Iran Video: Why Protesters Risk Everything for Freedom

Iran Protests —Regime Says It Is Reviewing Compulsory Hijab

UPDATE 1915 GMT:

On National Student Day, a demonstration at Allameh Tabatabe’i University in Tehran —“Bread, Work, Liberty — clothing at our free will!”:

UPDATE 1908 GMT: Gunfire near Tehran’s Azadi Square tonight….

Protesters in the square chant, “Don’t call me rioter, you cause the turmoil, you despot!”:

UPDATE 1857 GMT:

The Supreme Leader’s sister has condemned Ayatollah Khamenei’s crackdown on nationwide protests.

Badri Hosseini Khamenei called on the Revolutionary Guards to lay down their weapons.

I think it is appropriate now to declare that I oppose my brother’s actions and I express my sympathy with all mothers mourning the crimes of the Islamic Republic, from the time of [the Republic’s founder Ayatollah] Khomeini to the current era of the despotic caliphate of Ali Khamenei.

Ali Khamenei’s Revolutionary Guards and mercenaries should lay down their weapons as soon as possible and join the people before it is too late.

The Supreme Leader’s niece Farideh Moradkhani was arrested two weeks ago over her criticism of Khamenei and the regime.

The regime has now sentenced 11 protesters to death. Judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi said on Tuesday that five were condemned over the killing of a Basij militiaman.

UPDATE 1847 GMT:

French satellite operator Eutelsat is removing the Iranian State English-language outlet Press TV.

The decision follows the European Union’s imposition of sanctions on Press TV on November 14 over involvement in the Iranian regime’s human rights violations. The EU, as well as the UK and Canada, cite the outlet’s involvement in the airing of forced confessions by detainees.

UPDATE 0950 GMT:

A clip of striking workers at a cement factory in Isfahan on Tuesday….

Footage of shuttered shops:

UPDATE 0943 GMT:

A snapshot from the protests….

UPDATE 0936 GMT:

Iran’s top Sunni cleric, Moulavi Abdul Hamid, says he has received reports of sexual assaults on female detainees.

Abdul Hamid posted on Twitter that the assaults are trying to humiliate and obtain forced confessions from the women.

He referred to the offense of “corruption on earth”, which can be punished by the death penalty, “If proven, the real corrupters on earth are the perpetrators of these crimes.”

Abdul Hamid, the Friday Prayer leader of Zahedan, has been prominent in his challenge to the Iranian regime over its crackdown on protests. He has said that the Supreme Leader and other officials are responsible for the mass killings of worshippers and demonstrators, and he has called for an independent referendum on the future of the Islamic Republic.

Security forces have killed more than 100 people in and near Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchistan Province during the protests.

UPDATE, DEC 7:

As strikes continued in more than 40 Iranian cities and towns on Tuesday, the Supreme Leader has betrayed his concern about nationwide protests which are now in their 12th week.

Addressing the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2022/12/07/2817869/we-can-t-mindset-changed-to-we-can-after-islamic-revolution-leader” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>Ayatollah Khamenei said, “It is necessary to revolutionize the country’s cultural structure….The Supreme Council should observe the weaknesses of culture in different fields of the country.”

Khamenei did not explain what his “revolutionary reconstruction” would entail. Instead, he issued platitudes about “raising people’s awareness and correcting wrong cultures [as] a part of cultural engineering”.

By correctly guiding thousands of NGOs and grassroots organizations that are undertaking diverse, extensive cultural activities, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution can prepare the foundation for the formation of a public movement with regard to important issues, such as spreading the culture of being satisfied and not wasting.

Khamenei did not refer directly to the protests or the strikes.

UPDATE 1024 GMT:

Another Iranian athlete defies punishment by the regime to show solidarity with protests for women’s rights.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Iran’s nationwide protests, in their 12th week, have been boosted by a strike in about 40 cities and towns across the country.

Merchants, truckers, and students responded on Monday to the call for a three-day stoppage culminating on National Students Day on December 7.

Stoppages were reported in all major cities, with videos from Tehran’s Bazaar, Karaj, Isfahan, Mashhad, Tabriz, Shiraz, Bojnourd, Kerman, Sabzevar, Ilam, Ardabil, and Lahijan. Kurdish rights group Hengaw reported strikes in 20 cities in northwest and west Iran alone.

Regime officials insisted that demonstrations have ended; however, they admitted that many shops had been shut, blaming — without providing any evidence —“intimidation”. Witnesses said riot police and the Basij militia were heavily deployed in central Tehran.

The regime also tipped off the extent of the strikes through a series of threatening statements. Judiciary head Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said protesters condemned to death will soon be executed.

The Revolutionary Guards called on the judiciary to swiftly and decisively issue judgements against “defendants accused of crimes against the security of the nation and Islam”. They said no mercy should be shown towards “rioters, thugs, and terrorists”.

Hoping to prevent any escalation of the demonstrations over rights and justice, President Ebrahim Raisi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said they will visit Tehran universities on Wednesday.

Confusion Over the “Morality Police”

The regime stepped up patrols by “morality police” outside Tehran, especially in religious cities, to ensure women were wearing the hijab. Shop managers were directed by the police to reinforce hijab restrictions. An amusement park in a Tehran shopping center was closed.

The escalation came after garbled coverage of a speech by Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said that the “morality police” — whose detention and reported beating of Mahsa Amini, who later died in custody, sparked the protests — had been suspended.

Montazeri distanced the judiciary from the “morality police”, saying it had no oversight of the patrols, but he did not refer to a suspension.

Ali Khanmohammadi, the spokesman for Iran’s headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice which oversees implementation of religious edicts, indicated the “morality police” will be supplanted by other methods to enforce dress codes.

“Decisions are being made to confront those violations of hijab by a small group of women….Officials cannot remain indifferent towards these violations,” he said.

While making a show of strength outside Tehran, the regime appears to be unable to enforce — compulsory hijab in the capital. A journalist said:

The security forces and the police are all focused on suppressing the protests, so they don’t have the resources to use to deal with women without veils. The guidance patrol in the form we used to see in the streets has completely disappeared and does not exist.

On one of the days of demonstrations in Tehran, I passed through the IRGC [Revolutionary Guards] forces without a hijab. They only looked at me. Their looks were furious, but they had no other interaction.

In Rasht in northern Iran, a women’s rights activist said she had not seen the “morality police” since late September.