FRANCE

The culture of incest: Ending the system of victim-blaming

THE 51 PERCENT © FRANCE 24
By: Annette Young|Yong CHIM|Stéphanie CHEVAL

Issued on: 21/10/2022 - 

The French government proposes new laws on dealing with incest as figures reveal that some 160,000 French children are victims of incest every year. Annette Young talks to Franco-American author and journalist, Iris Brey, whose latest book tackles the issue. As the protests in Iran continue, Iranian women living-in-exile are closely watching events unfold with horror as the government enforces a harsh crackdown. Plus Brussels' famed comic strip walk and its murals are accused of sexism, forcing city officials to take unique steps.

IMPERIALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS
Chinese firms responsible for illegal fishing globally, study says


Ecuadorian Navy vessels surround a fishing boat after detecting a fishing fleet of mostly Chinese-flagged ships in an international corridor that borders the Galapagos Islands' exclusive economic zone, in the Pacific Ocean, on August 7, 2020. (Reuters)

Bloomberg
Published: 26 October ,2022

Eight of the 10 companies responsible for nearly a quarter of known illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing hail from China, fueling an industry that costs countries billions of dollars in lost revenue annually, according to a report.

The Boston-based Financial Transparency Coalition identified Nasdaq-listed Pingtan Marine Enterprise Ltd. at the top of a list of state-linked firms with the most number of IUU fishing vessels. The company is one of the largest US-listed marine services companies operating in China, it said.

China has by far the largest distant water fleet in the world with at least 3,000 vessels, some of which have been spotted off the coasts of Africa and as far as Ecuador. This has raised concerns of overfishing at a time when global fish stocks are plummeting.

“It’s their strategy of establishing themselves as a big fishing power,” said Matti Kohonen, executive director of the FTC. “Then they end up breaking a lot of fishing laws by doing that. To be a responsible power you need to crack this problem down.”

Pingtan Marine did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

IUU fishing is a key reason 90 percent of global fisheries stocks are overexploited or depleted as part of illegal activity worth up to $23.5 billion annually. Developing countries are especially vulnerable with Africa losing up to $11.2 billion a year, while Argentina loses $2 billion alone, the FTC report found.

The report said that 48.9 percent of identified industrial and semi-industrial vessels involved in IUU fishing are concentrated in Africa, while West Africa has become the global epicenter. Fishing vessels flagged to Asia represent 54.7 percent of all reported IUU fishing by such vessels.

Illegal fishing has also become another flash point in the deepening rivalry between the US and China. President Joe Biden in June signed a National Security Memorandum to address the issue saying IUU fishing is among the “greatest threats to ocean health and is a significant cause of global overfishing,” though it did not specifically mention China.

For China, it’s about “access to fishing waters, supplying fish for a growing market of consumers who increasingly eat both meat and fish, said Kohonen. “They break some of the fishing laws because the controls are not there. They don’t have enough Coast Guard capabilities in West Africa, so it’s quite easy.”

Read more: Ecuador navy monitoring huge Chinese fishing fleet near Galapagos

BANKING AND PIRATES ARE THE ORIGIN OF THE PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL 

THEY ARE THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM FEUDALISM

TO INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM

ROFLMAO😄

IEA believes global emissions will peak in 2025

Fossil fuels still account for 80 percent of world energy use, threatening efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming. (Reuters)

AFP, Paris
Published: 27 October ,2022

The International Energy Agency said Wednesday it believes global emissions will peak in 2025 as surging energy prices due the Russian invasion of Ukraine propel investment in renewables.

Only last year the IEA said there was “no clear peak in sight” in energy emissions, but the new higher investment in wind and solar is setting up demand for all fossil fuels to peak or plateau, leading to a drop in emissions.

“The global energy crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine is causing profound and long-lasting changes that have the potential to hasten the transition to a more sustainable and secure energy system,” the IEA said as it released its latest annual World Energy Outlook report.

Based on the latest measures and policies announced by governments in the face of soaring energy prices, the IEA forecasts global clean energy investment to rise by more than 50 percent from today's levels to $2 trillion per year by 2030.

Those measures will propel sustained gains in renewables and nuclear power.

“As a result, a high point for global emissions is reached in 2025,” the IEA said.

Global CO2 emissions are then set to fall back slowly from a high point of 37 billion tonnes per year to 32 billion tonnes by 2050, it added.

The Paris-based organisation, which advises energy-consuming nations, said that its forecast sees demand for all types of fossil fuels peaking or hitting a plateau.

Coal use, which has seen a temporary bump higher, will drop back in the next few years as more renewables come online.

Natural gas hits a plateau in the end of the decade, instead of the previous forecast of a steady rise.

Oil demand levels off in the mid-2030s and then gradually declines towards mid-century due to uptake of electric vehicles, instead of the earlier estimate of a steady increase.

Overall, the share of fossil fuels in the global energy mix in the IEA's stated policies scenario falls from around 80 percent to just above 60 percent by 2050.

“Energy markets and policies have changed as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, not just for the time being, but for decades to come,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol in a statement as the report was released.

