- It is nationwide, almost all cities are involved, and it is ongoing.
- One of the main differences from the past protests is the participation of schoolchildren.
- In this uprising, the revolutionaries ‘launched two wars, a combined and hybrid war from outside and a multifaceted war from inside.’
- And finally, all social classes are participating in the protests.
As Protests Continue, Iran’s Regime Breaks Apart
The world has been captivated by the bravery and resistance of Iranian protesters, especially the younger generations who are now on the frontline against the regime. The Iranian regime’s security forces have constantly been attacking the people who have been demonstrating against the regime over the past few months.
Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in Iran, reiterated calls for an independent investigation to hold the regime responsible for the violence being carried out against the people.
Having witnessed and been involved in many mass protests over the past years, the Iranian people know how to respond to the regime’s violence. Their response is reflected in the slogan ‘fight fire with fire’, which has created widespread desperation and dissension among the regime’s forces.
Concurrently with the ongoing protests, the regime is facing a large shortage of manpower. As a result, they are resorting to recruiting everyone they can, even children, to help them overcome the protests. Fear among the regime’s officials is widespread. Many of them are now using face masks when out in public so that they are not recognized by the people for fear of revenge and retaliation attacks, which clearly shows the regime’s growing weakness.
Many of the regime’s IRGC and Basij members are currently hiding from the Iranian people. The regime’s clerics are also desperate to disguise themselves, avoiding being in public with turbans, as they fear being attacked by the people. A number of video clips circulating on social media show the massive confrontations between the people and officials.
These nationwide protests are starting to, and will, change many things in the future of Iran. These latest demonstrations differ greatly from the past protests, many sectors of society have openly supported the protests, including unions, artists, lawyers’ guilds, and other civil society groups.
We are seeing a tectonic shift in the anger of the population. Protests have broken out in areas and cities that were traditionally famous for their support of the regime, where the regime has historically recruited militias who were used to recruit militias for the regime’s malign goals across the Middle East.
By precisely monitoring the situation for the past 47 days, it is evident that the regime’s forces are losing their effectiveness. The attack on Shah Cheragh shrine, who the regime claimed ISIS was behind of it, a foiled bomb attack in Shiraz, and a gas explosion in Ahvaz, were the subject of the protestors’ slogans as facts of a conspiracy by the regime to divert the attention from the protests and give them an excuse to repress the Iranian people further. Following recent attacks, regime officials warned the protesters that the attempts were linked to the riots and called for seizures.
This lack of accountability is nothing new for this regime. A simple example is the bombing of the Imam Reza shrine on June 20, 1994. The regime claimed that this was implemented by its main opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
Later, Abdollah Nouri, a cleric who once occupied the opposition of the regime’s Ministry of Interior, confirmed that the attack was a false flag by the regime to blame the MEK. This happened in the so-called ‘Chain murders of Iran’, where a number of dissident intellectuals had been critical of the regime. As a result, around 80 writers, translators, poets, political activists, and ordinary people were killed by the regime between 1988 and 1998.
Decades later, recent activities have shown that the regime has lost a significant portion of its power and is using terror as a tool to suppress the people.
Until now, none of its attempts to control the situation have had the expected result. This is because the people do not believe the regime’s claims anymore and their fear of the ruling theocracy is fading. The continuation of the protests for more than seven weeks is the best proof of this.
It should be noted that these protests will ultimately lead to the regime’s demise. The regime’s state-run television network has analyzed the protests and counted some of its main characteristics as follows:
Iranians Loudly Say to West: No More Appeasement!
During recent months in Iran, the mullahs have faced various crises, both domestically and abroad. Since September 16, the nationwide protests following the tragic murder of Mahsa Amini, 22, by the “morality police” have shaken the entire theocracy.
Anti-government demonstrations have shown the mullahs’ vulnerability to a firm response. Time and again, barehanded citizens have pushed fully armed security forces to flee, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ atrocities remain futile.
U.S. President Joe Biden said, “It’s stunned me what it awakened in Iran. I didn’t expect the turn of events in Iran following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini.”
When he took the presidential office, Biden built his foreign policy on an immediate return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which ensured authoritarians in Iran that the U.S. government would do nothing against them aside from financial concessions.
