police officer came and took our phones and, one by one, checked out our text messages. I had already deleted all messages about the protests, and I told the officer that I had been arrested mistakenly."
Basij paramilitaries march alongside a Shahab-3 missile to mark Al-Quds Day in Tehran, 29 April (AFP)
She was finally released when she convinced the police her arrest was based on false claims.
"When I was running out of the mosque's small door at the square, I saw more Basij members were about to enter with new arrestees," she added.
While Elnaz was able to escape, at least 215 protesters, including 27 children, have been killed since the beginning of anti-government protests on 16 September, many at the hands of Basij members.
But figures released by the government and state media also suggest that the unprecedented number of deaths and injuries suffered by Basij underscores the role of the paramilitary group's involvement in suppressing the protests.
On 15 October, IRNA, the country's official news agency, reported that 850 Basij members had so far been injured in the capital alone. The news agency quoted Brigadier General Hassan Hassanzadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran, as saying 185 paramilitaries were injured in the capital on one night, without elaborating on the exact date or place of the incident.
Hassanzadeh added that three members of Basij were killed in confrontations with the demonstrators.
MEE has not been able to independently verify these figures.
She was finally released when she convinced the police her arrest was based on false claims.
"When I was running out of the mosque's small door at the square, I saw more Basij members were about to enter with new arrestees," she added.
While Elnaz was able to escape, at least 215 protesters, including 27 children, have been killed since the beginning of anti-government protests on 16 September, many at the hands of Basij members.
But figures released by the government and state media also suggest that the unprecedented number of deaths and injuries suffered by Basij underscores the role of the paramilitary group's involvement in suppressing the protests.
On 15 October, IRNA, the country's official news agency, reported that 850 Basij members had so far been injured in the capital alone. The news agency quoted Brigadier General Hassan Hassanzadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran, as saying 185 paramilitaries were injured in the capital on one night, without elaborating on the exact date or place of the incident.
Hassanzadeh added that three members of Basij were killed in confrontations with the demonstrators.
MEE has not been able to independently verify these figures.
Record-high death toll
The Basij has a base in all mosques across the country. The IRGC commands the paramilitary force, and most of its members are volunteers.
However, these members are not directly paid by the IRGC - the government provides full economic support to the members and assists them in occupying positions in governmental offices, the public sector and universities.
But the role apparently comes with risks - reports so far suggest that the nationwide death toll of Basij members has been higher than in any other uprising since 1979.
Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the IRGC, wrote that one Basij member and an IRGC major were killed in the small city of Beyrom on 14 October as they attempted to arrest citizens who wrote anti-government slogans on city walls.
Last week, Iran, the state-run daily newspaper, published a list of armed and paramilitary forces killed since the beginning of the latest wave of demonstrations in the country. It reported that 17 Basij members and seven armed officers were killed during the first four weeks of the protests.
Speaking to Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity, an Iranian political scientist said the deployment of Basij to suppress protests has increased in recent years, as the establishment has lost social support.
"Since it was founded in 1979, Basij has always been an important force for the regime's repression machine, but now its presence has increased because this dictatorial system can't fully trust its own police officers," he said.
The analyst stressed the Iran-Iraq war was the only other time when paramilitaries suffered a higher death toll than the official forces.
"Now, the widespread deployment of paramilitaries has two benefits for the regime; first, they add ready-to-combat manpower to their repression machine; second, they can whitewash their crimes by putting the blame on the paramilitaries," he concluded.
Overlap with army
According to the Iran daily, Basij members were killed in demonstrations in all of the major Iranian cities, including Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz, Tabriz, Orumiyeh and Karaj.
One surprising detail in its report was the death of an officer serving in Artesh, the country's official army. However, a retired Artesh officer confirmed to MEE that Artesh members had also registered with the Basij and participated in the operations to receive governmental support.
Iranian start-ups and businesses face disaster over internet shutdown
Read More »
"I was a volunteer member of Basij for a few years, even when I was an officer in the official army," he told MEE.
"We had to operate checkpoints, and I didn't like stopping ordinary people's cars and searching them. So later on, I stopped working with Basij. But many army officials are also members of the Basij."
Reports published by people close to the establishment also underlined Basij's role in the attacks on demonstrators.
On his Instagram page, Javad Mogouei, a documentary filmmaker with close ties to the office of Iran's supreme leader, explained the details of his brutal arrest by the paramilitaries.
"Someone hit me from behind. I fell to the ground. They kicked into my head and chest… they were 10 beating me… [then] they pushed me in a police van," wrote Mogouei, whose brother is a commander in Basij forces from the city of Karaj.
*Names have been changed for security reasons
"I was a volunteer member of Basij for a few years, even when I was an officer in the official army," he told MEE.
"We had to operate checkpoints, and I didn't like stopping ordinary people's cars and searching them. So later on, I stopped working with Basij. But many army officials are also members of the Basij."
