The Number Of Death In The On-going Protests In Iran Reaches 154

The Iranian Human Rights Organization (IHRO) announced that the number of people killed in the on-going protests in Iran reached “at least 154 people”. Among this number of deaths 9 were probably “children” and 63 are citizens of Zahedan.

Iranian officials report at least forty dead, while independent sources claim it is much higher.

Iran’s state TV has reported the death toll from violent clashes between protesters and security officers could be as high as 41.

According to the report of IHRO, which was published on Tuesday, the dead are from 17 provinces, but the provinces of Sistan-Balochistan, Mazandaran, Gilan and West Azerbaijan had the most victims.

According to the IHRO, a number of these people “were wounded” who died “in the following days” in the hospital, and “the most deaths were reported on September 21, 22 and 30, respectively.”

According to this report, the number of victims by province is: Sistan and Baluchistan 63, Mazandaran 27, Gilan 12, West Azerbaijan 11, Kurdistan 8, Kermanshah 7, Tehran 6, Alborz 5, Khorasan Razavi 3, Isfahan 2, Qazvin 2, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad 2, Zanjan 2, Ilam, East Azarbaijan, Bushehr and Semnan, 1 person each.

Protests in Iran started 18 days ago in the city of Saqqez, his hometown, after the death of Mehsa Amini in the custody of the Irshad Patrol, and then spread to other cities in Iran and continue despite the suppression of the protesters.

The IHRO has “confidently” announced that “9 of the dead were under 18 years of age, but birth certificates and documents showing their exact age have not yet been received for all of them.”

This organization says that on the 8th day of Mehr, a number of citizens of Zahedan, who gathered after the Friday prayer, protested against the rape of a teenage Baloch girl by the police chief of Chabahar, have left at least 63 people dead.

In this regard, an “informed source” told the IHRO: “The condition of those injured on Bloody Friday in Zahedan is very serious and this number will increase

Media reports said:

Protesters are demanding an end to compulsory roosari, or hijab, laws; denouncing economic inequality; and even calling for a complete toppling of the theocratic government. Mass Protesters are chanting No Mullahs, No Shah, Just Democracy.

Thousands of protesters have been detained in recent weeks, and internet blackouts have been being implemented to deter organizing and the spread of information.

The scenes have been striking: young people fighting the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); protesters taking over cities; women shaving their heads, lighting their roosaris on fire, and shouting “Down with the Islamic Republic!”

Iran’s security forces have sought to disperse demonstrations with tear gas, metal pellets, and in some cases live fire, rights groups say. Iran’s state TV reports that violent confrontations between protesters and the police have killed at least 41 people, but human rights groups say the number is much higher.

If Killing Of People Does Not End, We Will Strike, Warn Oil Contract Workers

A NewsReader report said:

The contract workers in Iran’s oil industry “warned” the government that if “the arrests, the killing of people, the oppression and harassment of women because of the hijab, and the oppression of the people do not end”, they will not remain silent and “join all the people”. They will protest and shut down the work.

On Monday, the 4th of Mehr, the organizing council of oil contract workers’ protests announced the “anger and hatred” of these workers regarding the “murder of Mahsa Amini by the Irshad patrol”.

This council also added: “We support the people’s struggles against organized and everyday violence against women and against the poverty and hell that dominates the society.”

In the statement of this council, it is emphasized: “Protesting is the inalienable right of our workers and we are all people, and we are protesting the oppression and oppression that has been inflicted on us for more than forty years. We are no longer willing to continue tolerating this slavery and injustice.”

By announcing that they are giving a “warning” to the government in this regard, the oil contract workers asked the authorities of the Islamic Republic to listen to the message of the workers and the people.

In recent years, the workers of Iran’s oil and petrochemical industry have protested many times about their job situation.

In the middle of Shahrivar and two days after the visit of the Speaker of the Islamic Council to the South Pars complex in Bushehr, dozens of official employees working in the South Pars gas platforms who planned to hold a protest rally in front of the Oil Ministry building in Tehran were arrested.