But that will still leave the world on track for a rise in global temperatures of around 2.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, which would likely trigger severe climate change impacts.

The IEA also has a scenario to arrive at zero net emissions in 2050, which is seen as necessary to hit the 1.5C warming target enshrined in the Paris climate pact.

That would require clean energy investments to rise to $4 trillion per year by 2030, instead of the current forecast of $2 trillion.

“The IEA, with all its expertise and authority is clear: clean energy investments must triple by 2030, and gas is a dead end,” said Laurence Tubiana, head of the European Climate Foundation and France's former climate ambassador.

“The current European energy crisis clearly proves the dangers of gas: high price, volatility, geopolitical dependence,” she added.

Read more:

Saudi Arabia sets up carbon market firm to support net zero goal

GREEN CAPITALI$M
Climate tech is getting broader and narrower at the same time, here’s why

A small painted rock left under a tree reads "There is no planet B" during a Climate Strike

 walkout and march in Seattle, Washington, US September 20, 2019. (File photo: Reuters)


Bloomberg
Published: 27 October ,2022

Last week, TechCrunch held its annual Disrupt conference, which culminates in a “startup battlefield.”

This year, the winner was a lithium extraction startup. Three of the other five finalists were also climate- or environment-oriented, focusing respectively on plastic decomposition, green hydrogen and outdoor work robots. The preponderance of climate-focused companies is striking, as is the breadth of their approaches.

It’s not just startup competition leaderboards. This is a busy moment for every level of climate capital, from early-stage venture capital to multibillion-dollar infrastructure. And the funding available for climate-oriented businesses and projects, whether VC or government-sponsored loans, is expanding. New capital, new investors and newly coalesced expertise will create a much bigger climate technology market and allow for more precise targeting of opportunities.

In a sense, any technology that increases the efficiency of an economic activity could be considered climate tech, since greater efficiency leads to less consumption and with it, lower emissions per unit of output. But companies seeking investment should have a fine-grained understanding of their climate impact. Likewise, investors should have a topline goal of emissions reductions and climate improvement, from their portfolio companies individually and as an investment portfolio.

The narrowing trend comes from increasingly specialized investors.

One such new fund is Convective Capital, which raised $35 million to focus solely on wildfires. Another is Propeller, which raised $100 million for ocean-based climate investments.

Lowercarbon Capital, already a very active climate investor, has raised a new $250 million fund expressly for nuclear fusion startups. There is also Singapore-based Circulate Capital, which manages $165 million across several funds to invest “at the nexus” of climate technology, plastic recycling, and the circular economy.

At the same time, there is also a proliferation of very large infrastructure funds with a climate focus. In July, Brookfield closed its $15 billion Global Transition Fund, which exceeded its initial hard cap on funds raised and was still oversubscribed. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is targeting a similarly large fund next year.

Then there are government entities, such as the US Department of Energy Loan Programs Office and its $300 billion-plus funding capability, and multilateral institutional efforts including the $11.3 billion Green Climate Fund.

We will need trillions of dollars of annual investment to decarbonize the global economy over the next three decades, and while the funds to do so are not yet allocated, the structures are emerging.

Any technology investment with a tight focus on decarbonization should qualify as climate tech, but it needs rigorous specification. That means an investment needs a specific, climate-first sector and market focus. It means drawing on climate-specific investor experience and expertise. It also means having a clear fit to climate-focused funds across different investment stages, risk appetites and investment durations. And it requires a clear statement of intended emissions reductions per unit of economic activity.

Qualification in this fashion is a feature, not a bug, of an expanding market. It creates a climate investor landscape that simultaneously includes early-stage funds focused purely on one climate challenge; expert operators with decades of climate experience; and multibillion-dollar funds that only deploy in hundred-million-dollar chunks. (I am part of this world too through Voyager Ventures, whose founding partners have three decades of climate investing policymaking and company formation between them.)

This landscape, as it evolves, will allow businesses to move from startup to government-sponsored de-risking to maturity through an informed, attuned sequence of capital allocators. Climate investment capital will grow to fund everything from two students with a PowerPoint deck to the world’s biggest infrastructure projects.

For climate entrepreneurs, the funding universe is becoming both bigger and more specific. For climate investors, the market is expanding to new sectors and increasing in scale. This is a good thing — it just means that those raising funds, and investing them, will need to be climate-specific as well as climate-focused.

Hundreds of Apple workers in Australia prepare for more strike action

FILE PHOTO: Silhouette of a mobile user seen next to a screen projection of the Apple logo in this picture illustration taken March 28, 2018. (Reuters)


Reuters, Sydney
Published: 31 October ,2022:

Hundreds of Apple workers in Australia are set to strike again after almost two-thirds of employees rejected a pay and benefits deal, the latest escalation of a fight that has seen weeks of walkouts at stores around the country.

Results released on Monday show 68 percent of Apple workers rejected a workplace agreement proposed by management with 87 percent of Apple’s almost 4,000 Australian workers participating. Apple declined to comment on the results.

