The Iranian Revolution Has Begun!

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Anti-government demonstrations erupted Saturday in several locations across Iran as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy entered their fourth week, as was reported by the AP. At least two people were killed.

Marchers chanted anti-government slogans and twirled headscarves in repudiation of coercive religious dress codes. The AP reported that in some areas, merchants shuttered shops in response to a call by activists for a commercial strike or to protect their wares from damage.

The protests erupted on September 17, after the burial of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who had died in the custody of Iran’s feared morality police, the AP reported. Amini had been detained for an alleged violation of strict Islamic dress codes for women. Since then, protests spread across the country and were met by a fierce crackdown, in which dozens are estimated to have been killed and hundreds arrested.

Later Saturday, hackers broke into the evening news on Iran’s state TV for 15 seconds, just as footage of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was being broadcast, according to the AP report. The hackers flashed an image of Khamenei surrounded by flames. A caption read “Join us and stand up!” and “The blood of our youth is dripping from your claws,” a reference to Khamenei.

A song with the lyrics “Woman. Life. Freedom” — a common chant of the protesters — played in the background, the AP reported.

In the city of Sanandaj in the Kurdish-majority northern region, one man was shot dead Saturday while driving a car in a major thoroughfare, rights monitors said, the AP reported.  The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network and the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, said the man was shot after honking at security forces stationed on the street. The AP reported that honking has become one of the ways activists have been expressing civil disobedience. Video circulating online showed the slain man slumped over the steering wheel, as distraught witnesses shouted for help.

The semi-official Fars news agency, believed to be close to the elite paramilitary force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, said Kurdistan’s police chief denied reports of using live rounds against protesters, according to the report by the AP.

Fars claimed that people in Sanandaj’s Pasdaran Street said the victim was shot from inside the car without elaborating. But photos of the dead man indicate that he was shot from his left side, meaning he likely was not shot from inside the car. The AP reported that the blood can be seen running down the inside of the door on the driver’s side.

A second protester was killed after security forces fired gunshots to disperse crowds in the city and 10 protesters were wounded, the rights monitors said, as was reported by the AP.

A general strike was observed in the city’s main streets amid a heavy security presence and protesters burned tires in some areas. The AP also reported that patrols have deterred mass gatherings in Sanandaj but isolated protests have continued in the city’s densely populated neighborhoods.

Demonstrations were also reported in the capital Tehran on Saturday, including small ones near the Sharif University of Technology, one of Iran’s premier centers of learning and the scene of a violent government crackdown last weekend, as was reported by the AP. Authorities have closed the campus until further notice.

Images on social media showed protests also took place in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

Other protests erupted at Azad University in northern Tehran, in other neighborhoods of the capital and in the city’s bazaar. The AP reported that many shops were closed in central Tehran and near the University of Teh

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a meeting with students from the all-female Al-Zahra University in Tehran alleged again that foreign enemies were responsible for fomenting the protests, the AP reported.  He has made the claim without giving specifics or providing any evidence.

“The enemy thought that it can pursue its desires in universities while unaware that our students and teachers are aware and they will not allow the enemies’ vain plans to be realized,” he said, as was reported by the AP.

Meanwhile, thousands of people in The Hague, Netherlands chanted and sang in a solidarity demonstration in support of the protesters in Iran.

The AP reported that thousands of chanting, singing people held a solidarity demonstration Saturday in The Hague in support of protesters in Iran who have taken to the streets since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.

Protesters gathered on a central park in the city waved flags and banners emblazoned with texts including “No to enforced headscarf in Iran,” “Justice can’t wait” and “Stop bloodshed in Iran.” The AP also reported that several lawmakers from parties across the Dutch political spectrum also attended.

The Iranian protests have triggered demonstrations of support across Europe, including by women cutting off locks of their hair, following Iranian women’s example, according to the AP report.

Oscar-winning French actors Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche, as well as other French screen and music stars, filmed themselves chopping off locks of their hair in a video posted Wednesday, the news agency reported.

The AP reported that Dutch Justice Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius also cut off a lock of her hair during a live television talk show this week.

The full extent of demonstrations in Iran and subsequent crackdowns remains unclear. An Associated Press tally of reports in state-run and state-linked media shows there have been at least 1,900 arrests connected to the protests. Demonstrations have been reported in at least 50 Iranian cities, towns and villages.

The Times of Israel reported that this past Thursday Some 100 Israelis gathered in Jerusalem’s Independence Park to rally in solidarity with the Iranian women who have been leading anti-government protests for weeks.

“There was something about hearing that a young woman was taken off the street because she wasn’t dressed the way someone wanted her to be dressed,” said Shoshana Keats Jaskoll, a feminist activist and one of the event organizers, as was reported by TOI. “It really affected me… and so many women — and men, by the way — said we want to stand with the Iranian people. We want to stand with the minorities of Iran, the women of Iran, and we want to say this is not okay.”

“And we want to say here in Israel that we believe you deserve your freedom,” added Keats Jaskoll.