In early July, the Free Union of Iranian Workers announced a nationwide strike by scaffolding workers working in Iran’s oil projects.

But the biggest strike of oil industry workers is from last year. In July of last year, the strike of contract, project and daily wage workers of Iran’s oil, gas and petrochemical industry spread to many

Protests, And Strikes Of Students, Teachers and Marketers Spread On 19th Day Of People’s Nationwide Uprising

The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said on Oct 4, 2022 (https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/statement-iran-protest/iran-spread-of-student-protests-strikes-of-teachers-and-marketers-on-19th-day-of-peoples-nationwide-uprising/):

Marking the 19^th day of the Iranian people’s nationwide uprising, protests, and strikes, especially by students, continued Tuesday in Tehran and various cities across the country.

In several schools in the capital Tehran, students protested by chanting “Death to the dictator!” The students of Karaj, a city west of Tehran, chanted “I will kill whoever killed my sister!” “Imprisoned college students must be released!” and “Death to the Basij,” referring to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) parliamentary forces. Students in Shiraz, a city in south-central Iran, took to the streets chanting “This year is a year of sacrifice. Seyyed Ali (Khamenei) will be overthrown!” “Shame on you!” and “Basij get lost!”

Female students in Saqqez, a city in western Iran, protested by chanting “Have no fear, we are all together!” and “Death to the dictator!” Some of them were arrested. In Marivan, a city in western Iran, students joined the nationwide uprising and demonstrated in the streets, and people also expressed their solidarity with them by honking their car horns. In Mashhad, a city in northeast Iran, female high school students protested and chanted “Mullahs must get lost!”

High school teachers in cities of Kurdistan Province, such as Sanandaj and Saqqez, went on strike to release their detained colleagues.

Demonstrations and protests continued in many universities in the country. The students of the Khajeh Nasir University in Tehran protested and chanted “Iranians will die but will not accept humiliation!” Students in Tehran University’s Faculty of Management protested by chanting “If we do not stand together, we will end one by one!” And students at Meli University protested by chanting “Basij is a liar!”

Students in the Imam Reza University of Mashhad voiced their solidarity with Sharif University students. Students at Ferdowsi University held a protest gathering where they chanted “Justice – Freedom – Optional Hijab!” The medical students of Gilan University in the city of Rasht protested and carried placards reading, among other things, “Freedom is our right!” and “Imprisoned college students must be released!” They also held a pamphlet reading “Ambulances are for transporting patients,” referring to the use of ambulances by regime authorities to transport suppressive forces to crackdown, arrest, and kill protesters.

In a bid to intimidate the families of students and prevent students strike and protests, the regime’s security agents in universities are calling the students’ families, threatening them to stop their children’s activities.

Following last Friday’s killing of worshipers in Zahedan, a city in southeast Iran, many shops are closed, and they are still on strike.

Shop Owners

Shop owners on Taleghani Street in the city of Isfahan in central Iran went on strike and closed their stores.

Farmers

Farmers of Khorasgan, a city in Isfahan Province, joined the nationwide uprising and took to the streets today. “Raisi is a liar! Where is our Zayandeh Rud?” they chanted, referring to their local Zayandeh Rud river, which is dried out. They also chanted “With God’s help, victory is near! Down with this deceptive government!”

Protests spread to universities

As the new academic year began this week, demonstrations spread to university campuses, long considered sanctuaries in times of turmoil. Videos on social media showed students expressing solidarity with peers who had been arrested and calling for the end of the Islamic Republic. Roiled by the unrest, many universities moved classes online this week.

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.

In one video on Monday, students at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran marched and chanted, “Jailed students must be freed!” 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.

Protests also appeared to grip gender-segregated high schools across Iran, where groups of young schoolgirls waved their hijabs and chanted “Woman! Life! Freedom!” in the city of Karaj west of the capital and in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj on Monday, according to widely shared footage.

Security forces have rounded up an untold number of demonstrators, as well as artists who have voiced support for the protests. Local officials report at least 1,500 arrests.