Members of the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU), one of three involved in negotiations and representing around 200 workers will meet on Monday night and union representatives say more strikes will “absolutely” be discussed.

“Workers are very happy, they’ve been campaigning for a fair agreement for three months. Our members have been engaged in pretty serious work bans and strikes,” RAFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan told Reuters by phone.

“We expect members will want to endorse a series of work stoppages.”

RAFFWU workers staged a one-hour walkout on Saturday, midway through the three-day ballot. It followed a full day strike earlier in October.

Negotiations began in August when Apple proposed a new set of locked-in wage rises and conditions that unions say mean real wage cuts and poor work-life balance.

Unions want Apple to guarantee wage increases that reflect inflation - which is tracking around 7 percent in Australia, more than double the central bank’s target range - and weekends of two consecutive days rather than being split.

Apple says its minimum pay rates are 17 percent above the industry minimum and that full-time workers get guaranteed weekends.

FORGET COP27

Twilight of the Tigris: Iraq's mighty river drying up

Author: AFP|Update: 31.10.2022 


Sun setting on the Tigris: Iraqi fisherman Naim Haddad plys the Shatt al-Arab near Basra 


It was the river that is said to have watered the biblical Garden of Eden and helped give birth to civilisation itself.

But today the Tigris is dying.

Human activity and climate change have choked its once mighty flow through Iraq, where -- with its twin river the Euphrates -- it made Mesopotamia a cradle of civilisation thousands of years ago.

Iraq may be oil-rich but the country is plagued by poverty after decades of war and by droughts and desertification.

Battered by one natural disaster after another, it is one of the five countries most exposed to climate change, according to the UN.

From April on, temperatures exceed 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and intense sandstorms often turn the sky orange, covering the country in a film of dust.

Parched land: a thin horse looks for grass at Ras al-Bisha in southern Iraq / © AFP

Hellish summers see the mercury top a blistering 50 degrees Celsius -- near the limit of human endurance -- with frequent power cuts shutting down air-conditioning for millions.

The Tigris, the lifeline connecting the storied cities of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, has been choked by dams, most of them upstream in Turkey, and decreasing rainfall.

An AFP video journalist travelled along the river's 1,500-kilometre (900-mile) course through Iraq, from the rugged Kurdish north to the Gulf in the south, to document the ecological disaster that is forcing people to change their ancient way of life.

- Kurdish north: 'Less water every day' -

Threatened Eden: a young man bows his head on the banks of the Shatt al-Arab in southern Iraq / © AFP

The Tigris' journey through Iraq begins in the mountains of autonomous Kurdistan, near the borders of Turkey and Syria, where local people raise sheep and grow potatoes.

"Our life depends on the Tigris," said farmer Pibo Hassan Dolmassa, 41, wearing a dusty coat, in the town of Faysh Khabur. "All our work, our agriculture, depends on it.

"Before, the water was pouring in torrents," he said, but over the last two or three years "there is less water every day".

Iraq's government and Kurdish farmers accuse Turkey, where the Tigris has its source, of withholding water in its dams, dramatically reducing the flow into Iraq.

According to Iraqi official statistics, the level of the Tigris entering Iraq has dropped to just 35 percent of its average over the past century.

Baghdad regularly asks Ankara to release more water.

Not a drop: the dried-up Hamrin artificial lake northeast of Baghdad, Iraq / © AFP

But Turkey's ambassador to Iraq, Ali Riza Guney, urged Iraq to "use the available water more efficiently", tweeting in July that "water is largely wasted in Iraq".

He may have a point, say experts. Iraqi farmers tend to flood their fields, as they have done since ancient Sumerian times, rather than irrigate them, resulting in huge water losses.

- Central plains: 'We sold everything' -

The Tigris River in Iraq / © AFP

All that is left of the River Diyala, a tributary that meets the Tigris near the capital Baghdad in the central plains, are puddles of stagnant water dotting its parched bed.

Drought has dried up the watercourse that is crucial to the region's agriculture.

This year authorities have been forced to reduce Iraq's cultivated areas by half, meaning no crops will be grown in the badly-hit Diyala Governorate.

"We will be forced to give up farming and sell our animals," said Abu Mehdi, 42, who wears a white djellaba robe.

"We were displaced by the war" against Iran in the 1980s, he said, "and now we are going to be displaced because of water. Without water, we can't live in these areas at all."

The farmer went into debt to dig a 30-metre (100-foot) well to try to get water. "We sold everything," Abu Mehdi said, but "it was a failure".

The World Bank warned last year that much of Iraq is likely to face a similar fate.

"We will be forced to give up": farmer Abu Mehdi on the banks of the dried-up Diyala River in central Iraq / © AFP

"By 2050 a temperature increase of one degree Celsius and a precipitation decrease of 10 percent would cause a 20 percent reduction of available freshwater," it said.

"Under these circumstances, nearly one third of the irrigated land in Iraq will have no water."

Water scarcity hitting farming and food security are already among the "main drivers of rural-to-urban migration" in Iraq, the UN and several non-government groups said in June.