Reports published by people close to the establishment also underlined Basij's role in the attacks on demonstrators.
On his Instagram page, Javad Mogouei, a documentary filmmaker with close ties to the office of Iran's supreme leader, explained the details of his brutal arrest by the paramilitaries.
"Someone hit me from behind. I fell to the ground. They kicked into my head and chest… they were 10 beating me… [then] they pushed me in a police van," wrote Mogouei, whose brother is a commander in Basij forces from the city of Karaj.
*Names have been changed for security reasons
Lawmaker suggests Iran recruited children for protest crackdown
Pictures have emerged of juveniles in riot gear helping to crush Iran's anti-government protests.
An unidentified young person in Shahrood, Iran, wears riot gear and holds a baton in this undated photo. - unknown
Al-Monitor Staff
October 20, 2022
Iranian lawmaker Ahmad Alirezabeigi said the hard-line state militia known as the Basij is governed by regulations that allow it to recruit minors in the ongoing deadly crackdown on protests in the country.
In an interview published Oct. 20 by the Iran-based Rouydad 24 news site, Alirezabeigi was challenged about multiple recent pictures showing baton-wielding teenage boys in riot gear. The lawmaker said Basij authorities are treating the protests the same way they treated the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, when children were deployed to the front line.
He raised the example of 12-year-old Hossein Fahmideh, who in the Iranian official narrative famously blew himself up to destroy an invading Iraqi tank in 1980. Fahmideh has been praised by Iranian officials as an exemplary martyr and the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, called the teenager "our leader."
In the ongoing protests, according to the lawmaker, the Basij organization sees the country as "in jeopardy." He suggested that that belief justifies the use of children to quell the unrest. It remains unclear whether their recruitment is due to a security staff shortage in the face of the growing protests.
The weeks-long unrest in Iran was sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the Iranian morality police for her alleged failure to properly observe the Islamic Republic's hijab laws. The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights advocacy group has documented the deaths of at least 215 protesters in the hands of government forces since, 27 of them believed to be minors. Iranian authorities have denied responsibility and have brought victims' family members before cameras to recount how they had died of underlying health conditions or suicide.
Alirezabeigi acknowledged "with regret" that a number of students have been arrested in the protests, complaining that even lawmakers are being kept in the dark by the judiciary about the detention conditions.
Since schoolgirls joined the protests by defiantly removing their hijabs and chanting against the Islamic Republic leadership, they have been relentlessly targeted by Iranian security forces in and outside their schoolyards.
The leading Iranian teachers syndicate, the Council for the Coordination of Iranian Teacher Unions, reported on Thursday that students arrested by intelligence forces have faced "severe" physical mistreatment. The union cited the case of a 17-year-old from the Kurdish city of Javanroud who told his family during a brief telephone conversation from a detention facility that he had been "brutally tortured."
"A number of students have died in the most merciless fashion as a result of the systematic crackdown," the union revealed, accusing the Education Ministry of serving "as a tool for repression."
Despite the public and widespread nature of the protests that seem to go beyond class and ethnicity, Iranian officials have repeatedly downplayed their scale and have linked the unrest to the United States
"All the Americans could do was set ablaze a few trash bins," said the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, on Thursday. Salami described the protest movement as "sedition" in which "only a tiny number of women joined the call of the devil to remove their hijabs."
Pictures have emerged of juveniles in riot gear helping to crush Iran's anti-government protests.
An unidentified young person in Shahrood, Iran, wears riot gear and holds a baton in this undated photo. - unknown
Al-Monitor Staff
October 20, 2022
Iranian lawmaker Ahmad Alirezabeigi said the hard-line state militia known as the Basij is governed by regulations that allow it to recruit minors in the ongoing deadly crackdown on protests in the country.
In an interview published Oct. 20 by the Iran-based Rouydad 24 news site, Alirezabeigi was challenged about multiple recent pictures showing baton-wielding teenage boys in riot gear. The lawmaker said Basij authorities are treating the protests the same way they treated the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, when children were deployed to the front line.
He raised the example of 12-year-old Hossein Fahmideh, who in the Iranian official narrative famously blew himself up to destroy an invading Iraqi tank in 1980. Fahmideh has been praised by Iranian officials as an exemplary martyr and the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, called the teenager "our leader."
In the ongoing protests, according to the lawmaker, the Basij organization sees the country as "in jeopardy." He suggested that that belief justifies the use of children to quell the unrest. It remains unclear whether their recruitment is due to a security staff shortage in the face of the growing protests.
The weeks-long unrest in Iran was sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the Iranian morality police for her alleged failure to properly observe the Islamic Republic's hijab laws. The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights advocacy group has documented the deaths of at least 215 protesters in the hands of government forces since, 27 of them believed to be minors. Iranian authorities have denied responsibility and have brought victims' family members before cameras to recount how they had died of underlying health conditions or suicide.
