Iranian activists vow to ‘destroy Islamic republic’ by exposing regime abuses
Network of tech-savvy volunteers counters claims of foreign plot by sharing videos of brutal crackdown
WHEN videos posted on Friday appeared to show the ancestral home of the late founder of the Iranian Islamic republic on fire, state media derided the news as “a lie”.
But footage posted by 1500tasvir, an activist network, told a different story.
The incident occurred on Thursday evening in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s birth town of Khomein, the group said, as strikes and protests over the death of Mahsa Amini shook Iran for a ninth week.
They shared footage showing flames amid the distinctive arches and other features that matched file photographs of the residence. The truth was out.
In a country where free media is banned, 1500tasvir has emerged as a hub for independent information, developing a reputation as a dependable network. On an ordinary day, the group might share hundreds of videos to Instagram and Twitter, where its accounts have grown to more than 1.5 million and 350,000 followers. No other group has as wide a network of coverage of the protest movement.
The Sunday Telegraph interviewed two members of 1500tasvir, who spoke anonymously, to show how a small group of young volunteers is challenging the state security apparatus. “The only purpose we have is to harm the Islamic republic, in the end destroy it, as all people in Iran want and that’s why people trust us,” one activist said.
The group, whose name means 1500 windows, formed after Iran’s Bloody November protests in 2019 with the goal of creating an accurate tally of protesters killed by security forces.
Those protests had erupted nationwide after a rapid increase in fuel prices but authorities had responded with a week-long crackdown and near-total internet blackout. While this restricted coverage of the brutal response, activists from 1500tasvir documented the death of at least 1,500 protesters, hence the name.
The group’s secret volunteer network was well established when protests reignited in September after Ms Amini’s death . Its activists challenged the state media’s narrative of rioters, terrorists and agents in the pay of a western plot to foment civil war.
This year’s demonstrations have not been as deadly as 2019, nor as widespread as the 2009 Green Movement, which mobilised up to three million people at a time and lasted six months.
But the protests show no sign of abating, and what distinguishes them, activists say, is the brazenness of protesters calling for the overthrow of the regime.
“People are angrier,” one of the members said. “This time people understood from these experiences that they should defend themselves, they shouldn’t just stand there and be killed.”
They are also younger. “In 2009 it was over 25-year-olds,” the activist said. “This time it’s about teenagers, 14, 15 years old. It’s their fight.” Of 362 deaths documented by the group Human Rights Activists in Iran, 56 were of minors, including an eight-year-old killed in Zahedan last month and a nineyear-old killed in Izeh on Wednesday.
It is documenting deaths such as these that motivates 1500tasvir. “One of the reasons people trust us is because we do not consider ourselves journalists, we’re a part of the people and we document people in their routine life,” the activist said.
The group says it is independent and not funded by any other states. It has gained enough credibility with Twitter and Instagram to obtain blue tick verification. The goal is to support ordinary Iranians protesting and amplify their voices, another member of the group said.
“The most important thing for us is [the] people in the street,” that member said. “The people needed their voices to be heard internationally.”
The movement is being inspired, amplified and assisted by digital technology. An arms race is under way between protesters reliant on access to the internet to share information and get their message out and authorities intent on thwarting them, throttling their access and spying on them online.
Authorities are so concerned by what citizens are doing online that security forces conduct random searches of people’s devices. But heavy-handed approaches like this are only hardening the resolve of protesters, they said.
“The world is seeing the truth of the protesters, how brave they are and how cruel the government can be.”
Like many in Iran who now believe the government cannot be reformed, the first activist predicted its downfall was inevitable. “The people will be the winners, it’s just a matter of time.”