Anti-Government Protests in Iran, America, and the Middle East: The D.C. Unrest and the End to the Islamic Republic

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday appealed for national unity and tried to allay anger against the country’s rulers, even as the anti-government protests that have engulfed the country for weeks continued to spread to universities and high schools.

Raisi acknowledged that the Islamic Republic had “weaknesses and shortcomings,” but repeated the official line that the unrest sparked last month by the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the country’s morality police was nothing short of a plot by Iran’s enemies.

He told a parliament that the country’s determination is aimed at cooperation to reduce people’s problems. “Unity and national integrity are necessities that render our enemy hopeless.”

Iranian officials blame the protests on the U.S. and other foreign powers. The media has highlighted attacks on the security forces while authorities have imposed heavy restrictions regarding coverage of the demonstrations.

There are the same issues in the US and around the globe as in Iran, according to a protester who left the country three years ago. After 50 years of forced hijab in Iran and here in the US, women’s bodies are under control, according to Aayanifard, who drove from East Michigan to join the D.C. march. She referred to rollbacks of abortion laws in the United States. “It’s about control over women’s bodies.”

The Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 21 people in relation to the protests.

The new academic year began this week and the demonstrations spread quickly to university campuses, which have been considered sanctuaries during times of turmoil. Students expressed solidarity with peers who had been arrested and called for an end to the Islamic Republic, in videos on social media. Many universities moved classes online this week because of the unrest.

The prestigious Sharif University of Technology in Tehran became a battlefield on Sunday as security forces surrounded the campus from all sides and fired tear gas at protesters who were holed up inside a parking lot, preventing them from leaving. The student union reported that police arrested hundreds of students, although many were later released.

Students marched and chanted, “Jailed students must be freed!” in one video. There is a university in Tehran. In another, students streamed through Khayyam University in the conservative city of Mashhad, shouting, “Sharif University has become a jail! Evin Prison has become a university!” — referring to Iran’s notorious prison in Tehran.

Girls and women across Iran have played a vital role in the demonstrations, and in recent weeks have protested at schools, university campuses and out on the streets.

The response by Iran’s security forces has sparked widespread global condemnation. On Monday, President Joe Biden said his administration was “gravely concerned about reports of the intensifying violent crackdown on peaceful protesters in Iran, including students and women.”

In an interview with an independent reformist Iranian newspaper, Iran’s Education Minister Yousef Nouri confirmed that some school students have indeed been detained and referred to what he called “psychological institutions.”

He told the Shargh newspaper that they wanted to reform the students and that they would return to class after they were reformed.

Emerging “Hero” Elnaz Rekabi at the Tehran Airport: A Hero’s Welcome after a Meetup with the Iranian Embassy

IranWire posted videos on social media on Wednesday showing demonstrations in Tehran and other Iranian cities.

“We are extremely concerned by continuing reports of children and adolescents being killed, injured and detained amid the ongoing public unrest in Iran,” read the UNICEF statement.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian competitive climber Elnaz Rekabi received a hero’s welcome on her return to Tehran early Wednesday, after competing in South Korea without wearing a mandatory headscarf required of female athletes from the Islamic Republic.

In a tweet, the Iranian Embassy in Seoul denied “all the fake, false news and disinformation” regarding Rekabi’s departure. But instead of posting a photo of her from the Seoul competition, it posted an image of her wearing a headscarf at a previous competition in Moscow, where she took a bronze medal.

Video shared online showed large crowds gathered early Wednesday at Imam Khomeini International Airport outside of Tehran, the sanctioned nation’s main gateway out of the country. The videos, corresponding to known features of the airport, showed crowds chanting the 33-year-old Rekabi’s name and calling her a hero.

In one of the airport’s terminal, she wore a black baseball cap and a black hoodie and was filmed by state media. She received flowers from an onlooker, and then repeated what had been posted on Instagram that not wearing the hijab was “unintentional” and her travel had been as previously planned.

Rekabi left on a flight from South Korea. The BBC’s Persian service, which has extensive contacts within Iran despite being banned from operating there, quoted an unnamed “informed source” who described Iranian officials as seizing both Rekabi’s mobile phone and passport.

“Our understanding is that she is returning to Iran, and we will continue to monitor the situation as it develops on her arrival,” the International Federation of Sport Climbing, which oversaw the event, said in a statement. It is important for us to emphasize that athletes’ safety is our top priority, and that we support any effort to keep a valued member of our community safe in this situation.

The federation said it had been in touch with both Rekabi and Iranian officials, but declined to elaborate on the substance of those calls when reached by The Associated Press. The federation declined to talk about the claims in the instagram post attributed to Rekabi.