Iranian Authorities’ Baseless Claims Over a Nuclear Deal
Recently, authorities in Iran have made differing statements about a near nuclear deal. As a part of their systematic suppression, officials have deceitfully claimed that the country’s economic situation will improve as soon as possible. Speaking from the Armenian capital of Yerevan on October 23, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, “Three days ago, we received a message from the United States, and told them that the (International Atomic Energy) Agency (IAEA)’s accusations against Iran’s nuclear program should be resolved before any agreement.” He stressed, “We do not give any concessions to the American side, and we move within the framework of logic and the framework of an agreement that respects the red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but at the same time, we never leave the negotiating table.” Iranian citizens have experienced such claims before, believing that another nuclear deal only benefits authorities and their relatives. The people have grasped that they will never fulfill a decent life in Iran under this ruling system. “For a normal life… for [removing] poverty… for future,” citizens from different walks of life recite as a protesting piece against the 43 years of ruthless crime, systematic corruption, and horrendous misery under the rule of the mullahs. Citizens have been targeting the entire ruling system and its high-ranking officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in their slogans. Among the chants heard at demonstrations are: “Death to Khamenei”; “This is the year Seyyed Ali [Khamenei] is overthrown!”; “Four decades of crime; down with this regime”; and “Khamenei is a murderer; his rule is illegitimate.” Outraged citizens also chant against the IRGC and its paramilitary Basij agents, who are responsible for the oppressive and plundering policies. Remarkably, in an effort to ensure his rule, Khamenei has filled all government positions, including MPs, ministers, and governors, with former IRGC commanders. Amir-Abdollahian is notorious for his close ties with the slain IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani, who was responsible for many crimes inside Iran and across the Middle East. Footage of the foreign minister kissing Soleimani’s forehead has been circulating on social media.Foreign Correspondents Discover Tehran’s Vulnerability
For more than two decades, Western observers have wrongfully considered the mullahs’ attempts to acquire nuclear weapons as a means of power. They have also attributed bloody crackdowns on defenseless citizens, and Tehran’s malign behavior and terrorism, to this illusionary force. Recent demonstrations and strikes in around 200 cities across Iran have plainly shown that these aggressive and oppressive measures are signals that the Iranian regime’s reign is profoundly shaky. In such circumstances, even JCPOA architects and advocates have withdrawn from negotiations, saying, “We prioritize the Iranian people’s protests and their human rights.” On October 13, the AFP quoted U.S. White House National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby, citing that a return to Iran deals is unlikely in the near future. He said, “It’s not that we don’t want to see the JCPOA reimplemented; we, of course, do. We’re just not in a position where… that’s a likely outcome anytime in the near future. What we’re focused on is holding the (Iran) regime accountable for what they are doing to these innocent political protesters.” A day earlier, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the Iran nuclear deal is “not our focus right now.” He added that the administration’s current focus “is on the remarkable bravery and courage that the Iranian people are exhibiting through their peaceful demonstrations, through the exercise of their universal right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.” In a nutshell, the people of Iran have forced the international community to recognize their quest for freedom, justice, equality, and human rights. Contrary to Tehran’s lobby groups and apologists, Iranians are calling on world powers to stop their appeasement policies and to no longer fuel the Iranian government’s oppressive apparatuses. In their rallies across the globe, Iranians have demanded that world leaders:- Recognize the Iranian people’s right to self-defense; recognize their right to struggle to overthrow religious fascism and establish freedom, democracy, and human rights;
- Designate the entire IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence as terrorist entities, expel their agents and operatives, and revoke their passports;
- Target the economic lifeline of Khamenei and the IRGC;
- Refer to the dictatorship’s dossier of the crackdown on protests and the massacres in 1988 and 2019 to the UN Security Council. Those directly involved in these crimes, especially Ali Khamenei and Ebrahim Raisi, must face justice.
The Real Heroes, Hidden Roots of Iran’s Protests
In Iran, the current battle between the ruling regime and the brave people has been continuing for months. The eyes of the international community have been enlightened by the determination and courage of the Iranian people.
The Western media have wrongfully advertised that the protests are leaderless, and stated that the new generation of Iran and their ideas are the only reason for the protests, ignoring the past protests and the previous generations, either deliberately or unintentionally.
The truth of the matter is that no change has occurred in the history of any nation without the struggle of generations intertwining, and Iran is no exception. The Iranian regime has shed blood and committed crimes against the Iranian people since it confiscated the country and the 1979 revolution from the people, the rightful owners.
Statistics about the number of people that have been killed by this regime often fluctuates. The regime’s main opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) has estimated that this regime has executed more than 120,000 people from the opposition over the past four decades.
The most brutal massacres were implemented between 1980 and 1988. The massacre in the summer of 1988, where the regime killed more than 30,000 political prisoners, was the pinnacle of the regime’s cruelty.
Since then, the regime has continuously repressed protests and, in the process, killed thousands more innocent civilians. In the Qazvin protests in 1994, the regime killed dozens of protesters, while in the protests of November 2019, the regime killed more than 1,500 people.
In a recent rare remark by one of the regime’s elements, Javad Mogoi, a documentary maker who is close to the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s office, addressed undisclosed information and said that only 400,000 families of executed political prisoners are living in Tehran and that they have played a significant role in the recent uprisings. He has not provided the source of the information.
The state-run Aftab-e Yazd daily published his narrative and objective observations about the protests that he had posted on his Instagram account. During the protests, Mogoi was reportedly beaten and arrested by the regime’s Basij forces.