Shervin Hajipour, a singer who emerged as a protest icon for his wildly popular song inspired by Amini’s death, was detained last week. His lawyer said he was released on bail Tuesday and rejoined his family in the northern city of Babolsar.

In his somber ballad, “For the sake of,” he sings of why Iranians are rising up in protest.

“For dancing in the streets,” he intones. “For my sister, for your sister, for our sisters.”

Top University Shuttered, Hundreds Arrested

An AP report said:

On Monday, Iran shuttered its top technology university following an hours-long standoff between students and the police that turned the prestigious institution into the latest flashpoint of protests and ended with hundreds of young people arrested.

Meanwhile, Sharif University of Technology in Tehran announced that only doctoral students would be allowed on campus until further notice following hours of turmoil Sunday, when witnesses said antigovernment protesters clashed with pro-establishment students.

The witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the police kept hundreds of students holed up on campus and fired rounds of tear gas to disperse the demonstrations. The student association said plainclothes officers surrounded the school from all sides as protests roiled the campus after nightfall and detained at least 300 students.

Plainclothes officers beat a professor and several university employees, the association added.

The state-run IRNA news agency sought to downplay the violent standoff, reporting a “protest gathering” took place without causing casualties. But it also said police released 30 students from detention, acknowledging many had been caught in the dragnet by mistake as they tried to go home.

The crackdown sparked backlash on Monday at home and abroad.

Iran’s latest protest movement has grown into an open challenge to the Iranian leadership, with women burning their state-mandated headscarves and chants of “Death to the dictator,” echoing from streets and balconies after dark.

The demonstrations have tapped a deep well of grievances in Iran, including the country’s social restrictions, political repression and ailing economy strangled by American sanctions. The unrest has continued in Tehran and far-flung provinces even as authorities have disrupted internet access and blocked social media apps.

Schoolgirls Remove Hijabs

A 9News report (https://www.9news.com.au/videos/world/iran-schoolgirls-remove-hijabs-in-protests/cl8uqc2m600040jle0zxkg8ex) said:

Iranian schoolgirls have taken off their hijabs to protest against government and clerical authorities.

Most of the protesters appear to be under 25, according to witnesses — Iranians who have grown up knowing little but global isolation and severe Western sanctions linked to Iran’s nuclear program. Talks to revive the landmark 2015 nuclear deal have stalled for months, fueling discontent as Iran’s currency declines in value and prices soar.

A Tehran-based university teacher, Shahindokht Kharazmi, said the new generation has come up with unpredictable ways to defy authorities.

“The (young protesters) have learned the strategy from video games and play to win,” Kharazmi told the pro-reform Etemad newspaper. “There is no such thing as defeat for them.”

As the new academic year began this week, students at universities in major cities across Iran gathered in protest, according to videos widely shared on social media, clapping, chanting slogans against the government and waving their headscarves.

The eruption of student anger has worried the Islamic Republic since at least 1999, when security forces and supporters of hard-line clerics attacked students protesting media restrictions. That wave of student protests under former reformist President Mohammad Khatami touched off the worst street battles since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

“Don’t call it a protest, it’s a revolution now,” shouted students at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, as women set their hijabs alight.

“Students are awake, they hate the leadership!” chanted crowds at the University of Mazandaran in the country’s north.

Riot police have been out in force, patrolling streets near universities on motorbikes.

1,500 Arrested

An untold number of people have been apprehended, with local officials reporting at least 1,500 arrests. Security forces have picked up artists who have voiced support for the protests and dozens of journalists. Most recently Sunday, authorities arrested Alborz Nezami, a reporter at an economic newspaper in Tehran.

Iran’s intelligence ministry said nine foreigners have been detained over the protests. A 30-year-old Italian traveler named Alessia Piperno called her parents on Sunday to say she had been arrested, her father Alberto Piperno told Italian news agency ANSA.

“We are very worried,” he said. “The situation is not going well.”

Dozens Of Journalists Arrested

An escalating crackdown on the press, with dozens of journalists arrested in the last few weeks, has stifled most independent reporting on sensitive issues such as the deaths of protesters.