The Times of Israel also reported that Yvette Mazloumi, a Persian Jew visiting Israel from New York who attended the protest, said she would love to be able to visit Iran one day in the future.

“This is the first time I feel like there’s a glimmer of hope that something might change,” said Mazloumi of the ongoing protests, as was reported by TOI. “And there’s much more international coverage this time around compared to the Green Revolution [against then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] in 2009… I’m so happy to see that this is happening.”

State television last suggested at least 41 people had been killed in the demonstrations as of Sept. 24. TOI reported that in the nearly two weeks since, there’s been no update from Iran’s government. Rights activists put the death toll much higher.

Germany’s foreign minister is calling for European Union entry bans and asset freezes against those responsible for what she described as brutal repression against anti-government protesters in Iran, according to the AP report.

The most sustained protests in years against Iran’s theocracy are now in their fourth week.

Since then, protests spread across the country and have been met by a fierce crackdown, in which dozens are estimated to have been killed and hundreds arrested, the AP reported.

“Those who beat up women and girls on the street, carry off people who want nothing other than to live freely, arrest them arbitrarily and sentence them to death stand on the wrong side of history,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was quoted as telling Sunday’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper, as was reported by the AP.

“We will ensure that the EU imposes entry bans on those responsible for this brutal repression and freezes their assets in the EU,” she added. “We say to people in Iran: We stand and remain by your side.”

Baerbock didn’t name any specific individuals or organizations.

The AP also reported that on Thursday, EU lawmakers approved a resolution calling for sanctions against those responsible for the death of Amini and the subsequent crackdown.

Germany, along with fellow EU member France, is among the nations that are part of a 2015 agreement with Iran to address concerns over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and have been attempting to revive the deal, according to the AP report.

Talks on the deal have languished but if it’s reinstated, the agreement would provide sanctions relief that would help strengthen the Iranian government.

On Sunday, videos on Iranian social media appeared to show students staging a protest on the campus of al-Zahra University in Tehran, a day after students chanted against Iran’s president during a visit there, the AP reported.

Protests erupted in cities across Iran on Saturday. The AP reported that in Tehran’s bazaar, traditionally a stronghold of Iran’s rulers, a crowd set fire to a police kiosk. Later that evening, anti-government marches drew a large crowd in the capital’s central Naziabad area, social media posts showed.

Facing persistent unrest, authorities have turned to targeting prominent Iranians who have expressed support for the protests, the news agency reported.

The semi-official ILNA news agency reported that Iranian officials seized the passports of Homayoun Shajarian, a prominent singer, and Sahar Dolatshahi, an actress, after the pair returned from a concert tour in Australia on Saturday, according to the AP report. The passports were taken at Tehran’s international airport, the news agency said.

Shajarian had expressed support for the protesters during his foreign tour. The AP also reported that during a September 13th concert, a large photo of Mahsa Amini served as a stage backdrop and he sang an old song dealing with cruelty and oppressors.

Another backdrop had the caption: “Don’t kill these people. These people deserve life, not death. These people deserve happiness and freedom. My position is clear, I will always stand by the people of my land.”

Authorities also detained a number of prominent artists, including singer Shervin Hajipour whose song “For” became an anthem of the protest movement, as was reported by the AP. Hajipour was released on bail on October 4th.

In parallel, Iranian officials have wielded state media to blame unrest on foreign powers.

At least four anchors with Iran’s state broadcasting organization have resigned “in support of the Iranian people’s protests,” a reporter with the reformist daily Shargh tweeted on Sunday, according to the AP report. IRIB has recently and in the past aired the forced confessions of detainees.

Growing up under a repressive system, Sharo, a 35-year-old university graduate, never thought she would hear words of open rebellion spoken out loud. Now she herself chants slogans like “Death to the Dictator!” with a fury she didn’t know she had, as she joins protests calling for toppling the country’s rulers, the AP reported.

Sharo said that after three weeks of protests, triggered by the death of a young woman in the custody of the feared morality police, anger at the authorities is only rising.

“The situation here is tense and volatile,” she said, referring to the city of Sanandaj in the majority Kurdish home district of the same name in northwestern Iran, one of the hot spots of the protests, according to the AP report.

“We are just waiting for something to happen, like a time-bomb,” she said, speaking to The Associated Press via Telegram messenger service.

The anti-government protests in Sanandaj, 300 miles (500 kilometers) from the capital, are a microcosm of the leaderless protests that have roiled Iran.

Led largely by women and youth, they have evolved from spontaneous mass gatherings in central areas to scattered demonstrations in residential areas, schools and universities as activists try to evade an increasingly brutal crackdown, the AP reported.

Tensions rose again Saturday in Sanandaj after rights monitors said two protesters were shot dead and several were wounded, following a resumption of demonstrations. Residents said there has been a heavy security presence in the city, with constant patrols and security personnel stationed on major streets.

  (Sources: AP, Times of Israel)