A rally of more than 80,000 people in Berlin, Germany in solidarity with protests across Iran (Markus Schreiber)


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UPDATE 1659 GMT:

The US has expanded sanctions on Iran over the repression of protests, designating 14 individuals and three entities.

Among those cited are the commander of the Revolutionary Guards intelligence organization; the Guards’ deputy commander for operations; and two officials in Sistan and Baluchistan Province in southeast Iran, where more than 90 people have reported been killed by security forces during demonstrations.

The US Treasury also sanctioned Iranian prison officials. They include Hedayat Farzadi, the warden of Tehran’s Evin Prison, where at least eight inmates died in a blaze and gunfire earlier this month.


UPDATE 1649 GMT:

Iran’s leading Sunni cleric, Moulavi Abdolhamid, is maintaining his challenge to the country’s leaders.

Abdolhamid is the Friday Prayer leader in Zahedan in southeast Iran. At least 66 people were killed in the city on September 30 when security forces fired on worshippers and a crowd outside the police station.

The cleric told followers on Monday:

One positive thing that we can take from the events is that many people have shed their fears.

Unfortunately, officials are not listening. For 43 years we’ve been shouting for the [rights of] Sunnis and the Baluch who are the owners of this land and have been defending the area.

At Friday Prayers last week, Abdolhomid said the Supreme Leader and other officials were “responsible before God” for the repression of the protests, including the mass killing.


UPDATE 1643 GMT:

Women at Shahid Chamran University in Ahwaz in southern Iran shout, “Azadi! (Freedom!)”.

Protests on Saadi Street in Tehran today:


UPDATE 1434 GMT:

Dr Mohammad Razi, the President of the Iranian Orthopedic Association, has resigned over attacks on a protest by doctors during Iran’s protests.

Razi is a past President of the Asian Federation of Sports Medicine.

Video of the doctors’ protest:


UPDATE 1431 GMT:

Workers at the Tehran Oil Refinery have joined nationwide strikes.


UPDATE 1428 GMT:

The crowd on the way to the grave of Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody sparked the protests across Iran, in the Kurdistan region on Wednesday:

An image from the march:


UPDATE 1425 GMT:

Students at Al-Zahra University in Tehran chant, “You are lewd and debauched, I’m a free woman!”.

Students at the Islamic Azad University in Najafabad tear down a poster of the Supreme Leader and the late Ayatollah Khomeini.


UPDATE 0847 GMT:

Schoolgirls sing in memory of Nika Shakarami, a teenager reportedly beaten and slain by security personnel:


UPDATE 0840 GMT:

Iranian authorities have reportedly arrested a specialist in forensic medicine, Dr. Mehran Fereydouni, after he publicly questioned the regime’s official narrative over the death of Mahsa Amini.

Iranian officials have blamed Amini’s demise, which occurred three days after she was seized by “morality police”, on a variety of conditions from a “heart attack” to a brain tumor to epilepsy.


UPDATE 0832 GMT:

A Spanish man, trekking from Madrid to Doha for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, is missing after he crossed into Iran three weeks ago.

Santiago Sánchez’s family have not heard from him since October 2, the day after he entered the Islamic Republic. He was last seen in Iraq after hiking through 15 countries over the last nine months.

Amid detentions of foreign nationals by Iranian authorities, two New Zealand travel bloggers, husband and wife Topher Richwhite and Bridget Thackwray of Expedition Earth, are missing and believed arrested (see below).


UPDATE, OCT 26:

Iran’s authorities are reportedly trying to shut down gatherings on the 40th day of the passing of Mahsa Amini, whose alleged beating and death in police custody sparked nationwide protests.

Activists said security services have warned Amini’s family against holding a ceremony and have asked people not to visit her grave on Wednesday.

State news agency IRNA published a statement which it claimed was from Amini’s family: “Considering the circumstances and in order to avoid any unfortunate problem, we will not hold a ceremony marking the 40th day.”

Activists said the statement was made under pressure and tributes are still expected at Amini’s grave in the Kurdistan region in northwest Iran.

Meanwhile, protests are continuing at universities across Iran. In Tehran, students at Shahid Beheshti University again challenged gender segregation and the presence of the Basij militia.

Students at a branch of Tehran University:

And there were loud gatherings on Tuesday night in Tehran and Isfahan:


UPDATE 1441 GMT:

Medical staff in Shiraz chant, “We’ll fight, we’ll die, we’ll get Iran back”.

Students at Shahrekord University in southwest Iran boo a cleric and chant that he “must get lost”:

And in Ahwaz in southern Iran:


UPDATE 1434 GMT:

The Press Photographers Association has called for the release of Yalda Moayeri, Arya Ja’fari, and Hossein Esmaili from prison.

Iranian authorities have detained more than 40 journalists during the nationwide protests.


UPDATE 0950 GMT:

Two New Zealand travel bloggers, husband and wife Topher Richwhite and Bridget Thackwray of Expedition Earth, are missing and believed arrested in Iran.

The news broke on Iranian outlets and is being circulated by Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian academic who was a political prisoner in Iran from September 2018 to December 2020.


UPDATE 0924 GMT:

Students in Qom, the religious center of Iran, have challenged both a regime spokesman and the State broadcaster on Tuesday.