He stated, “I arrived at Revolution Square. The forces are much more than the pedestrians; Basij, special unit, police, and plainclothes of the Revolutionary Guards. I went to the ‘Esm Ketab’ store. Ali Rekab sat down to describe these ten days: ‘Javad! Egad, these are people. The Basijis were beating two girls last night. They swore at them and beat them.’
Mogoi added, “I said, ‘It’s not like that everywhere. We have 400,000 families of executed Mojahedin Khalq members in Tehran. In the field, some are acting completely professionally. They are organized.’”
This information not only reveals aspects of the regime’s crimes against humanity, but also the heroic rebellion of a nation, its main opposition organization the MEK along with all walks of society and movements that have resisted and sacrificed their lives for more than 40 years, in order to bring an end to the darkest era in Iran’s history.
The new generation of Iran is following the path of previous generations and has decided to seek revenge for the blood of the fallen people in their quest for freedom. This revolution is neither rootless nor leaderless. Its true leader is the blood of those who fought for freedom. No one can ignore or bury it, history will speak the truth for many years, decades, and centuries to come.
Iran Regime’s Security Forces Murder Schoolkids, Claim It Was Suicide
The most critical story of the protests on October 24 was the narrative of the Sadr Girls’ Conservatory in Tehran. According to claims from the Iranian regime in local news, the disputes started when the school principal insisted to check the girls’ phones and tried to conduct body searches of some of the girls when they rejected to hand over their phones.
Videos on social media showed heavily armed security forces outside the school who fired tear gas, leaving some of the students injured.
The important subject of the incident is the regime’s contradictory narratives about the events in this school. The regime’s ministry has narrated the incident in such a way that the blame for the conflict is being put on the students who brought mobile phones in with them.
Ali Tirgir, deputy of the regime’s information and public relations center of the Ministry of Education, said, “Today, due to the possession of mobile phones by some students and the insistence of the school principal for an inspection, a conflict between some students and parents with the school principal took place.”
He added, “According to the rules, mobile phones are prohibited in the school and students must follow the school’s instructions. In this incident, several students suffered a drop in blood pressure, and their condition was attended to by the presence of emergency forces.”
According to the regime’s police announcement, the capital police had a different story. They stated, “This afternoon, following the announcement of a case of conflict in the vicinity of a girls’ conservatory on Karoon Street, police officers arrived at the scene and put the matter on their agenda, during which it was found that the conflict was between a few thugs.”
They explained, “This conflict, which took place near a girls’ conservatory, raised the concerns of some parents and students. The perpetrators of the conflict were identified and arrested by the police officers.”
The questions remain as to whether there was a conflict inside the school or in the vicinity of the school, and whether was it between thugs or between students, their parents, and the principal?
Also, what actually happened that led to the conflict and the subsequent arrival of ambulances? Is it the first time that students have brought mobile phones to school? Was such brutal behavior necessary, and what is so dangerous about mobile phones in a school, except for the regime’s fear of the publication of children’s anti-regime protests?
Despite the regime’s claims that nothing serious happen, why then were some of the students sent urgently to the hospital? The regime’s educational officers seemingly claimed that this was due to several students suffering from low blood pressure.
A few days ago, the regime’s Minister of Education announced that no student had been arrested following the incident at the school and that students who have committed crimes in recent protests have been referred to counseling centers.
The regime’s MPs later visited Tehran’s Greater prison, and one of them reported that 200 students were imprisoned in this prison. The regime’s Minister of Education previously said that “We are not saying anything harsh to the schoolchildren.”
Over the past weeks, many schoolchildren have died at the hands of the regime’s security forces. According to a statement posted by the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations on October 14, 16-year-old Asra Panahi died after security forces raided the Shahed girls’ high school in Ardabil the day before and demanded a group of girls to sing a pro-regime song.
The pupils refused and security forces attacked them leading to several injuries. Some of them were taken to the hospital, where Panahi died due to the severity of her head injuries. As usual, the regime denied any relation between her death and its security forces.
Following the spread of the news, a man identified as her uncle appeared on TV and claimed that she died because of a congenital heart condition.
The next case was of a 17-year-old schoolgirl named Arnica Ghaem Maqami. She died following several hits to her head by the regime’s security forces. According to the hospital, her neck was broken. The regime later claimed that she had jumped from the fourth floor and committed suicide. Security agencies took her to the military hospital to prevent rebellions.
What Happened in Evin Prison on ‘Bloody Saturday’
On October 15, at 8:10 pm local time, citizens in northern Tehran reported a blaze in the Evin Prison. The report was completed with further footage of grenades, teargas, and birdshot. At the same time, the slogans “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to the dictator” could be heard in the area. Following the event, hundreds of citizens headed to the prison with videos circulating on social media showing heavy traffic on the Yadegar expressway.