The Iranian athlete and her team have left the country, but no word from South Korea’s Foreign Ministry. On Wednesday, a small group of protesters demonstrated in front of Iran’s Embassy in Seoul, with some women cutting off locks of their hair like others have in demonstrations worldwide since Amini’s death.

It is difficult to get information about the demonstrations. The Iranian government has disrupted internet access for weeks. The Committee to Protect Journalists has learned that at least 40 journalists have been taken into custody.

Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers has been a disaster; the country’s currency has plummeted and life savings have been wiped out.

The Women’s Life Freedom Collective in Berlin, Germany, on Friday, September 9, 1979: The Iran Revoltation after the September Death of the 22-Year-old Iranian Ambassador

In Berlin, a crowd estimated by German police at several tens of thousands turned out to show solidarity for the women and activists leading the movement for the past few weeks in Iran. The protests in Germany’s capital, organized by the Woman(asterisk) Life Freedom Collective, began at the Victory Column in Berlin’s Tiergarten park and continued as a march through central Berlin.

While on the US National Mall, a group of people wearing green, white and red shouted in unison as if they were Iranian. “Be afraid.” You need to be scared. Protesters yelled “we are One in this” as they walked to the White House. Say her name! Mahsa!”

The demonstrations, put together by grassroots organizers from around the United States, drew Iranians from across the Washington D.C. area, with some traveling down from Toronto to join the crowd.

Shooka Scharm, an attorney who was born in the U.S. after her parents fled the Iranian revolution, was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom” in English and Farsi. The women in Iran are sick of being second-class citizens.

After the 1979 revolution in Iran, Persian music was used to describe life and freedom, and was sung by the protesters in D.C. They sang “Baraye” in unison because it’s become the unofficial anthem of the Iran protests. The artist of that song, Hajipour was arrested shortly after he posted the song on his account. It had more than 40 million views.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran on Friday marked the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran as its theocracy faces nationwide protests after the September death of a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the country’s morality police.

Iranian state-run television aired live feeds of various commemorations around the country, with some in Tehran waving placards of the triangle-shaped Iranian drones Russia now uses to strike targets in its war on Ukraine. The smaller commemorations that took place in the country appeared to be in response to the large crowd that showed up in Tehran.

Iran’s hard-line President slammed those protesting theocracy, while speaking to people gathered in front of a building.

“Anyone taking the smallest step in the direction of breaching security and riots, must know that they are stepping in the direction of enemies of the Islamic Revolution,” he said. Americans think that they can execute their plan in Libya and Syria. What a fake dream!

The effigies of the French and Saudi leaders were waved by those at the commemoration. Signs and chants from the crowd called out: “Death to America! Death to Israel!”

Hard-liners within Iran long have bussed government workers and others into such Nov. 4 demonstrations, which have a carnival-like feel for the students and others taking part on Taleqani Street in downtown Tehran.

Iran’s theocracy wants to increase its hard-line base. Some signs read “We Are Obedient To The Leader,” referring to 83-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say over all matters of state in the country. The weekslong demonstrations have included cries calling for Khamenei’s death and the overthrow of the government.

Student demonstrators climbed over the fence at the embassy in protest against then-president Jimmy Carter allowing Shah Pahlavi to be treated in the United States for cancer.

The students soon took over the entire, leafy compound. A few staffers fled and hid in the home of the Canadian ambassador to Iran before escaping the country with the help of the CIA, a story dramatized in the 2012 film “Argo.”

nightly images of blindfolded hostages played on tv sets across the nation during the 444-day crisis. Carter left office on Ronald Reagan’s inauguration day in 1981 and Iran let all their captives go.

That enmity between Iran and the U.S. has ebbed and surged over the decades since. Iran’s program was drastically reduced in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions after a nuclear deal was struck between the US and Iran. The deal went up in flames when President Donald Trump withdrew from it.

The President stopped his speech in California after a crowd held up cellphones and said “FREE IRAN” during his speech.

Maybe he said this because he didn’t know what to say. He said we aim to liberate Iran,” Raisi said. “Mr. President! Iran was liberated from captivity in 1973, and it’s determined not to repeat that mistake again. We won’t become a cow.

Biden had said he was willing to have the U.S. rejoin the nuclear deal. Since the protests began in mid-September, the position of the US appears to have hardened as officials say restoring the deal isn’t a priority.

Iran is closer to nuclear power than any other country: The deaths of 22-year-old Amini and three other people convicted in the anti-government protests

Some protesters waved placards with atoms as a reminder that Iran is now closer to weapons grade plutonium than any other country. Nonproliferation experts warn Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make at least one nuclear weapon if it chose, though Tehran insists its program is peaceful.

The death of 22-year-old Amini, who was arrested for not wearing her hijab properly, sparked nationwide protests in which several Iranians were sentenced to death.