Alirezabeigi acknowledged "with regret" that a number of students have been arrested in the protests, complaining that even lawmakers are being kept in the dark by the judiciary about the detention conditions.
Since schoolgirls joined the protests by defiantly removing their hijabs and chanting against the Islamic Republic leadership, they have been relentlessly targeted by Iranian security forces in and outside their schoolyards.
The leading Iranian teachers syndicate, the Council for the Coordination of Iranian Teacher Unions, reported on Thursday that students arrested by intelligence forces have faced "severe" physical mistreatment. The union cited the case of a 17-year-old from the Kurdish city of Javanroud who told his family during a brief telephone conversation from a detention facility that he had been "brutally tortured."
"A number of students have died in the most merciless fashion as a result of the systematic crackdown," the union revealed, accusing the Education Ministry of serving "as a tool for repression."
Despite the public and widespread nature of the protests that seem to go beyond class and ethnicity, Iranian officials have repeatedly downplayed their scale and have linked the unrest to the United States
"All the Americans could do was set ablaze a few trash bins," said the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, on Thursday. Salami described the protest movement as "sedition" in which "only a tiny number of women joined the call of the devil to remove their hijabs."
A feared Iranian militia is leading the crackdown on protesters.
This followed sanctions on members of the group by Britain's treasury in January, which accused them of human rights violations, including the murder, torture and mass beatings of peaceful protesters.
Second thoughts
Despite its fearsome reputation, some members of the Basij are struggling to act against anti-government protesters, particularly young women and girls who have been leading the demonstrations, burning headscarves and furiously demanding reform from the country's leaders, Alfoneh said.
“The issue is that members are taught to have some kind of Islamic values, you know, Islamic values of honor, and now they are taught to go and beat up girls, and that of course, runs against that ethos,” he said.
Who are the Basij?
The paramilitary force “is an armed youth organization, which for all practical purposes also serves as the ground forces of the Islamic Republic,” one expert said.
Volunteer militia
Established in 1979 by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Basij-e Mostaz'afin or Organization for the Mobilization of the Oppressed is a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States in April 2019.
More commonly referred to as the Basij, which means “mobilization” in the Persian language, the militia “is an armed youth organization which for all practical purposes also serves as the ground forces of the Islamic Republic,” Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, D.C., said by telephone Thursday.
The group gained prominence in the 1980s during Iran’s war with its neighbor Iraq, when waves of young, often lightly armed men, with only basic military training and without any artillery or air support, charged across open minefields.
Today, it is still comprised of volunteers and used by Iran’s government to suppress dissidents, protests, surveil the population and indoctrinate Iranian citizens, and it is also deployed during natural disasters and has a presence in government institutions, Alfoneh said.
Material benefits
Many of the militia's members come from poor, conservative backgrounds in rural Iran, or deprived districts in the country's cities and, Alfoneh said, a lot of them joined up for privileges and material benefits that come with signing up and not necessarily because of ideological reasons.
The Basij gave them access to higher education, subsidized consumer goods, free health care and job security, he added.
Signing up to the militia is also seen as respected and prestigious and allows its members to become socially mobile, said Saeid Golkar, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga who has written a book on the group.
Although there are no official figures, the group has around 1 million members, he said, although he added that “the core of the Basij is only about 100,000 active members.”
Today, the Basij enforce the country's strict religious codes, acting as morality police in public places, such as parks and at checkpoints, and heavily monitor the population, he said.
Violent history
The Basij have previously been accused of violently cracking down on individuals or groups that dare to criticize or protest against the cleric-led government.
In 2009, rights groups including Amnesty International, said the group had used excessive force during peaceful anti-government protests triggered by a disputed presidential election. Amnesty said at the time that it documented reports of the Basij beating demonstrators and firing at them with live ammunition.
Last month, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned a deputy commander of the Basij, accusing him and the militia of killing unarmed protesters on “numerous occasions.”
The paramilitary force “is an armed youth organization, which for all practical purposes also serves as the ground forces of the Islamic Republic,” one expert said.
Iranian Basij paramilitary forces during a rally in Tehran, in April.
AFP via Getty Images
Oct. 22, 2022,
By Hyder Abbasi
Dressed in black, the group of chanting schoolgirls in the Iranian city of Shiraz appeared determined to make themselves heard.
“Basiji, go and get lost,” they shouted at a man in a gray suit standing at a podium in front of them.
NBC News has verified a video of the incident, which was posted to Twitter earlier this month, but cannot establish if the man at the podium is a member of the feared Basij militia, which has been leading the crackdown on the nationwide anti-government protests that erupted last month after the death of Mahsa Amini.
