SOFREP’s ongoing coverage on Iranian protest continues to show the devastating abuse of power by local authorities, Iranian police and their Revolutionary Guard.
For weeks now, protesters have not stopped filling the streets with a blatant call to change of power in their government. Since 2018, Iranian women have been voicing out their concerns about the “morality police’s” brutality by removing their hijab. Women who would protest like this are sent to jail, would experience severe sentencing (for up to 10 years), and reportedly receive 74 lashes from the police for “openly committing a sinful act.”
This week, more Iranian students took to the streets, and shopkeepers went on strike as the nation mourns the 50th day after Mahsa Amini’s death. The demonstrators were heard shouting, “I am a free woman, you are the pervert” at the Islamic Azad University of Mashhad.
“A student dies, but doesn’t accept humiliation,” sang students at Gilan University in the northern city of Rasht.
Then, in a separate area in Khash, a southeastern city of Iran, up to 10 people, including children, were reportedly killed by security forces who fired live ammunition against the “peaceful protesters at the rooftop of the governor’s office and several other buildings.” According to Human Rights Watchdog Amnesty, the protest only turned violent after the shots were fired. In one of the videos, the state media showed smoke rising from a building. Amnesty noted that they are “gravely concerned about further bloodshed amid internet disruptions and reports of authorities bringing more security forces to Khash from Zahedan.”
“Iran’s authorities must immediately rein in security forces. Member states of the UN must immediately raise concerns with Iran’s ambassadors and support the establishment of an independent investigative mechanism by the UN Human Rights Council,” Amnesty said.
And according to Iran International, an independent media news site, a Ph.D. candidate Nasrin Ghaderi, 35, who was studying Philosophy in Tehran, died yesterday after being by police forces with a baton. However, after the government’s pressure on her family, Iranian officials claim she died of a “flu and underlying disease.”
Meanwhile, some of Iran’s moderate political heads are urging the government to pull back on the violent responses to these protests. Former Majles speaker, now a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said that “the government in Tehran badly needs to listen to the other side.”
Former Vice President Massoumeh Ebtekar, also known as Niloofar, also spoke out.
“The best way to end this cycle of violence is to stop arresting protesters, listening to their demands, acknowledging that there are problems in the society, restoring justice, respecting Iranian men and women’s freedom, making the government accountable, holding effective dialogues with the people, furthering all-encompassing reforms, restoring the people’s trust in the government and seeking their political participation in determining their own fate.”
Since the protests started, there have already been 304 deaths reported, including 41 children and 24 women, but according to the yet-to-be-verified reports from Oslo-based Human Rights Organization, the actual numbers could surpass this.
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