They were convicted on the charge of “disturbing public order and peace, community, and colluding to commit a crime against national security, war and corruption on Earth, war through arson, and intentional destruction,” according to state news agency IRNA on Sunday.

Five people were sentenced to five to 10 years in prison for their part in the protests.

IRNA said that these decisions can be appealed. The news agency did not name the protester who received the death sentence or provide details on when or where they committed the alleged crime.

The group said in an update to its death toll that its published number represented an “absolute minimum”, and that includes 43 children and 25 women.

CNN cannot independently verify the figure due to the fact that the internet, protest movements in Iran, and non-state media have all been suppressed. Death tolls vary by opposition groups, international rights organizations and journalists tracking the ongoing protests.

Despite the threat of arrests – and harsher punishments for those involved – Iranian celebrities and athletes have stepped forward to support the anti-government protests in recent weeks.

The director of Iran Human Rights stated in a letter that executions of protesters will begin if they don’t have strong reactions. “This is an execution that has rapid practical consequences internationally.”

Mohsen Shekari was executed Dec. 9 after being charged by an Iranian court with blocking a street in Tehran and attacking a member of the country’s security forces with a machete. Iran executed a second prisoner, named Majidreza, by hanging a week later. He had been accused of stabbing two members of the paramilitary Basij militia, which is leading the crackdown.

Mizan said Shekari had been arrested on Sept. 25, then convicted on Nov. 20 on the charge of “moharebeh,” a Farsi word meaning “waging war against God.” That charge has been levied against others in the decades since 1979 and carries the death penalty. Mizan said an appeal by Shekari’s lawyer against the sentence had failed before his execution.

Shekari was sentenced to death on October 23, and executed by hanging on Thursday morning, according to Mizan Online. It was the first execution connected to the protests to be publicly reported by state media.

“His execution must be met with the strongest possible terms and international reactions. The group’s director said that the group would be facing daily executions of protesters who were protesting for their rights.

On December 7th, which is the anniversary of the murder of three university students by the Iranian police, the old leader wrote that the government must listen to protesters before it is too late.

Iranian Women’s Protest of Human Rights and the Revolutionary Guard: The Shekari-Bajj Indicted Charged with Abuse in Detention

It was reported on Tuesday that a prominent Iranian Sunni cleric called for prosecution of people who abuse women in prisons.

The authorities have unleashed a fatal crackdown since the demonstrations began, with some reports of forced internments and physical abuses being used to target the Kurdish minority group.

The CNN investigation has revealed that sexual violence was committed against protesters in Iran’s detention centers.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader has praised the Basij – a wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard – for its role in the crackdown, describing the protest movement as “rioters” and “thugs” backed by foreign forces.

In late November, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Iran was in a “full-fledged human rights crisis,” and called for an independent investigation into violations of human rights in the country.

Activists warn that others could also be put to death in the near future, saying that at least a dozen people so far have received death sentences over their involvement in the demonstrations.

The Mizan report also alleged that Shekari said he had been offered money by an acquaintance to attack the security forces. Iran’s government has been trying to imply that foreign countries fomented unrest in the country, rather than Iranian people angry over the country’s finances, heavy-handed policing and other troubles.

Mizan said that the Revolutionary Court had convicted Failavard. Critics say the tribunals aren’t allowing those on trial to pick their lawyers or see the evidence against them.

Iranian state television aired a heavily edited package after his execution that showed the courtroom and part of her trial.

Salavati faces U.S. sanctions for overseeing cases “in which journalists, attorneys, political activists and members of Iran’s ethnic and religious minority groups were penalized for exercising their freedom of expression and assembly and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, lashes and even execution,” according to the U.S. Treasury.

The execution of the man less than a month after he is accused of killing two security officials shows how quickly death sentences can be carried out by the government.

The Mizan news agency is under the authority of the country’s judiciary, and has reported that there was a murder and wounding in Mashhad.

Footage aired on state TV showed a man chasing another around a street corner, then standing over him and stabbing him after he fell against a parked motorbike. The assailant, which state TV alleged was Rahnavard, then fled.

The Mizan report said the dead were paramilitary volunteers for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The Basij (ba-SEEJ’) have deployed in major cities, attacking and detaining protesters, who in many cases have fought back.

The Mizan report did not explain why Rahnavard attacked him. The report accused Rahnavard of trying to flee to a foreign country when he was arrested.

Taraneh Alidoosti, the first prisoner detained during a protest in Iran, was arrested after she was allegedly abused by a militia member

Iran executed the first prisoner detained during demonstrations Thursday. The rial has dropped to new lows against the U.S. dollar during the unrest.

One of Iran’s best-known actresses has been arrested days after she criticized the execution of a man who was involved in the nationwide protests that have swept the country since September.

