IRANIAN ACTIVISTS CALL FOR NEW PROTESTS AND NATIONWIDE STRIKES

Sat 03 December 2022:

Activists in Iran have called for new nationwide protests from Monday to Wednesday, according to numerous messages on the internet. People from all walks of life were encouraged to take part.

On the Telegram messaging channel, calls were made to target paramilitary units on motorcycles, which have been instrumental in suppressing protests.

In previous weeks, protesters had already dumped oil on roads or set up barriers to make it difficult for the security forces to move about.

Due to massive violence by police and security forces, peaceful protests in Iran are severely restricted. Demonstrators therefore increasingly rely on organizing spontaneous gatherings to express their displeasure with the Islamic Republic. Internet blocks also make organizing difficult.

Mourning Ceremonies

Friday protests in Iran were mainly focused on the mourning ceremonies for people killed during 75 days of unrest, with Bandar Anzali, Arak, and Izeh being the hotspots of the rallies.

One of the mourning gatherings was for Mehran Samak, a 27-year-old resident of Bandar Anzali in the northern province of Gilan, who died in hospital after being shot in the head with a bullet this week while he was celebrating after the Iranian soccer team’s loss against the US in the World Cup. Many Iranians wanted their team to lose because players had not shown support for antigovernment protests.

The mourning protest gatherings came on the backdrop of widespread rallies in the Baluch-majority cities across Sistan-Baluchistan province as the government has killed nearly a hundred people in the impoverished region since September 30. Protesters marched after Friday prayers particularly to voice support for their religious leader Mowlavi Abdolhamid.

About 18,000 people have been arrested since the beginning of the protests, and some death sentences have already been issued for the protesters, though none have been carried out. According to Norway-based HRANA on December 2, 469 protestors and 61 members of the security forces have been killed in protests since September 17.

The anti-regime uprisings were triggered by the death of the Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in mid-September. The young woman died in police custody after she was arrested by the moral guards for violating the strict Islamic dress code for women.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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