A woman stands on a car and salutes the crowd gathering for the 40th day ceremony for Mahsa Amini, who died in Iranian police custody, October 26, 2022

UPDATES: Iran Regime Says It Is Renewing Patrols by “Morality Police”

UPDATE 1323 GMT:

Documenting 33 cases, Amnesty International has found:

The Iranian authorities are waging a ruthless campaign of harassment and intimidation against the families of protesters and bystanders unlawfully killed by security forces during the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising to force them into staying silent ahead of the one-year anniversary of the nationwide protests and the killings of their loved ones.

The authorities have subjected bereaved relatives to a catalogue of human rights violations including beatings, arbitrary arrest and detention, unjust prosecutions, and unlawful surveillance.

They have also denied families the right to hold peaceful gatherings at their loved ones’ gravesites, have damaged and desecrated the graves of those unlawfully killed, and threatened to exhume victims and rebury them in unidentified locations.

Political prisoner Narges Mohammadi, the Vice President of the Center for Defenders of Rights, said authorities are also stepping physical abuse of detainees.

“We have seen women and girls entering prison with bruised and injured faces and bodies,” she wrote in a letter posted on Instagram. Injuries included fractured cheekbones, rib pain, blows to the head, and bruises.

On Thursday, a 35-year-old male detainee, Javad Rouhi, died suddenly in prison.

Rouhi was condemned to death on allegations of “leading riots” and inciting violence before the sentence was overturned by the Iran Supreme Court on appeal.

Deputy judiciary head Sadegh Rahimi said the crackdown will continue, “The judicial system will deal with these people decisively.”

Rahimi warned any protester released in February under an amnesty issued by the Supreme Leader, not to rally: “Their punishment will be doubled, and no concessions will be applied to them.”

UPDATE, SEPT 2:

Ali Sharifi Zarchi, a professor of artificial intelligence at the Sharif University of Technology, has been fired over his support of the nationwide protests for rights, reforms, and gender equality.

Zarchi also refused to teach until Sharif students, detained during the protests, were released.

He rebuffed the claim of a university official that he was fired because he did not apply for a contract extension. Posting documents on social media supporting his case, he said, “The truth has been sacrificed for politics.”

At least 15 academics have been dismissed from Iranian universities because of their support for the demonstrations since last September.

On Monday the Interior Ministry declared that the Science, Research and Technology Ministry and the universities had correctly acted in line with their “revolutionary duty” because the professors had succumbed to “academic decline” and were “tainting universities” with political bias and media exposure against national interests.

Hossein Shariatmadari, appointed editor-in-chief of the Keyhan newspaper by the Supreme Leader, wrote this week that academics “who had not only supported riots and rioters last year but had also in some cases participated in crimes against the wronged people of Iran alongside rioting thugs” were given “the most trivial punishment, considering their foul and inhumane actions”.

UPDATE, AUG 30:

Following up the regime’s threat to bar work by “cultural activists” who remove their hijabs in public, President Ebrahim Raisi has met the Chaste Life Headquarters to emphasize the necessity of cultural measures in solving problems”.

Raisi put a priority on “solving the problems of people’s easy access to appropriate clothing and appropriate cultural and artistic products”.

UPDATE, AUG 29:

Authorities have arrested prominent Iranian pop singer Mehdi Yarrahi over his song asking women to defy compulsory hijab.

The release of Your Head Scarf was accompanied by a video of women in social settings without their hijabs, some dancing to the music.

The arrest came as Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad Mehdi Esmaeili declared “cultural activists” who have removed their hijabs will not be be allowed to work in the country because they “act against national interests”.

UPDATE, AUG 27:

Thousands of protesters marched across Sistan and Baluchistan Province in southeast Iran on Friday, challenging the oppression of the Iranian regime.

Demonstrators rallied for the 48th Friday in a row in Zahedan, where Friday Prayer leader Molavi Abdolhamid called for an end to the “religious government”. Rallies also were held in Rask, Khash, and Sarbaz.

Protesters chanted, “I will avenge the one who took my brother’s life,” “Release political prisoners”, and “Death to the dictator”.