UPDATE 0905 GMT:

Three prominent Iranian labor activists https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-labor-activists-prison-may-day-protests/32098434.html” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>have been given prison sentences over their activities in a teachers’ union.

The men were charged with “assembly and collusion against national security” and “propaganda against the state”. Rasoul Bodaghi was given a total of 5 1/2 years, Jafar Ebrahimi 5 years, and Mohammad Habibi 4 years and 7 months.

Meanwhile, Reza Shahabi and Hassan Saeidi, senior members of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, have each been sentenced to 5 years in prison for the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security,” and 1 year for “propaganda against the state,” tweeted their lawyer Hossein Taj.

The trio were arrested on April 30, just ahead of May Day demonstrations which also celebrate Teachers’ Day.

Authorities said the men had coordinated the protests with French teachers’ union official Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, both of whom are held as political prisoners in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

Authorities also handed 5-year sentences to Reza Shahabi and Hassan Saeidi, senior members of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company.


UPDATE 0810 GMT:

Protests continues at universities across Iran.

Students at Tehran’s Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology challenged regime spokesperson Ali Bahadori Jahromi. His speech was interrupted with chants of “Woman, Life, Freedom” and “We Don’t Want a Corrupt System, We Don’t Want A Murderous Guest”.


UPDATE 0804 GMT:

A Revolutionary Court in Tehran has indicted 315 people arrested during the protests.

They are accused of “gathering and conspiring with intent to damage national security, propaganda against the system, and igniting public disorder.” Four are charged as “enemies of God” and could face the death penalty.

Another 201 people were indicted in Alborz Province in central Iran, primarily because they used social media to invite others to protest on social media.


UPDATE, OCT 25:

Iranian security forces have fired tear gas on students at a girls’ school in Tehran.

The heavily-armed forces arrived after staff attempted to inspect students’ mobile phones. Videos showed personnel on motorbikes, firing at least one tear gas canister.

The Education Ministry said several students were treated by emergency services for a “drop in blood pressure”. It denied that security personnel entered the school.

Tehran police justified the attack, “After news of a conflict near a high school … police were dispatched to the area and investigated the issue which turned out to be a fight between a number of thugs.” It said “agitators” were identified and arrested.


UPDATE 0815 GMT:

From Tehran….


UPDATE, OCT 24:

A scene from Sunday’s demonstrations….


UPDATE 1656 GMT:

Students at Sharif University in Tehran chant, “Woman, Life, Liberty!” after women enter a men-only cafeteria.


UPDATE 1202 GMT:

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization has confirmed that it has been hacked with some information published online.

An Iranian hacking group, Black Reward, had said in a statement on Twitter that it released hacked information concerning Iranian nuclear activities. It posted support on Saturday for protest: “In the name of Mahsa Amini and for women, life, freedom.”


UPDATE 1146 GMT:

DTEK, the operator of Kyiv’s energy grid, has announced a series of rolling out blackouts for “stabilization”.

The blackouts began at 11:30 am with households divided into three groups for blackouts that should last “no more than four hours” but may be longer “due to the scale of damage to the power supply system”.


UPDATE 0837 GMT:

There were demonstrations of solidarity with Iran’s protests across the world on Saturday, including a rally of more than 80,000 people in Berlin, Germany.

Human rights activist Fariba Balouch referred to the mass killing of protesters, including more than 90 in the Zahedan area in southeast Iran, in a speech in Berlin: “From Zahedan to Tehran, I sacrifice my life for Iran.” The crowd responded with a chant about the Supreme Leader, “Death to Khamenei”.

A participant, Maru, said, “I feel very good, because we are here to (say), ‘We are with you, with all Iranian people’. I am Mahsa Amini’s voice.”

The rally in Stockholm, Sweden:


ORIGINAL ENTRY: Striking workers and university workers have maintained Iran’s protests sparked by compulsory hijab and the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, taking the demonstrations into a sixth week.

Marches appeared to recede last week, amid regime repression which has included mass killing, detentions, and strict limits on the Internet.

However, on Saturday students came out on campuses across the country from the capital Tehran to Yazd to Tabriz to Ahwaz.

More workers downed tools in plants and factories. Latest stoppages included all personnel of the Khuzestan National Steel Company in western Iran and of the Aidin chocolate factory in Tabriz, northwest of Iran.

Protests and strikes also continued in the Kurdistan region in northwest Iran, including in Sanandaj, Bukan, and Mahsa Amini’s hometown Saqqez. Shopkeepers went on strike.

Other videos testified to marches in Dezful in southwest Iran, in Tehran, and in Iran’s second city Mashhad.

A clip from Dezful:

Deputy Interior minister Majid Mirahmadi insisted on State media, “There are various gatherings in some universities, which are decreasing every day, and the riots are going through their final days.”

But, despite the regime’s attempt to shut down images of the demonstrations, videos testified to the extent of the university gatherings.

In Tabriz:

In Tehran:

Male students cheer women candidates defying gender segregation to enter a cafe at Sharif University in Tehran:

In Yazd:

At Jondishapur University in Ahwaz:

Students at Tehran University sing “Baraye” (For Woman, Life, Liberty):