And the International Organization for Migration said last month that "climate factors" had displaced more than 3,300 families in Iraq's central and southern areas in the first three months of this year.

"Climate migration is already a reality in Iraq," the IOM said.

- Baghdad: sandbanks and pollution -

This summer in Baghdad, the level of the Tigris dropped so low that people played volleyball in the middle of the river, splashing barely waist-deep through its waters.

Iraq's Ministry of Water Resources blames silt because of the river's reduced flow, with sand and soil once washed downstream now settling to form sandbanks.

All that is left of the Diyala River, a tributary of the Tigris in the central Iraq / © AFP

Until recently the Baghdad authorities used heavy machinery to dredge the silt, but with cash tight, work has slowed.

Years of war have destroyed much of Iraq's water infrastructure, with many cities, factories, farms and even hospitals left to dump their waste straight into the river.

As sewage and rubbish from Greater Baghdad pour into the shrinking Tigris, the pollution creates a concentrated toxic soup that threatens marine life and human health.

Environmental policies have not been a high priority for Iraqi governments struggling with political, security and economic crises.

Ecological awareness also remains low among the general public, said activist Hajer Hadi of the Green Climate group, even if "every Iraqi feels climate change through rising temperatures, lower rainfall, falling water levels and dust storms".

- South: salt water, dead palms -

Thinning and polluted: the Tigris River flows under the Ahrar bridge in central Baghdad / © AFP

"You see these palm trees? They are thirsty," said Molla al-Rached, a 65-year-old farmer, pointing to the brown skeletons of what was once a verdant palm grove.

"They need water! Should I try to irrigate them with a glass of water?" he asked bitterly. "Or with a bottle?"

"There is no fresh water, there is no more life," said the farmer, a beige keffiyeh scarf wrapped around his head.

He lives at Ras al-Bisha where the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates river, the Shatt al-Arab, empties into the Gulf, near the borders with Iran and Kuwait.

In nearby Basra -- once dubbed the Venice of the Middle East -- many of the depleted waterways are choked with rubbish.

'There is no more life': despairing farmer Molla al-Rached and his dogs near the confluence of the Tigris and the Euphrates / © AFP

To the north, much of the once famed Mesopotamian Marshes -- the vast wetland home to the "Marsh Arabs" and their unique culture -- have been reduced to desert since Saddam Hussein drained them in the 1980s to punish its population.

But another threat is impacting the Shatt al-Arab: salt water from the Gulf is pushing ever further upstream as the river flow declines.

The UN and local farmers say rising salination is already hitting farm yields, in a trend set to worsen as global warming raises sea levels.

Al-Rached said he has to buy water from tankers for his livestock, and wildlife is now encroaching into settled areas in search of water.

"My government doesn't provide me with water," he said. "I want water, I want to live. I want to plant, like my ancestors."

- River delta: a fisherman's plight -

Climate victim: oil well flare near the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The country is one of the worst hit by global warming / © AFP

Standing barefoot in his boat like a Venetian gondolier, fisherman Naim Haddad steers it home as the sun sets on the waters of the Shatt al-Arab.

"From father to son, we have dedicated our lives to fishing," said the 40-year-old holding up the day's catch.

In a country where grilled carp is the national dish, the father-of-eight is proud that he receives "no government salary, no allowances".

But salination is taking its toll as it pushes out the most prized freshwater species, which are replaced by ocean fish.

"In the summer, we have salt water," said Haddad. "The sea water rises and comes here."

Last month local authorities reported that salt levels in the river north of Basra reached 6,800 parts per million -- nearly seven times that of fresh water.

Haddad can't switch to fishing at sea because his small boat is unsuitable for the choppier Gulf waters, where he would also risk run-ins with the Iranian and Kuwaiti coastguards.

Seawater is push further up the Shatt al-Arab threatening the livelihood of fisherman Naim Haddad / © AFP

And so the fisherman is left at the mercy of Iraq's shrinking rivers, his fate tied to theirs.

"If the water goes," he said, "the fishing goes. And so does our livelihood."

Euphrates River is drying up

Latest images show that the waters of the Euphrates River have decreased significantly as a result of the water war waged by the invading Turkish state against the people of North and East Syria

.
ANF
KOBANÊ
Wednesday, 31 Aug 2022,

Images captured on the banks of the Euphrates reveal that a large part of the Euphrates River has dried up. These areas which were once a source of life for the region have now become arid lands.

The images taken by ANHA at the Rojava Dam (Tishrin), Syria's second largest dam on the Euphrates River, show that the waters of the river have decreased significantly.

The Turkish state, which has been using the Euphrates water as a weapon against the Syrians for years, cuts off the waters flowing into Iraq and Syria to a large extent.

According to the agreement signed between the governments of Damascus and Ankara in 1987, Turkey is supposed to deliver 500 cubic meters of water per second to Syria. However, the invading state does not comply with the agreement, delivering only 200 cubic meters of water per second currently.



The negative effects of the dwindling waters can be seen clearly on the ground. Due to the water cuts, the waters in the dam lakes in Syria have decreased, while electricity production and electricity supply to the region have diminished.