They also shouted, “Free Molana Naqshbandi”, the Sunni Imam of Rask, who was detained by security forces on August 20 over his support of demonstrations. “You were the voice of the oppressed; the oppressed stand with you,” the protesters chanted.

UPDATE 1433 GMT:

Iran’s leading Sunni cleric, Molavi Abdolhamid, has called on authorities to release Molavi Fathi Mohammad Naqshbandi — the Sunni imam of Rask in southeast Iran — from prison.

Posting on Twitter, Abdolhamid said the arrest of Naqshbandi over his criticism of officials may exacerbate public discontent.

On Sunday, the judiciary of Sistan-Baluchistan Province confirmed Molavi Naqshbandi’s arrest. He is accused of “disturbing public sentiment through misleading speeches; defamation against the Islamic republic of Iran; actions detrimental to national security, and illicit occupation of state lands”.

Naqshbandi was seized in front of fellow clerics.

Amid 47 straight Fridays of protests in Zahedan, the city where Abdolhamid is Friday Prayer leader — authorities have seized and interrogated a series of Sunni clerics. At least seven have been detained, as well as a seminary scholar and a seminary student.

UPDATE 1424 GMT:

Trying to pre-empt demonstrations on the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, Iran’s authorities are arresting relatives of protesters killed or executed by security forces.

The latest person seized is Nasrin Alizadeh, the sister of Shirin Alizadeh, who was killed on September 22 as she filmed security personnel cracking down on a rally.

Among those arrested in recent days are Mahsa Yazdani, the mother of Mohammad Javad Zahedi, and Mashallah Karami, the father of Mohammed Mehdi Karami, who was executed on 7 January.

UPDATE 1357 GMT:

BBC Newsnight posts a report about the regime’s latest crackdown over compulsory hijab — and the continued campaign of women for their rights.

UPDATE 1000 GMT:

Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib has boasted of the executions of foreign and dual nationals held as political prisoners.

Khatib told the annual conference of Revolutionary Guards commanders on Sunday, “Today, the power of the country’s intelligence organizations is such that they have captured spies from France, Sweden, the UK, and several other countries.”

He said some of the “spies” had been sentenced to death despite foreign pressure and were subsequently executed.

UPDATE 0955 GMT:

The Center for Human Rights in Iran reports another detention of a woman who dared to show her hair in a photograph on social media.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Iran’s authorities are detaining activists ahead of the September 16 anniversary of the death of 21-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Amini collapsed in a police station after she was seized and reportedly beaten by “morality police” in Tehran on September 13 for wearing “inappropriate attire”. Her death sparked the nationwide “Woman. Life. Freedom” protests calling for rights, reforms, and gender equality.

Having killed scores of protesters and arrested more than 22,000, Iran’s regime is still concerned about gatherings. So it detained 12 women’s rights activists last week on allegations of “acting against national security”.

In Gilan Province in northern Iran, security personnel seized Matin Yazdani, Forough Sami’nia, Yasmin Hashdari, Jelve Javaheri, Zahra Dadras, Negin Rezaei, Shiva Shahsiah, and Vahehdeh Khoshsirat.

The women’s whereabouts and the exact charges have not been disclosed. Their families have had no contact with them.

The provincial police commander, Azizollah Maleki, declared that the activists were “communicating with the families of protesters killed during the demonstrations and “inciting them”, as they participated in “propaganda activities aimed at overthrowing” the regime.

Maleki acknowledged that the detentions are connected with “activities related to the anniversary of protests”.

Activists have also been rounded up in Kurdistan Province, Tehran, and other Iranian cities. Some universities are being switched to on-line instruction until October 1, and security services have started “telephone summons” targeting students. Relatives of slain protesters have been rounded up.

Fellow activist Mansoureh Shojaee noted the attempt by authorities to pre-empt anniversary protests. She highlighted that some of those detained, including Javaheri, Sami’nia, and Yazdani, have been involved in the women’s rights movement for more than 20 years.

Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, elaborates:

The regime is definitely frightened of the anniversary coming up. It believes there is a large appetite in the country for protests and resistance again. Otherwise, it would not be rounding people up.