In response to the unrest at the prison, authorities dispatched dozens of anti-riot forces, Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) paramilitary Basij troops, and plainclothes agents. The regime blocked the leading streets to the Evin prison, preventing prisoners’ families from accessing the facility. Outraged citizens torched almost all pro-regime banners on the expressway, while security forces shot teargas and birdshot at citizens’ cars, heavily damaging at least one car. Despite the repressive measures, dozens of citizens succeeded in getting close to the prison and sounded their concerns over what happened in the jail. “Death to the dictator,” they chanted.#BREAKING#IranRevolution2022—Day 30
— Iran News Update (@IranNewsUpdate1) October 15, 2022
Tehran, #Iran's capital—Footage shows the fire at the notorious Evin prison. The sound of gunfire is heard.#MahsaAmini🌹 pic.twitter.com/fXNVcKgYbv
Inside the Evin’s Bloody Saturday
Established by the toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1972, Tehran’s Evin prison is notorious for holding political dissidents, prisoners of conscience, and minority activists. Following the recent anti-regime demonstrations, the regime transferred thousands of arbitrary detainees to this jail.Officials’ Narrative of “Evin Incident”
Following the report of a fire at the prison, the judiciary’s Mizan outlet has declared that eight inmates accused of theft have died of smoke inhalation. The outlet also announced that 61 inmates are in coherent situations. Authorities are claiming that the blaze began in an entrepreneur-sewing workshop. The IRGC’s Fars news agency claimed that several prisoners were slain in a minefield when they tried to escape. Hours later, the Intelligence Ministry (MOIS) Mehr news agency rejected Fars’s report. The state-run broadcasting organization (IRIB) immediately aired a report from the prison. Contrary to the news saying the blaze occurred in Ward 7, the IRIB allegedly provided its propaganda show from Ward 4. The correspondent claimed, “The fire has been extinguished, and everything is OK. As you see, prisoners are asleep, so we don’t harass them and avoid speaking with them.”Locals’ Narrative of Evin’s Bloody Saturday
In early reports about the blaze, locals reported that alongside the chants of ‘Death to Khamenei’ and ‘Death to the dictator’, and the sound of gunfire, being heard from inside the Evin prison, several prisoners were seen on the rooftop of the building. They stated, “We witnessed the blaze inside the prison from 8:00 pm; the sound of gunfire did not cut out. The prison’s alarm was sounded several times since morning. Several say prisoners have launched a riot inside Evin. Firefighters came with delay but did nothing.” Citizens also reported several explosions. Experts identified that the bursts were due to shooting flashbangs; thunder flash and sound bombs are less-lethal explosive devices that temporarily disorient an enemy’s senses. Contrary to the state media reports, video footage has shown several people intentionally igniting and spreading the fire in the prison’s yard. Officials have said the blaze was limited to a sewing workshop; but of course, they later admitted that sewing machines remained undamaged.Former Political Prisoners’ Experience and Information
Former political prisoners have said that the burnt building is the prison’s amphitheater hall. One former political prisoner, who was arrested during the gas protests in November 2019, said, “The regime usually avoids placing prisoners in this hall except in emergency conditions such as in November 2019 or recent demonstrations.” He stated, “I’d been held in Ward 7; the same ward was ablaze. The regime had carpeted the ward’s corridors due to the number of detainees.” According to leaked reports, the regime had carpeted several rooms in this building, holding detainees whose interrogations had finished in this facility. The former prisoner added, “Ward 7 is Evin’s biggest ward, consisting of seven halls for holding prisoners. The regime keeps 240 to 260 inmates in the ordinary situation; however, in irregular situations such as the status quo, in addition to carpeting corridors and holding prisoners there, authorities keep up to 450 to 500 detainees in each hall.” He further explained, “We’ve yet to know more than 20 or 30 percent of the reality. MP Ahmad Ali Reza Beigi today said, ‘Based on our information, Evin’s incident was due to what happened in Ward 209.’ We know that authorities fired teargas at Ward 209; however, the 209 is too far from the [amphitheater] hall. This hall is located beside the visiting room… When authorities were transferring us from Ward 209 to the visiting room, it took 5-6 minutes in a car.” Iranian Dissidents’ Revelation of Evin’s Bloody Saturday On October 18, the Iranian opposition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), stated, “While the regime is trying to cover up the major atrocity it committed in Evin prison and does not even allow its Majles deputies to visit the prison, the scale of the crime comes to light after 48 hours.” Further details about the tragedy, based on reports and statements by eyewitnesses who are ready to testify before international courts and authorities, are as follows:- Thirty to 40 prisoners were killed during the attack on Evin Prison, by the IRGC Special Force guarding the Supreme Leader (NOPO). Their names and details are recorded in Evin Hospital. Most of those killed were from Ward 7.