Moreover, the amount of agricultural land on the banks of the Euphrates is decreasing. Most importantly, access to drinking water has become difficult. This situation is causing major health problems.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria warned that the Turkish state's policy to decrease the waters of the Euphrates River would cause humanitarian crises in the region, jeopardizing 9 million Syrians living in areas close to the river.

The Dams Administration of North and East Syria called on the international community and human rights organizations to stop the provocative actions of the Turkish state.

‘You are already changing the World’: Activist Malala Yousafzai to Protesting Iranian women

‘It is every woman’s right to choose for themselves’.

Scroll Staff

Oct 23, 2022 · 

UPDATES

Head of Iran’s IRGC warns protesters: ‘Today is last day of riots’

Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami speaks during a pro-government rally in the capital Tehran's central Enghelab Square on November 25, 2019. 

(AFP)

Reuters, Dubai
Published: 29 October ,2022

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Hossein Salami warned protesters that Saturday would be their last day of taking to the streets.

“Do not come to the streets! Today is the last day of the riots,” he said.

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in morality police custody last month.

They have turned into a popular revolt by furious Iranians from all layers of society, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

Rights groups have said at least 250 protesters have been killed and thousands arrested across Iran.

On Friday, video footage on social media showed protesters calling for the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Basij militia, which has played a major role in the crackdown on demonstrators.

Read more:

Two killed after police open fire at demonstrators in Iran’s Zahedan: Activists

UN expert urges international probe of Iran ‘brutality’ amid protests

Police chief in Iran's restive Zahedan city dismissed: State media

Iran withholding bodies of protesters from families: UN

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic's morality police, in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. (Reuters)

Reuters
Published: 28 October ,2022

The UN human rights office on Friday voiced concern about Iran's treatment of detained protesters and said that authorities were refusing to release some of the bodies of those killed.

The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody last month has ignited protests in one of the boldest challenges to Iran's clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution. Rights groups have said at least 250 protesters have been killed and thousands arrested.

“We've seen a lot of ill treatment ... but also harassment of the families of protesters,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told a Geneva press briefing, citing multiple sources.

“Of particular concern is information that authorities have been moving injured protesters from hospitals to detention facilities and refusing to release the bodies of those killed to their families,” she said.

Shamdasani added that in some cases, authorities were placing conditions on the release of bodies, asking families not to hold a funeral or speak to the media. Protesters in detention were also sometimes being denied medical treatment, she said.

Iran places Mahsa Amini’s family under house arrest: Report

Iranian Americans rally outside the White House in support of anti-regime protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, in Washington, US, September 24, 2022.

 (File photo: Reuters)

Ayush Narayanan, Al Arabiya English
28 October ,2022

Iranian authorities have placed Mahsa Amini’s family members under house arrest, Al Arabiya reported on Thursday.

“We hold the Iranian authorities responsible for the killing of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the security forces,” Irfan Murtazai, a cousin of Amini confirmed in a call with Al Arabiya.

Protests took place in Amini’s hometown of Saqqez and other parts of Iran on Wednesday to mark 40 days since she died in police custody, videos shared on social media showed.

Iranian security forces reportedly opened fire at people who gathered at the cemetery where Mahsa Amini is buried, a witness told Reuters.

Demonstrations have swept across Iran since September 16 when 22-year-old Amini died three days after collapsing in police custody.

The demonstrations have become one of the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic’s clerical leadership since the 1979 Iranian Revolution with protesters calling for regime change.

Over 200 protesters have been killed and thousands have been arrested, according to rights groups.

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS REMOVING THEIR HIJAB ARE REVOLUTIONARIES

‘We don’t want regime change’: Iran’s reformists reaffirm allegiance to regime

A picture obtained by AFP outside Iran, shows people gathering next to a burning motorcycle in the capital Tehran on October 8, 2022. (AFP)

Yaghoub Fazeli, Al Arabiya English
Published: 25 October ,2022:

Iran’s reformists reject calls for regime change in the country’s ongoing protests, a leading reformist figure said on Monday.

“We cannot align with the protesters on the street who chant for regime change; we reject their slogans,” Behzad Nabavi, head of Iran’s Reform Front, told Iranian newspaper Hammihan.

Nabavi likened the regime to a building, saying: “We don’t want to blow up the building. Rather, we want to fix the same building and fix its defects, which we know is a very difficult and expensive task.”

The Reform Front headed by Nabavi is Iran’s leading reformist coalition, made up of 27 reformist groups.

Iran’s reformists are opposed to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic and insist that gradual reforms from within the system are the best way forward.

Anti-government protests sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini have rocked Iran for the past five weeks.

The protests quickly escalated and turned political with demonstrations taking place country-wide. Protesters have been chanting against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and calling for regime change.

Over 200 protesters have been killed and thousands of others have been arrested, according to rights groups.