Disappearance Of A Girl

The recent disappearance and death of a 17-year-old girl in Tehran has unleashed an outpouring of anger on Iranian social media.

Nika Shahkarami, who lived in the capital with her mother, vanished one night last month during the protests in Tehran, her uncle Kianoush Shakarami told Tasnim news agency.

She was missing for a week before her lifeless body was found in a Tehran street and was returned to her family, Tasnim reported, adding relatives had not received official word on how she died.

Foreign-based Iranian activists allege she died in police custody, with hundreds circulating her photo and using her name as a hashtag online for the protest movement. The prosecutor in the western Lorestan province, Dariush Shahoonvand, denied any wrongdoing by authorities and said Shahkarami was buried in her village Monday.

Woman! Life! Freedom

Protests also have spread across the Middle East and to Europe and North America. Thousands poured into the streets of Los Angeles to show solidarity. Police scuffled with protesters outside Iranian embassies in London and Athens. Crowds chanted “Woman! Life! Freedom!” in Paris.

Iran’s President Tries To Ease Unrest

Another media report said:

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday appealed for national unity and tried to allay anger against the country’s rulers, as weeks-long protests critical of the government 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 woman in the custody of the country’s morality police was nothing short of a plot by Iran’s enemies.

“Today the country’s determination is aimed at co-operation to reduce people’s problems,” he told a parliament session.

The protests, which emerged in response to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code, have embroiled dozens of cities across the country and evolved into the most widespread challenge to Iran’s leadership in years. A series of festering crises have helped fuel public rage, including the country’s political repression, ailing economy and global isolation.

The scope of the ongoing unrest, the most sustained in over a decade, remains unclear as witnesses report spontaneous gatherings across the country featuring small acts of defiance — protesters shouting slogans from rooftops, cutting their hair and burning their state-mandated headscarves.

One Percent

The hardline daily Kayhan on Tuesday tried to downplay the scale of the movement, saying that “anti-revolutionaries,” or those opposed to the Islamic Republic, “are in the absolute minority, possibly one per cent.”

Government Claim Doubted

But another hardline newspaper, the Jomhuri Eslami daily, cast doubt on government claims that foreign countries were to blame for the country’s turmoil.

“Suppose we beat and arrest, is this the solution?” asked a column in the Jomhouri Eslami daily, a hard-line Iranian newspaper. “Is this productive?”

“Neither foreign enemies nor domestic opposition can take cities into a state of riot without a background of discontent,” its editorial read.

It Would Be Wrong To Think We Can Force People Into Following Us, Says Zarif

A report by Iran Front Page said:

Iran’s former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iranian authorities are definitely mistaken if they think they can ignore people.

Zarif was speaking at a gathering of professors of the University of Tehran in which they discussed the root cause of the recent unrest in Iran.

He said, “We have people who resist the wrong word and this is the biggest deterrence.”

The former Iranian foreign minister added that it would also be a big error to think that “we can keep people on our side through using violence.”

Zarif said even God in the Quran tells the Prophet Muhammad that he cannot force people into following him.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Breaks Silence On Protests, Blames U.S. And Israel

Another AP report said:

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded publicly on Monday to the biggest protests in Iran in years, breaking weeks of silence to condemn what he called “rioting” and accuse the U.S. and Israel of planning the protests.

Speaking to a cadre of police students in Tehran, Khamenei said he was “deeply heartbroken” by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, calling it a “tragic incident.” However, he lambasted the protests as a foreign plot to destabilize Iran, echoing authorities’ previous comments.

“This rioting was planned,” he said. “These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees.”

In his remarks on Monday, Khamenei condemned scenes of protesters ripping off their hijabs and setting fire to mosques, banks and police cars as “actions that are not normal, that are unnatural.” He warned that “those who foment unrest to sabotage the Islamic Republic deserve harsh prosecution and punishment.”

Antonio Guterres

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters: “It is absolutely essential to show maximum restraint, maximum containment, when dealing (with) demonstrations all over the world, and the same is valid, obviously, for Iran.”