- The attack on the prisoners was planned in advance. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s son, Mehdi, a prisoner in Evin who was on leave, was told not to return to the prison. Akbar Tabari, the deputy to then-Judiciary Chief Sadegh Amoli Larijani, and Mohammad Ali Najafi, the former Minister and Mayor of Tehran, who are both prisoners in Evin, were transferred to Evin medical center before the attack for their safety.
- The savage guards (NOPO) threw some prisoners down from the roof. They targeted the prisoners in the courtyard with live ammunition from the roof. One of the prisoners watching from behind a window was shot on the side.
- NOPO attacked Ward 8, where political prisoners are kept with live ammunition and shotguns, and fired tear gas to the point of suffocation. In the courtyard of Ward 8, blood was spilled like a slaughterhouse such that it could not be cleaned up until 24 hours later.
- In Ward 8, some prisoners and informants were spying against the prisoners, cooperating with the suppressive forces, and guiding them. After shooting and firing tear gas, the special unit forces made the prisoners lie down in the prison yard and beat them to the point of death. The brutal beating continued until the morning when they extensively used stun guns to beat the prisoners.
- The IRGC Colonel Mahmoudi, the commander of the prison protection unit, went beyond brutality, and even when the special unit told him not to hit the prisoners, he beat them on the head with a baton. His blows on the head of a political prisoner caused his eyes to bleed. Another ruthless criminal was a corrections officer by the name of Tavakoli.
- They transferred 51 prisoners from Ward 8; a prisoner with five bullets in his body was also taken in the same condition. Some of the prisoners were taken to Gohardasht prison, but the location of the rest is unknown.
- They fired tear gas inside the women’s Ward and, at the same time, locked the doors of the Ward so those female prisoners could not react to save themselves.
- Had the people of Tehran not rushed towards Evin prison on Saturday night, many more prisoners would have been killed. Even now, a human disaster will occur if Evin remains locked up and no one visits the prison.
From Nationwide Uprisings to Drone Wars, Iran’s Regime Is Sinking
The protests in Iran continue with undiminished force. Despite hundreds of arrests and ups and downs, rallies are taking place daily across the country. According to activists and the regime’s opposition, at least 400 people including 23 children have been killed during the protests, according to activists.
Most of the demonstrators who have been arrested have not yet been entitled to lawyers. Not even their families are informed about the whereabouts of those arrested.
During the anti-government protests, demonstrators are increasingly painting graffiti on the city’s walls, which are slogans against the regime. In several districts of the capital Tehran and other cities, inscriptions such as ‘Death to the dictator’ could be read on the walls in the past few days.
In addition, the people attacked many of the regime’s headquarters with Molotov cocktails which are used for their repression. This all started when a young girl named Jina Mahsa Amini died due to police violence. Since then, thousands of people in Iran have been protesting the regime’s medieval values and laws.
The protests have since spread internationally. In all major countries around the world, people are taking to the streets to draw attention to human rights violations in Iran.
But this is not the only issue about the Iranian regime that has raised global attention in the past few weeks. Caught in the middle of its internal crisis, the regime has decided to support the Russian army with kamikaze drones which are now used against Ukraine’s cities and its defenseless citizens.
There had been reports as early as mid-July that Iran was preparing a mass delivery of drones to Russia. US President Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, publicly stated that their information shows that the Iranian regime is preparing to quickly deploy several hundred unmanned aerial vehicles.
This is not something that we should be surprised about due to the regime’s nature of support for global terrorism. Because in international relations this regime does not belong to the peace camp. Its interference over the past four decades has brought misery and war to many countries in the Middle East.
According to media reports, Iran also wants to export missiles to Russia soon. Experts see the first use of Iranian combat drones outside the Middle East as a radicalization of Iranian politics.
Tehran’s opponents in the region know the danger. The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have used Iranian drones to attack Saudi oil facilities and Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in recent years. US troops in Syria were also attacked with Iranian drones.
And as usual, the regime in Tehran denies all its malign activities, it is also denying supplying such weapons to Russia. But the debris from the drones shot down in Ukraine is difficult to deny. And footage on social media confirms the suspicion that Tehran is not telling the truth and the comments of the spokesman of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday are an outright lie and the EU doesn’t believe in Iran either.
According to media reports, the Ukrainian military said that soldiers of the regime’s Revolutionary Guards were stationed on the Russian side of the front in eastern and southern Ukraine as instructors or drone pilots.
They are so-called kamikaze drones of the Iranian regime called Shahed-136. These weapon systems can carry explosive charges weighing up to 60 kilograms at a range of up to 2,500 kilometers. They work via GPS and can fly unmanned to any programmed target if it does not move.
Most of these drones are produced in Iran, but recently also in Tajikistan. On May 17, the regime opened a drone factory in this country.
The situation is politically particularly sensitive as the regime itself is currently grappling with domestic unrest. EU officials also conclude that if the Ukrainian information is correct and that Iran’s regime is supplying arms to Russia, sanctions will be unavoidable.