Read more:

Iran security forces fire tear gas near Tehran school after dispute

Iran charges 300 in Tehran protests, four could face death penalty

Iranian security forces shoot at people gathered at Mahsa Amini’s grave: Report

Iran’s security forces shoot dead protester tearing down poster of supreme leader

A social media image of Erfan Rezaei. (Twitter)

Ayush Narayanan, Al Arabiya English
Published: 26 October ,2022:

Security forces in Iran have shot dead a protester who was seen removing a large government poster featuring the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, BBC Persian reported on Tuesday.

Identified as Erfan Rezaei, the 21-year-old protester was killed after a pistol fired at his shoulder at close range, the British broadcaster reported citing a source close to the family

The incident took place on September 21. The family, reportedly under pressure from the government, was coerced into admitting that Rezaei was shot by a fellow protestor.

Iranian government officials have not commented on the incident.

Rezaei died as a result of “severe damage to the kidney and spleen caused by the bullet wound to his back,” the BBC reported citing the source.

Rezaei’s mother rushed to hospital after authorities informed her about his whereabouts. However, nurses refused to help her find him.

After three hours of searching, she eventually spotted his blood-stained clothes outside an operating room, the British broadcaster reported.

Authorities allowed Rezaei’s family to take his body for burial two days later on the condition that they hold a “quiet funeral,” the report added.

“I stare at your picture and cry for hours every day,” the victim’s heartbroken mother wrote on Instagram accompanied by a video of his grave.

Protests ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s morality police on September 16 have become one of the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic’s leadership since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

A wide range of Iranians have come out onto the streets, with some calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic and chanting “Death to (Supreme Leader Ali) Khamenei.”

As of Wednesday, riot police have been deployed in large numbers in Amini’s hometown of Saqez, Reuters reported, after activists called for protests across the country to mark 40 days since she died in detention over her “inappropriate attire.”

Witnesses in the capital Tehran and the cities of Tabriz and Rasht to the north also reported a heavy presence of security forces in the streets.

With Reuters

Iran's protesters find inspiration in a Kurdish revolutionary slogan

October 27, 2022
SEYMA BAYRAM
DIBA MOHTASHAM


Bahar Demirtaş for NPR

For 41 days, thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in anger over the death of a young Kurdish woman in police custody, even as authorities continue their violent crackdown against them. The demonstrations — honoring the memory of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose Kurdish first name was Jina — have become the largest women's rights movement in Iran's recent history.

One resounding slogan has become the movement's rallying cry: "Jin, jiyan, azadi!" — or "Woman, life, freedom!"

Iran protests spark solidarity rallies in the U.S. and Europe

First chanted by mourners at Amini's burial in her hometown of Saqez, the slogan quickly spread from the country's Kurdish cities to the capital, Tehran. It took on new life in its Farsi translation — "Zan, zendegi, azadi" — and the message continues to reverberate across solidarity protests from Berlin to New York. Even fashion brands like Balenciaga and Gucci have posted the slogan to their Instagram feeds.

People attend an anti-Iranian government demonstration in Berlin on Saturday, following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was also known by her Kurdish name, Jina, while in police custody. The slogan "Woman, life, freedom" is a translation of the revolutionary Kurdish slogan, "Jin, jiyan, azadi."Markus Schreiber/AP

CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR
Ongoing Protests In Iran Echo A Century-Old Revolution

The words "jin, jiyan, azadi" and their various translations have unified Iranians across ethnic and social lines. They have come to signify the demand for women's bodily autonomy and a collective resistance against 43 years of repression by the Iranian regime.

But Kurdish activists say that some Iranians and the media are overlooking key elements of the Kurdish background of both Amini herself and the slogan pulsing through the mass protests sparked by her death.


THROUGHLINE
No Friend But The Mountains

"It's meant to be a universal slogan for a universal women's struggle. That was what was always intended with it," says Elif Sarican, a London-based anthropologist and activist in the Kurdish women's movement. "But the root needs to be understood, at the very least in respect towards the people who have sacrificed their lives for it, but also to understand what this is saying. ... These aren't just words."
The slogan was popularized during women's marches in Turkey in 2006

The slogan originated with the Kurdish Freedom Movement, led by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an armed group carrying out an insurgency against Turkish authorities since the 1980s. The State Department has long designated the PKK as a terrorist organization.

PARALLELS
Understanding The Kurds' Different Roles In Different Conflicts

The slogan was inspired by the writings of Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK's cofounder, who said that "a country can't be free unless the women are free."

Ocalan advocated for what he called "jineoloji," a Kurdish feminist school of thought. That ultimately led to the development of an autonomous women's struggle — the Kurdish women's movement — within the broader Kurdish Freedom Movement, Sarican explains.

MIDDLE EAST
How the Kurdish people's situation factors into protests over woman's death in Iran

Toggle more options

She says the slogan was first popularized during International Women's Day marches across Turkey on March 8, 2006. Turkey, with about 15 million Kurds, is home to the largest population of Kurds in the Middle East. Although they make up an estimated 18% to 20% of the nation's population, they face discrimination and persecution.




