Thousands hit streets on anniversary of crackdown
Shops closed; troops open fire on pro testers, says Hengaw; UN calls on Ir an to release detainees; top ex-footballers decline FIFA invitation
Iranians took to the streets on Tuesday ater organisers of protests over Mahsa Amini’s death called for demonstrations marking three years since a lethal crackdown on unrest sparked by a fuel price hike.
The call to commemorate those slain in the 2019 crackdown gave new momentum to the protests that erupted following the death of 22-year-old Amini on Sept.16, ater her arrest for allegedly flouting the strict dress code for women.
As the day began, shops were shutered in Tehran’s famed Grand Bazaar and in other parts of the country, according to online videos verified by AFP. Iranian media outlets said the bazaar’s merchants shut up shop for fear of them being torched.
In Tehran, the din of honking car horns reverberated as protesters blocked a major roundabout at Sanat Square and yelled “Freedom, freedom,” according to other verified footage.
People later poured onto the streets of other cities, including Bandar Abbas and Shiraz, where women were seen peacefully waving their headscarves above their heads.
As darkness fell, more people emerged onto the streets of the capital, some of them gathering around bonfires and chanting slogans, according to the 1500tasvir social media monitor.
Hengaw, an Oslo-based human rights group, said that security forces “opened fire and shot tear gas at protesters” ater dark on Nawbahar Boulevard Kermanshah, a Kurdish city in western Iran.
The UN Human Rights Office called on Iran to immediately release thousands of people arrested for taking part in peaceful demonstrations.
“Instead of opening space for dialogue on legitimate grievances, the authorities are responding to unprecedented protests with increasing harshness,” spokesman Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva.
Workers downed tools and university students boycoted classes in Amini’s home province of Kurdistan, in western Iran, Hengaw said.
In the province’s flashpoint city of Sanandaj, protesters were seen burning tyres in a street and chanting slogans, in other online footage.
“Woman, life, freedom” and “Man, homeland, prosperity,” chanted students at Islamic Azad University in the northwestern city of Tabriz, in a video published by 1500tasvir.
The protests on Tuesday marked the third anniversary of the start of “Bloody Aban” -- or Bloody November -- when a surprise overnight fuel price hike sparked bloody street violence that lasted for days.
Amnesty International said at least 304 people were killed, but a tribunal in London this year by various rights groups said expert evidence suggested the toll was likely far more, possibly as high as 1,515.
On Tuesday, in a video shared by activists, students at Tehran’s Khajeh-nasir university chanted “1,500 people were killed in Aban.” Former president and leading reformist Mohammad Khatami rejected the idea of a change of power in the Islamic republic, while admiting there was dissatisfaction with the current government.
“The overthrow (of the system) is neither possible nor desirable but the continuation of the current situation leads to social collapse,” Khatami, president from 1997 to 2005, was quoted as saying by reformist newspapers.
The protests have seen prominent former players Ali Daei and Javad Nekounam both say they’ve declined a FIFA invitation to atend the World Cup in Qatar, where Iran will play.
Daei, a top international goal scorer and Iranian team captain, said he declined to go when his country was “grief-stricken.” “I want to be with my compatriots and express sympathy with all those who have lost loved ones,” the former centre-forward said. Nekounam, similarly has declined to go to the World Cup, Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.
The European Union and Britain slapped sanctions on more than 30 senior Iranian officials and organisations over the crackdown.
Iran, which has accused the United States and its allies of fomenting the unrest, threatened to “respond effectively and forcefully.” The US also condemned Iran’s cross-border drone and missile strikes on Monday against Iraq-based Kurdish opposition groups that Tehran accuses of stoking what it calls the “riots” at home.