On Wednesday, October 19, 2022, according to Politico, EU ambassadors agreed on new sanctions against Iran over their arms sales to Russia.
As early as April, just under seven weeks after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the British ‘Guardian’ reported that the Iranian regime was smuggling ammunition and weapons to Russia, including mobile anti-tank weapons, anti-tank missiles, and Brazilian rocket launchers.
Iran: Security, a Gamble in Which Khamenei Lost
Iran’s regime’s major authorities try to make gestures that the dust of the recent protests had settled, especially after its supreme leader Ali Khamenei in his latest speech gave a warning to the Iranian people, against continuing the protests.
Following Khamenei’s warning, they prematurely started to congratulate each other on defeating the people and quelling the protests.
They wanted to show that they were facing just a few emotional and excited youths, influenced by computer games, that are burning some trash cans on the street and wanted the regime’s supporters to believe that there is no need to mind about the regime’s security and soon the protests would finish.
In a ridiculous claim, Khamenei’s mouthpiece Hossein Shariatmadari, the chief editor of the Kayhan daily, said, “To see the reality, just put your smartphone aside, go outside and enjoy walking down the street in the real world with the security that the Islamic Republic has created for you in one of the most insecure areas of the world and see that there is nothing special outside.”
But the people by continuing the protests at a new level of confronting the regime’s forces have broken Khamenei’s bullying.
As a result, and in fear, many of the low-ranked officials utter that these protests are completely different from the past that took place in 2009, 2018, and 2020. They are difficult to quell, will persist, and are getting organized by groups of fearless defiant youths. Even now some of them realized that what they are facing now is a revolution, facing many losses on the regime’s side something that did not happen in the past.
They are warning the sovereignty that its security is bound to a narrow string and in close time, this string will tear up if they do consider the people’s demands as soon as possible. And the last thing that is preventing some people from participating in the protests is their fear about the costs of the protests, but such factors are not perdurable and will lose their effect very soon.
The state-run daily Bahar in their October 9 publication, wrote, “A very important point that should be noted is that the extent of dissatisfaction and anger should not be limited to the number of people who participate in the protests.”
It added, “These are a very small percentage of the total number of people who are angry. Many do not consider the protest to be effective for several reasons, so they do not participate. Or the next important factor that prevents some of the people to participate in the protests is their ‘fear of the costs of the protests.’
Bahar concluded, “These factors are now playing a role, but they are not predictable, and someday maybe they will lose their effect and much bigger protests will be created.”
In another article, the same daily criticized the government, writing in irony that, “A hard winter was supposed to come for Europe. But hard autumn has arrived for us sooner.”
It further added, “Surveys, ethnographies, and analyses showed that the accumulated anger and patience of the people was bound to a strand of hair. And we saw that with the tearing up of this strand of hair how the stability was broken, and a crisis was created. I appreciate the word of anyone who says that the situation is fine, and nothing happened.”
The Bahar daily also stated, “Society is strangely polarized. The number of opponents is high. Even if it is not visible on the streets and this is dangerous for the structure.”
Such remarks are not just limited to some outlets. As the uprising is entering its fourth week, warnings and concerns are expressed by many others.
Emad Afrough Ostad, a former MP, warned the regime, saying, “The official power thinks that if they pay attention to these protests and these words, it will be considered a kind of retreat. Which retreat? A system that does not pay attention to change, does not pay attention to social and civil power and their demands, is doomed to failure. No problem will be solved with the internet outage.”
Mohammad Sarafraz, the former head of the regime’s Radio and Television, wrote in a tweet, “They have created an enemy called cyberspace and you are blaming it for their mistakes and inefficiencies.”
The Jamaran website stated, “Young people feel humiliated. The solution to these issues is not violence and cutting off the Internet. Provide conditions for peaceful protests and demonstrations.
“The incident that happened with the death of Mrs. Mahsa Amini was a spark because of the accumulation of discomforts, difficulties, and demands that people, especially young people, and women, had. What has caused chaos in this city is the way of governance in the last one or two decades, during which the people have been neglected.”
Plight of Teenage Activists in Iran Is Worse Than Reported by Human Rights Groups
On Thursday, Amnesty International issued a report on Iran’s ongoing protests, which indicated that at least 23 minors have been killed in the clerical regime’s crackdown on nationwide dissent. The report noted that this comprises 16 percent of the 144 fatalities the human rights organization has confirmed so far. But Amnesty also acknowledged that a lack of reliable access to information from Iran makes it all but certain that the real death toll, among both adults and children, is significantly higher.
Since the current uprising began roughly one month ago, Iranian authorities have made concerted efforts to limit civilian access to the internet and thus impede both organizing efforts and the dissemination of eyewitness accounts, photographs, and videos of the unrest and associated crackdowns. However, these efforts have been countered by dramatic increases in the use of virtual private networks and other technical workarounds for the government-imposed restrictions. Furthermore, information continues to be collected and shared by the leading pro-democracy opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran.
The PMOI’s own reports on the present situation indicate that the death toll after one month of continuous unrest is approximately 400, more than twice the figures reported by Amnesty International and other human rights groups. The PMOI’s parent coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, noted that there are “dozens” of juveniles among the deceased. “Their pictures, with their innocent faces, circulate over social media, reflecting the pain the regime has inflicted on Iranians,” the coalition wrote on its website.
The NCRI also indicated that the death toll among minors had already reached double digits on September 30, a date remembered by growing numbers of Iranian citizens and activists as “Bloody Friday.” On that day, agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, killing as many as 90. Authorities have publicly mischaracterized that incident as clashes between the IRGC and ethnic separatist groups, but videos and eyewitness accounts from the protests confirm that they were part of the same nationwide uprising as has now encompassed more than 170 cities and towns.
The mass shooting on Bloody Friday reflects a comparatively high death toll among the Baluch ethnic minority in other contexts. Amidst a spike in death sentences over the past year, that demographic has accounted for more than 20 percent of all executions despite being no more than five percent of the national population. At the same time, the apparently deliberate killing of juveniles in Zahedan is consistent with the Iranian regime’s status as one of the last countries on Earth to routinely carry out death sentences for persons under the age of 18, in direct defiance of international law.
The comparatively high proportion of deaths among juveniles on Bloody Friday is also indicative of the prominent youth presence in the current protests more generally. This feature has become especially apparent in the first two weeks of October, following the start of the Iranian school year. That milestone saw the expansion of preexisting uprising not only to all 45 major Iranian universities but also to girls’ high schools, where young women have recorded themselves removing their mandatory head coverings, defacing, or denouncing the images of the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that are on display in all classrooms, and even chanting the uprising’s slogans to drive away government officials and militants who had been dispatched to counter their activism.
However, it has been reported more recently that the authorities have taken stronger actions to silence student dissent, such as by dispatching security forces to raid schools. This would be alarming under any circumstances but is made more so by the fact that so many teenagers have already been killed by those same security forces, some of them in raids on private homes.
The NCRI highlighted the case of Nima Shafaghdoust, a 16-year-old boy who was wounded during protests in Urmia but escaped to his home, only to be attacked there by security forces and taken away to an undisclosed location where he died. His disappearance for several days was reminiscent of the cases of two 16-year-old girls whose names and faces have become galvanizing symbols of the regime’s abuses, alongside those of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman whose death at the hands of Tehran’s “morality police” sparked the uprising around the time of her funeral on September 17.
Images of Amini, Nika Shakarami, and Sarina Esmailzadeh all appeared on screen when a state media broadcast was interrupted by activists earlier in October to appeal for even greater participation in the nationwide protests. Shakarami and Esmailzadeh each informed loved ones that they were being chased by security forces before disappearing, and turned up dead days later.
Authorities have claimed that both deaths were caused by either accidental falls or suicide, and they have pressured both girls’ families to corroborate their stories, even in cases where they have already directly attributed the deaths to targeted blows to the girls’ heads, almost certainly delivered by security forces. In the case of Shakarami, authorities even reclaimed control over her body after returning it to the family to bury it secretly in hopes of avoiding public expressions of outrage at her funeral, as had occurred with Mahsa Amini.
Tehran presumably hopes to limit international awareness of such killings, but the international community has appeared more invested in the current uprising than others. Nevertheless, groups like the NCRI have still expressed frustration with a lack of concrete support or public statements affirming the rights of Iranians to revolt against the regime responsible for such abuses. “Anything less,” the coalition wrote, “would only enable the regime to continue with its killing spree of innocent people, and more importantly, children, who are yearning to change their future.”
Iran’s People: “Do Not Call It a Protest, It Is a Revolution”
The nationwide uprising in Iran sparked by the September 16th death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman marks a watershed in the history of the Iranian people’s struggle against the totalitarian regime ruling Iran.
The protests entered their 25th day today as people from all walks of life in 177 cities in all 31 provinces have risen such that at no time during the past four decades have the prospects for a revolution been within reach as it is today.
One must be mindful that this regime is distinctive from any other dictatorship worldwide. These include religion and political repression at home and the export of terrorism, or in the regime’s lexicon, ‘the export of its revolution’.
Misogyny is the nexus between these two characteristics, with which the regime suppresses the entire nation.
As such, to topple this theocratic and totalitarian regime, the Iranian people must devise and formulate tactics that are suitable for successfully and effectively confronting the regime.
Scattered and spontaneous protests, even large ones like the protests in 2009 and 2018, would not ultimately lead to the regime’s downfall. And unlike the Shah’s regime, the mullahs will not relinquish power voluntarily. They are determined to fight to the end to preserve their grip on power.
Against this backdrop, a new revolution requires intense planning, organization, coordination, and unity.
This is something that the Resistance Units of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) have been working on over the past six years while risking arrest, torture, and even execution.
Their role is much more prominent and pronounced in the current uprising such that regime officials and media are expressing increasing alarm over their effectiveness in organization and continuation of the protests.
The rebellious youths have relied on the Resistance Units to improve their effectiveness and minimize their vulnerabilities in the regime’s onslaught and organized violence.
The protesters have also learned a great deal from the experiences of the four major uprisings since 2017 and the tactics employed by the Resistance Units, such as torching the regime’s symbols, posters of its leaders, and billboards, as well as targeting the repressive centers.
In an interview with the state-run daily Bahar News on October 7, Mohammad Reza Tajik, a member of the regime’s so-called reformist faction, said, “The current political situation in today’s society has passed the era of fear and entered the era of rage. The current movement is associated with a kind of happiness and zeal for life. Today’s activist is prepared to sacrifice his or her life to achieve freedom.”
Tajik also expressed his fear about the radicalization of the protests, adding, “Today’s activist thinks that he/she can only get his/her point across to the ruling class with rage. Today’s activist thinks that he/she cannot make change their fate and that there is no other path in front of him/her, and that he/she sees the solution only in acts of violence. He/she thinks that only the language of anger is the solution and that other languages are not answered and are not heard.”
Addressing the regime, he said, “Over the years we have planted the seeds of hate and now we are reaping a lot of wrath.”
Indeed, comments by a young Iranian woman in an interview with the Reuters News agency speaks to this fact: “Hey world, hear me: I want a revolution. I want to live freely and I’m ready to die for it. Instead of dying every minute under this regime’s repression, I prefer to die with their (security forces) bullets in protests for freedom.”
The walls of tyranny and religious totalitarianism are finally collapsing. A new revolution is happening on the streets of Iran and no force can stop it.
Deadly and Unconcealable Cracks in Iran Regime’s Rule
The planned presence of the Iranian regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei in the ‘joint graduation ceremony for the cadets studying in the academies of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces’ was considered a failure, as it did not bring him the expected ‘power’ that the regime wanted to present in the middle of the nationwide protests.
During his speeches, the signs of weakness were clearly evident on his face. One of the signs was his complaints about the ruling head’s contradictions, which he could not ignore. Khamenei knows very well that they will intensify in the future.
This could be seen in this part of his speech, “At first, some (cleric) elites made announcements and statements without investigation and probably out of compassion. Some of them blamed the law enforcement agency and some blamed the system. Now that they have seen what the matter is and what happened in the streets because of their words in parallel with the planning of the enemy, they should make up for their work and clearly declare that they are against what happened and the plan of the foreign enemy.”
While many officials remained silent, only Ahmad Janati and Hassan Khomeini responded to the regime’s supreme leader’s desperate request.
Even the Islamic Association of Students of the Sharif University of Technology confronted him on the night of October 2, when the regime’s special forces and plain clothes officers attacked, surrounded, beat, and injured many of the Sharif University students.
In their statement, they wrote, “The students who sat in for the second day in a row, and exercised their right to protest following a hollow promise by the president of the university to release all the imprisoned Sharif students who were arrested last week, suddenly faced a barrage of security officers and plainclothes officers who, in a tremendous act, besieged the university and attacked students and professors with all kinds of weapons.”
They added, “Behind this blatant violence, it seems that there was a pre-planned scenario to silence the voices of protesting students, and Sharif University was supposed to be a lesson for the rest of the country’s universities and, of course, to satisfy the greed of some extremists.”
The day after Khamenei’s desperate statements, in a statement published by the state-run Setareh-e Sobh daily, cleric Mohammad Ali Ayazi said, “Some of the clerics do not accept the guidance patrol and say that this is not a way to make the society religious. Some things that are done in the name of religion are not acceptable from the point of view of some religious thinkers and researchers.”
The current situation is so against Khamenei, that even the spokesperson of the regime’s ‘Enjoining good and forbidding wrong’ headquarters stated, “We have said several times, this kind of treatment by the guidance patrol or some concerned people, would maybe have worked in the 80s, but now we can no longer force people to submit to the hijab law with violent treatment.”
This desperation among the regime’s forces is the result of the Iranian people’s resistance over the past years, especially through the involvement of Iranian women of all ages.
In a speech by Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf in the Expediency Council, it gives a clear picture of the regime’s viewpoint. He stated, “If we want to overcome this cognitive war, we first need to correct these conflicts and these different perceptions and understandings in this part of governance. This is the platform that the enemy uses because of its inefficiency and creates these problems.”
This situation has also affected the effectiveness of repression and is widening the gap between the regime’s forces and the people of Iran.