Kurdish women demonstrate during International Women's Day celebrations in Diyarbakir, Turkey, on March 10, 2007. Their protest signs read: "Woman, life, freedom," "Long live March 8," "No to the massacres of women" and "No to harassment and rape." More than 1,500 women gathered to mark International Women's Day in the predominantly Kurdish city.Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images


WORLD
'Revenge Is For The Weak': Kurdish Courts In Northeastern Syria Take On ISIS Cases

Since 2006, Sarican says, "Every year, based on 'jin, jiyan, azadi' as the philosophy of freedom, there's been various different campaigns that have been announced and declared to the world by the Kurdish women's movement on each 8th of March — to say that this is our contribution, this is our call and this is our encouragement for a common struggle of women against colonialism and patriarchal capitalism."

AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
Women Take The Lead In Fighting ISIS In 'Daughters Of Kobani'

Five years ago, Kurdish female guerrilla fighters with the YPJ militia chanted the slogan during the Kurdish-led Rojava revolution in northern Syria that began in 2012.
Kurds in Iran face discrimination and many live in poverty

Ignoring the slogan's political history contributes to the long-standing erasure of Kurdish people's identity and struggle, activists say.

That's also been the case in international coverage of Amini's death, they contend, in which Mahsa — Amini's Iranian state-sanctioned first name — is used. In interviews, Amini's parents have used both her Iranian and Kurdish names.

Like many Kurds in Iran, Amini was not allowed to legally register her Kurdish name, which means "life."

"I felt like she died twice because no one really was mentioning her Kurdish name or her Kurdish background, which is so relevant," says Beri Shalmashi, an Amsterdam-based Iranian Kurdish writer and filmmaker.

A portrait of Mahsa Amini, who was also known by her Kurdish name, Jina, is held during a rally calling for regime change in Iran in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 1.

Cliff Owen/AP

Besides facing ethnic discrimination, Kurds, who make up an estimated 15% of Iran's population, are marginalized as Sunni Muslims in a Shia-majority country. Their language is restricted and they account for nearly half of political prisoners in Iran. The country's Kurdish regions are also among its most impoverished.

The Iranian government has blamed Kurds for the current unrest in Iran, according to news reports, and has attacked predominantly Kurdish cities, like Sanandaj and Oshnavieh. Some Persian nationalists, meanwhile, continue to ignore the lived experiences of Kurds in the country.

Shalmashi believes it's vital to highlight Amini's Kurdish identity, and the Kurdish roots of "jin, jiyan, azadi," as a reminder of the need for greater rights for all people in today's Iran — no matter their ethnicity or gender. Without inclusion and unity, she warns, the current protests risk becoming meaningless.

"Because if you don't make room for people to be in this together," she says, "then what are you going to do if you even succeed?"

Countering Iran’s Brand of Digital Authoritarianism

 A woman holds a smartphone shown to be unable to access internet, 

while standing along a street in the Iranian capital Tehran 

(Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images).

by Cathryn Grothe
October 21, 2022

Over the past decade, the Iranian government has perfected a sophisticated model of digital authoritarianism that has provided the regime with a vast set of tools to silence dissent online and offline. As massive anti-government protests spread across the country following the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman who was arrested by Tehran’s “morality police” for improperly wearing her hijab, authorities have relied on these tactics to hinder mobilization efforts and restrict the free flow of information within and outside the country.

By shutting down the internet and blocking social media platforms, authorities can keep people from organizing and limit reporting on the situation, namely security forces’ disproportionate violence against protesters.

While these repressive tactics have enabled the Iranian regime to effectively silence unrest in the past, the sheer magnitude of the current protests has tested authorities’ ability to quickly quell this unwavering dissent. Fractures to Iran’s deeply entrenched model of digital authoritarianism are being exposed, and it is unclear what comes next. However, supporters of internet freedom can take concrete actions to push back against Iran’s long-standing tactics to silence dissent and can simultaneously support Iranians’ calls for freedom.

Tightly Controlling the Online Space

For years, the Iranian government has been building digital walls to isolate Iranians from the global internet, specifically by developing its National Internet Network, which is a domestic internet backbone centralized under the government that allows authorities to more easily censor online content. Following in the footsteps of China’s Great Firewall, authorities have carefully curated an internet that maximizes their control over the online space. By centralizing the internet infrastructure under the government, authorities can more easily shut down the internet, restrict access to major social media and communications platforms, block foreign news websites, and surveil online users.

Nearly all major social media platforms are blocked in Iran, as are thousands of websites. Instagram and WhatsApp were the two remaining foreign apps available, although they were blocked amid the current protests. Some authorities have called to make these bans permanent. Proposed legislation, ironically titled the User Protection Bill, would impose additional requirements on foreign social media companies to comply with government censorship and further centralize the internet infrastructure under the armed forces, effectively sealing the fate of any remaining foreign social media companies in Iran.

Alongside blocking platforms, officials have been encouraging Iranians to use domestic versions of popular social media and messaging apps, many of which receive substantial support from the state. By pushing Iranians onto these domestic apps, not only is the cost of blocking international platforms reduced, but the risk of surveillance is heightened given the apps’ extensive data collection and poor security measures.

