Cities in western Iran went on strike on Wednesday in solidarity with mourners marking 40 days since security forces killed dozens in a crackdown on protests in the country’s strife-torn southeast, rights groups said.
Security forces opened fire on protests that erupted on Sept. 30 after weekly prayers in Zahedan, capital of the restive province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
It came two weeks after demonstrations broke out across Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, following her arrest in Tehran for allegedly flouting the country’s strict hijab dress rules for women.
Photo: AFP
The crackdown on nationwide protests since her death has killed at least 304 people, including 41 children and 24 women, Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said.
Groups were seen distributing flyers calling for protests in all cities on Wednesday for the 40-day mourning ceremony of Zahedan’s “Bloody Friday,” in a video shared by the 1500tasvir social media channel.
Prominent Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti posted a photo of herself on Instagram without a headscarf and holding a slogan that has become the rallying cry of the protests: “Woman. Life. Freedom.”
Widespread strikes were held “in solidarity” with Zahedan in the Kurdish cities of Baneh, Bukan, Kermanshah, Marivan, Sanandaj and Amini’s hometown of Saqez, IHR said.
The trigger for the violence that IHR said left at least 92 dead in Zahedan was the alleged rape in custody of a 15-year-old girl by a police commander in the province’s port city of Chabahar.
However, analysts said the Baluchi were inspired by the protests that flared over Amini’s death, which were initially driven by women’s rights, but expanded over time to include other grievances.
“The 2022 protests are a convergence of angry and frustrated Iranians with the same goal, overthrowing the Islamic republic and a theocratic regime,” University of Tennessee at Chattanooga analyst Saeid Golkar said.
Rights groups have long said that the region has been the victim of discrimination by Iran’s Shiite clerical leadership, with disproportionate numbers of Baluchi killed in clashes every year and also hanged in executions.
Protests over Amini’s death have shown no signs of abating despite the brutal crackdown and a campaign of mass arrests.
Young women have led the way, removing and burning their head coverings, chanting anti-regime slogans and confronting security forces on the street.
Reformist parties on Wednesday called for “courageous and innovative changes,” including a referendum in a bid to end the crisis, the Iranian Reform Front said in a statement.
The group was founded last year by officials close to former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami.
However, Washington Institute expert Henry Rome said the “call will almost certainly wither.”
“The regime is unable to coalesce around even modest reforms to defuse the protests. In a moment of turbulence, there’s little prospect it would go so far as to put itself on the ballot,” he said.
Iran has struggled to suppress the demonstrations, which have evolved into its biggest challenge since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Security forces have fired directly on protesters using live ammunition, bird shot, tear gas and even paintballs.
Iran has sought to portray the protest movement as a plot hatched by its archenemies in the West, with Britain, Canada, the EU and the US imposing sanctions over rights contraventions.
The EU plans to seek further restrictions next week, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday.
“We won’t let up,” she said. “We stand with the men and women of Iran, not only today, but as long as it is necessary.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was accused this week of issuing death threats against two journalists working for the London-based Persian-language Iran International television channel.
The Saudi-linked channel’s owner, Volant Media, said London police had warned them of “credible threats to their lives.”
An unprecedented number of female journalists have been detained, which Reporters Without Borders said “symbolically reveals the Iranian regime’s intention to systematically silence women’s voices.”
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