The news that the Iran’s Oscar-winning actor, Taraneh Alidoosti, had been taken to the notorious Evin prison quickly went through the media.

Alidoosti is a feminist activist and she showed her support of the protest movement by posting a picture of herself without the hijab and holding a sign.

″His name was Mohsen Shekari,” Alidoosti wrote on an account with some 8 million followers before her arrest. “Every international organization who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action, is a disgrace to humanity.”

I will demand justice for the prisoners and the families who have lost loved ones. I will fight for my home and I will pay any cost to stand for my rights,” she wrote.

A pro-government TV channel aired audio that was described as Rahnavard’s confession to police. NPR could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the audio.

“Unfortunately, my own arrow hit my brother,” the recording says, apparently referring to the trial of the Basij militia members who were convicted of murdering his brother.

Iran Executions Protests Against Dr. Hamid Hassanlou’s Executions at the Allameh University

Some students at the Allameh University were barred from taking classes after they took part in a protest.

The official said that the students were people who didn’t appreciate our peaceful behavior and insisted on continuing their path.

The number of prisoners is much larger. Rights groups estimate at least 18,000 people have been detained, with at least 39 seen as at risk of receiving a death sentence or being executed.

One of those sentenced to death is Dr. Hamid Ghareh Hassanlou, a 53-year-old radiologist. His wife Farzaneh Ghareh Hassanlou has been sentenced to 25 years’ solitary confinement. Both were arrested after they were caught up in a protest.

Hassanlou was tortured and did not have access to his own lawyer, anti-regime activists say. The lawyer appointed by the government made no defense and advised his client to accept the charges.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/20/1144206320/iran-executions-protests-mahsa-amini

What Do Women Have in Common? “There is no violence at all,” Alidoosti tells us about his childhood in Iran, and how the United States Supreme Court overturns it

He says that there is no violence at all. On the personality level he is very outspoken. And on something he believed in, he could be as stubborn as hell.”

“I’m proud of you,” he says. “Because I honestly am. I’m so proud of him, but at the same time, I miss him. I had never asked why he did it. The implication was huge for him, his family, and all the people around him. But I’m still proud of him.”

The confidence, the grace and the moral backbone with which Alidoosti has today stood up to a bullying and violent state that has completely lost any semblance of legitimacy did not fall from the sky. Generations of women’s rights activists have been active in Iran since the 19th century, and that’s when the Iranian equivalents of Susan B. Anthony, Betsy Ross, and bell hooks were active.

Years ago, Jean-Michel Frodon, a prominent French film critic, said the late Abbas Kiarostami, the world-renowned Iranian filmmaker, was like a locomotive that carried the rest of Iranian cinema to the world’s limelight. The same is true today of Alidoosti, whose arrest and incarceration in the dungeon of a beleaguered and violent state have brought her people’s historic struggles for liberty to global focus.

From before the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 to 1911, which turned an absolutist monarchy into a constitutional monarchy, to every major turn in modern Iranian history, conservative, liberal and radical women’s rights activists alike have left no stone unturned to assert their vision of a better future for themselves and their homeland.

But all of that illustrious history doesn’t do justice to the courage, conviction, and principled uprising of a new generation of women and girls in today’s massive social uprising that makes all its historic antecedent fade in comparison.

Alidoosti’s message to this uprising goes far beyond her homeland. The US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark 1973 decision of abortion rights for women is a global resonance that puts the health and wellbeing of millions of poor Americans in jeopardy.

The cry of “Woman, Life, Freedom” that has landed Alidoosti in jail is a universal message that can be translated – and felt – in every language around the globe.

Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency said Taraneh Alidoosti, who was the star of “The Salesman,” was released on bail. The mother of her child had earlier said she would be released in a post.

After her release from the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, Alidoosti posed with flowers surrounded by friends. Her case has not been released.

The death of a woman in police custody and subsequent calls for the overthrow of Iran’s ruling clerics led to one message that expressed solidarity with the first man to be executed on charges related to the protests.

She should not be accused of being against the revolution. The case for a hijab, or how to remove a headscarf

In a meeting with women on Wednesday, Khamenei spoke about the need for a hijab but said those who do not observe it should not be accused of being against the revolution.

During the presidency of Hasan Rouhani, the moderate who ruled from 2015 to 2021, the headscarf was sometimes put off by the authorities because of the protests. His successor, the hard-liners, moved to tighten the restrictions.

In June 2020, she was given a suspended five-month prison sentence after she criticized the police on Twitter in 2018 for assaulting a woman who had removed her headscarf.

In “The Salesman,” she played a woman whose relationship with her husband fractures after she is sexually assaulted in their apartment. A local staging of Arthur Miller’s classic play, “Death of a Salesman”, in which the woman and her husband are cast as the main characters, plays a part in the story.