Iranians strike on anniversary of 2019 crackdown
Shops were shuttered across Iran on Tuesday after organizers of protests over Mahsa Amini’s death called for demonstrations to mark three years since a lethal crackdown on unrest sparked by a fuel price hike.
The call to commemorate those slain in the 2019 crackdown is expected to give new momentum to the protests that have roiled Iran for two months since Amini died on September 16 after the notorious morality police arrested her for allegedly flouting the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Young activists have appealed for people to “conquer” the streets in Ahvaz, Isfahan, Mashhad, Tabriz and other cities, including the
capital Tehran.
“We will start from high schools, universities and markets, and continue with neighborhood centered gatherings to move to main squares of cities,” they said in a call posted online.
Shops were shuttered in Tehran’s famed Grand Bazaar, as well as in the cities of Kerman, Mahabad, Rasht, Shiraz and Yazd, according to videos published by the 1500tasvir social media channel.
“Death to the dictator,” commuters were heard chanting in a Tehran train station, using a slogan directed at Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in another online video.
Striking steel workers were seen gathering in a car park in the historic city of Isfahan, in other footage shared by 1500tasvir. Agence France-Presse (AFP) was unable to immediately verify the videos.
Work stoppages were being observed in 16 cities in Amini’s home province of Kurdistan in western Iran, said the Oslo-based Hengaw human rights group.
They included Baneh, Divandarreh, Kamiyaran, Marivan and the flashpoint city of Sanandaj.
The latest call for protests aims to mark the third anniversary of the start of “Bloody Aban” — or Bloody November — when a surprise fuel price hike sparked bloody street violence.
The days of unrest in Iran from November 15 saw police stations attacked, shops looted, and banks and gasoline stations torched as authorities imposed a weeklong internet blackout.
Amnesty International said at least 304 people were killed in the unrest that quickly spread to more than 100 urban centers across the Islamic republic.
A tribunal convened in London this year by various human rights groups said expert evidence suggested that the death toll was likely far higher, possibly even as high as 1,515.
The anonymous youth groups behind the latest protest calls have been mobilizing since Amini’s death.
Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights said last Saturday that security forces had killed at least 326 people so far in the ongoing crackdown on the Amini protests.
The unrest was fanned by fury over the dress rules for women, but has grown into a broad movement against the theocracy that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
They have shown no sign of abating despite the Iranian authorities’ use of lethal force to confront what rights groups say have been largely peaceful protests and a campaign of mass arrests that has snared activists, journalists and lawyers.
Among them is prominent freedom of speech campaigner Hossein Ronaghi who, according to Iran’s judiciary, had been taken back to prison after being hospitalized.
Fears had been raised over the health of the 37-year-old Ronaghi, who launched a hunger strike after his incarceration in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on September 24.