Amini, 22, from Iran’s Kurdistan region, died in a hospital three days after she was detained by police in Tehran last month and accused of failing to fully cover her hair and defying the country’s strict dress codes.
Several videos posted to social media since her death have featured demonstrators shouting angry chants against the Basij.
But who are the Basij? And what role has the organization played in the unrest in Iran that has been ongoing for almost six weeks?
Oct. 22, 2022,
By Hyder Abbasi
Dressed in black, the group of chanting schoolgirls in the Iranian city of Shiraz appeared determined to make themselves heard.
“Basiji, go and get lost,” they shouted at a man in a gray suit standing at a podium in front of them.
NBC News has verified a video of the incident, which was posted to Twitter earlier this month, but cannot establish if the man at the podium is a member of the feared Basij militia, which has been leading the crackdown on the nationwide anti-government protests that erupted last month after the death of Mahsa Amini.
Amini, 22, from Iran’s Kurdistan region, died in a hospital three days after she was detained by police in Tehran last month and accused of failing to fully cover her hair and defying the country’s strict dress codes.
Several videos posted to social media since her death have featured demonstrators shouting angry chants against the Basij.
But who are the Basij? And what role has the organization played in the unrest in Iran that has been ongoing for almost six weeks?
Volunteer militia
Established in 1979 by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Basij-e Mostaz'afin or Organization for the Mobilization of the Oppressed is a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States in April 2019.
More commonly referred to as the Basij, which means “mobilization” in the Persian language, the militia “is an armed youth organization which for all practical purposes also serves as the ground forces of the Islamic Republic,” Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, D.C., said by telephone Thursday.
The group gained prominence in the 1980s during Iran’s war with its neighbor Iraq, when waves of young, often lightly armed men, with only basic military training and without any artillery or air support, charged across open minefields.
Today, it is still comprised of volunteers and used by Iran’s government to suppress dissidents, protests, surveil the population and indoctrinate Iranian citizens, and it is also deployed during natural disasters and has a presence in government institutions, Alfoneh said.
Material benefits
Many of the militia's members come from poor, conservative backgrounds in rural Iran, or deprived districts in the country's cities and, Alfoneh said, a lot of them joined up for privileges and material benefits that come with signing up and not necessarily because of ideological reasons.
The Basij gave them access to higher education, subsidized consumer goods, free health care and job security, he added.
Signing up to the militia is also seen as respected and prestigious and allows its members to become socially mobile, said Saeid Golkar, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga who has written a book on the group.
Although there are no official figures, the group has around 1 million members, he said, although he added that “the core of the Basij is only about 100,000 active members.”
Today, the Basij enforce the country's strict religious codes, acting as morality police in public places, such as parks and at checkpoints, and heavily monitor the population, he said.
Suppression methods
There are three primary methods the Basij use to suppress anti-government protests, Golkar said.
Firstly, they patrol the streets, displaying their presence to the public, and “they create this illusion that the regime has strong social support by being on the street and facing the protesters,” he said.
Secondly, he said, members dress in plainclothes to infiltrate the protests to identify “political activists or the people who are actively chanting and mocking the regime or recording videos.”
If these methods fail, he added, the Basij will resort to force, using batons and whips to beat demonstrators and, in some cases, target them using deadly weapons, such as shotguns.
There are three primary methods the Basij use to suppress anti-government protests, Golkar said.
Firstly, they patrol the streets, displaying their presence to the public, and “they create this illusion that the regime has strong social support by being on the street and facing the protesters,” he said.
Secondly, he said, members dress in plainclothes to infiltrate the protests to identify “political activists or the people who are actively chanting and mocking the regime or recording videos.”
If these methods fail, he added, the Basij will resort to force, using batons and whips to beat demonstrators and, in some cases, target them using deadly weapons, such as shotguns.
Violent history
The Basij have previously been accused of violently cracking down on individuals or groups that dare to criticize or protest against the cleric-led government.
In 2009, rights groups including Amnesty International, said the group had used excessive force during peaceful anti-government protests triggered by a disputed presidential election. Amnesty said at the time that it documented reports of the Basij beating demonstrators and firing at them with live ammunition.
Last month, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned a deputy commander of the Basij, accusing him and the militia of killing unarmed protesters on “numerous occasions.”
Iran cracks down on protesters after weeks of demonstrations00:24
This followed sanctions on members of the group by Britain's treasury in January, which accused them of human rights violations, including the murder, torture and mass beatings of peaceful protesters.
Second thoughts
Despite its fearsome reputation, some members of the Basij are struggling to act against anti-government protesters, particularly young women and girls who have been leading the demonstrations, burning headscarves and furiously demanding reform from the country's leaders, Alfoneh said.
“The issue is that members are taught to have some kind of Islamic values, you know, Islamic values of honor, and now they are taught to go and beat up girls, and that of course, runs against that ethos,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment