What to know about the protests in Iran

Anti-government protests have broken out in cities across Iran in response to the death of a young woman in the custody of the country’s moral police that has shocked the nation.

The protests have spread to dozens of cities and many casualties have been reported. The government said on Thursday that 17 people, including two security personnel, had been killed since unrest began last weekend. Human rights groups say the number is likely to be higher.

The protests included large numbers of women, who initially took to the streets in rare displays of defiance of the government and enforcement of the country’s hijab law, which requires hair to be covered and clothing. widely for women.

The protests have become widespread, with demands expanded to reflect the anger of ordinary Iranians over their living conditions after years of US-led sanctions have plagued economic hardship, as well as widespread corruption and economic mismanagement.

With scenes of dissent and calls for an end to the Islamic Republic, the protests have become one of the clearest challenges to the government since the last wave of unrest in 2014. 2019, was met with a deadly reaction.

Authorities hit back again with a brutal and systematic crackdown: Security forces fired on protesters with guns and water cannons and beat them with batons. The use of mobile phones and the internet has been significantly restricted.

What drives the protests? And what are the implications for the authorities?

The death of a young woman ignited a long-smoldering anger.

Mahsa Amini, who goes by the name Jina, was with her family last week during a visit to Tehran from her home in the country’s northwestern province of Kurdistan when she was arrested for allegedly violating the hijab law.

The law came into force in 1981, after the Islamic revolution. It has long been challenged by many women in Iran, and is popular throughout the country.

Amini, 22, died three days after being detained while in the custody of the ethics police, who enforce the country’s strict Islamic rules. Iran’s security forces said in a statement that Amini had collapsed from a heart attack at the detention center while being trained in the hijab rule. Her family objected to the claim, saying she was in good health before her arrest, according to news reports.

Her death quickly shocked the nation and caused public outrage over the longstanding religious law.

Many women tore and burned their headscarves to protest the hijab law, video posted to social media and by the BBC’s Persian service shows that, even in the conservative and religious city of Mashhad In the northeast. A widely circulated video, from the city of Kerman, in the southeast, shows a woman cutting her hair in front of a roaring crowd.

As anger has gripped the country, more and more Iranians have joined the protests, turning the crisis into an outlet for greater frustrations with the government.

Many have called for the removal of sweeping religious restrictions that govern how people dress, how they socialize in their homes and what they drink and eat. Even some conservatives have embraced that call, arguing that criminalizing breaking the rules and imposing them by force has backfired and fueled resentment against religion.

Analysts also say years of economic decline have stretched the patience of many Iranians, who have periodically taken to the streets to protest in recent years.

Iran’s Economy been under the rock for many years. U.S.-led sanctions in response to its nuclear and missile programs have made it much harder for Iran to sell oil and cut access to the global financial system, while also engaging corruption and economic mismanagement. The people of Iran have long faced rising inflation, food shortages and supply disruptions as well as job shortages.

Authorities are responding with force practice.

Many depressed Iranians have directed their hostility to the heart of the country’s system of government: the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Footage shows protesters chanting for his death and the demise of his son, Mojtaba, seen as a potential successor, went viral on social media.

In the northern city of Rasht, protesters took over a street, chanting, “Death to the dictator!” and “Die for the oppressorbe it shah or supreme leader! “

The government hit back with a brutal and systematic crackdown, using well-rehearsed tactics seen in previous anti-government uprisings. Videos circulating on social media showed protesters facing a large deployment of riot police officers, who targeted them with guns and water cannons and beat them with batons. . Plainclothes officers from fear Basij . militia were also sent to fight the protests.

In the northwestern province of Kurdistan alone, at least 17 protesters were killed, according to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, which posted the names and photos of the victims online.

At least 733 people were injured and more than 600 arrested across the Kurdish province, according to Hengawanother set of rights.

Figures released by the government do not include details of where casualties occurred.

The protests show no sign of abating. On Thursday, the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s powerful security force, released a statement describing what was happening as an act of sedation and saying protesters must be crushed to teach others a lesson.

Since the beginning of the protests, the government has significantly restricted the three main operators from providing mobile internet service, severely disrupted internet in protest areas, and blocked platforms such as WhatsApp and Instagram, follow NetBlocks, an internet watchdog and Iranian digital experts. Protesters have heavily used those platforms to galvanize support and monitor ongoing events.

In Tehran, electricity was cut off at night, leaving streets in total darkness in some downtown areas and downtown neighborhoods, where protests were more intense, according to some residents.

Iranian women have long fought for their rights and are punished for it.

This is not the first time the theocracy under the leadership of the Iranian government has cracked down on women protesting for greater rights.

Iranian women have been challenging the hijab rule since its introduction in 1981 and testing the limits of what they can get away with. As generations of young women have grown, they have become bolder in eliminating the hijab in public and calling for an end to the mandatory wearing of the hijab. It is part of a widespread push by Iranian women on issues such as divorce, child custody, the right to work and travel without the consent of a male guardian, and against discriminatory laws. treat differently.

In 2017, a 31-year-old mother, Vida Movahed, stood on top of a gadget box in downtown Tehran, removing her hijab and waving it at the crowd with a stick. Many women began to follow her lead, giving way to the so-called Girls of Revolution Street protests, which were later quelled by the government.

In 2019, a 29-year-old woman named Sahar Khodayari set herself on fire after she was arrested after sneaking into a men’s soccer match. The Iranian government, under pressure from international football governing bodies, later changed the law and allowed women to attend matches, but they were relegated to absentee zones.

That same year, Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Iranian lawyer who defended women who removed the hijab, was sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 times hunted for “collusion against the system.” and “insult” Ayatollah Khamenei.

Previous protests have been quelled by beatings, arrests and close-range shootings.

The current protests are the most dramatic display of dissent the country has seen since November 2019, when rising gas prices hit the most widespread and violent riot since the revolution. network. Many of those who took to the streets to protest were low-income people, particularly hard hit by these changes.

Iran shuts down the Internet for a few days and Security forces opened fire on protesters, often from close range, quelling widespread protests over several days. Human rights groups say at least 360 people have been killed in the brutal crackdown, but other estimates are much higher.

An earlier round of protests, the so-called Green Movement, sweep the country in 2009 was led by the middle class and college students, who took to the streets to denounce the rigging of the re-election of then-conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Later, the authorities also cracked down hard, with the Revolutionary Guards and Basij being dispatched to arrest, beat and kill the protesters.

Neda Agha-SoltanA young woman was shot dead, became a symbol of the uprising.