Repressive legislation strictly regulates what kind of content is permissible online. Many of these laws include harsh criminal penalties for online speech. As the current protests erupted, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of the military, called on the judiciary to prosecute those who spread “rumors” amid the ongoing unrest.

Online users who dare stray from the red lines set by Iranian authorities risk harsh retribution. In late September, as protesters took to the streets, two activists who ran a Telegram channel and Instagram account dedicated to LGBT+ issues were sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolution Court of Urmia after being found guilty of “corruption on earth,” in part due to their online activism.

The stakes for dissent – both online and offline – are incredibly high, naturally encouraging many Iranians to self-censor and carefully toe government red lines. With bated breath, the world is watching Iranian women burning their hijabs in the street, testing whether the decades-long status quo of repression has reached a breaking point.

How Defenders of Internet Freedom Can Support Iranian Protesters

Whether these protests result in revolutionary regime change or reluctant capitulation from the government remains to be seen. Either way, there are clear avenues for policymakers, tech companies, and internet freedom advocates to chip away at Iran’s longstanding system of digital authoritarianism, which in turn can support the calls for change echoing through the streets.

Iranian civil society, the diaspora community, and digital rights groups have been working tirelessly to call attention to the regime’s digital repression tactics and highlight how internet freedom can be upheld during the protests. Shortly after the protests and subsequent internet shutdowns began, these groups started sharing tech-savvy measures to help Iranians stay connected and safe online.

One such measure is for virtual private network (VPN) companies to make their technology more accessible to Iranian users, who can use them to access blocked websites and communications platforms. While VPNs are an important tool, their utility will be limited during a total internet shutdown.

Despite the significant censorship of social media platforms in Iran, platforms like Telegram and WhatsApp continue to serve as critical tools for sharing information both within and outside of the country. Tech companies can adjust their product design or provide programs to Iranian users to increase their safety and protect the personal information of their users – as Facebook did following the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan – by hiding friends lists and locking account access.

Some of this work is already under way. Some tech companies have been working with members of the Iranian diaspora to help remove sensitive information or delete account information after someone has been arrested by security forces. Signal also recently called on its users around the world to set up proxy servers to help Iranians access its encrypted communications services.

Tech companies have a checkered past when it comes to content moderation in Iran, which at times has aided and abetted the regime’s attempts to silence critics. Since the protests began, Meta was reportedly accused of deactivating Iranian WhatsApp accounts and removing Instagram posts. Telegram, which has repeatedly been critiqued by global civil society and technical experts for its lack of transparency, has been called out for enabling the Iranian government to identify and track protesters. Tech companies must keep the rights and safety of online users front and center, and should use all available avenues to push back against censorship orders.

Companies should also bolster their Persian-language content moderation. For example, research has identified consistent problems with Meta’s content moderation of non-English content. To ensure fair and transparent content moderation, tech companies with user bases in Iran should engage with the diaspora and digital rights groups, whose political and cultural expertise can help inform their policies and approaches.

Multilateral institutions and democratic governments can continue to pressure Iranian authorities to refrain from conducting internet shutdowns, particularly during protests. While international condemnation may not resonate within the Iranian government, multilateral bodies like the Freedom Online Coalition should leverage their name recognition to demonstrate their solidarity with Iranian protesters and use their diplomatic ability to call on the government to limit its attacks to free expression online.

For years, sanctions imposed on Iran for illicit nuclear activity, terrorist financing, corruption, and human rights abuses drastically limited the kinds of online content to which Iranians had access, including news, communications platforms, and apps. When combined with the regime’s proclivity to cut off access to the internet during times of unrest, this has meant severely restricted internet freedom in Iran. Access to information is critically important, particularly during fast-evolving protests, and it is vital that officials keep the preservation of internet access in mind when considering sanctions policy for Iran moving forward.

Since the protests began, the U.S. government has taken encouraging steps to lessen the impact of sanctions on Iranians and expand internet access amid the shutdowns. Specifically, the federal government’s updated guidance to tech companies in light of the Iranian protests will widen access to social media platforms, cloud-based services, and VPNs, and will authorize certain software that can protect users from having their devices infected with spyware or hacking tools.

Some U.S. tech companies jumped at the chance to introduce their products in Iran following the easing of sanctions. Circumvention tools have already provided relief to Iranians trying to bypass government censorship. Other products that could provide long-term solutions to Iran’s digital censorship are less likely to help protesters in the immediate future. Though SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet reportedly became available in Iran in late September, the physical hardware required to connect will be difficult for Iranian internet users to obtain without outside assistance.

The challenges facing those who want to build and protect internet freedom in an environment as repressive as Iran are immense. But fostering an open and safe online space can go a long way to support the extraordinary and courageous people in Iran in their fight for fundamental freedoms.

Cathryn Grothe

Cathryn Grothe (@Cathryn_Grothe) is a Research Analyst at Freedom House, covering the Middle East and North Africa for the Freedom in the World and Freedom on the Net publications.