Iranians who oppose the regime face different attempts to be silenced. The public execution of demonstrators is the authorities’ main weapon against protests. Another less obvious measure is the incentive to the economic crisis, to put pressure on the population as a whole. The wave of mobilizations was stimulated by the death of young Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, during her arrest for not wearing a hijab (scarf).
“In recent weeks, there has been a noticeable drop in the number and size of violent demonstrations across the country,” analyzes Ali Alfoneh, an expert on Iran at the Gulf Institute in Washington, to the French newspaper. Le Figaro. “Workers in the industrial and service sectors did not join the protests and student demonstrations, central to the beginning of the movement, have also decreased significantly”, he concludes.
Seventeen people were sentenced to death due to the protests in the country, according to an AFP agency count, based on official information. Nearly 500 people were killed and around 20,000 were detained, according to the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights.
Among those convicted, four were executed, two had their death sentences confirmed, six are awaiting new trials and two others may appeal.
Iranian justice announced, last Saturday (7), the hanging of two men found guilty of having killed a paramilitary during the demonstrations.
In early December 2022, the first execution related to the protests was carried out. Mouses Shekari was convicted of wounding a security officer with a knife and blocking a street in Tehran, state news agency Tasnim reported.
The regime published a video of what it said was Shekari’s confession where he appears with a wound on his right cheek. The man admitted to having attacked a member of the Basij force (auxiliary force, engaged in activities such as internal security) with a knife and to having blocked a road with his motorcycle alongside one of his friends. Human rights groups, however, claimed that Shekari was tortured and forced to confess his crime.
Amnesty International characterizes the executions as “rogue trials designed to intimidate participants in the popular uprising that shook Iran”.
Economic crisis
“With sanctions, mismanagement and corruption, they reached the end of the abyss”, describes Austin Andrade, professor of History at Grupo Integrado de Educação. This economic mismanagement exacerbates the complicated situation in which the country has sunk since former US President Donald Trump abandoned, in 2018, the agreement between the countries signed three years earlier, and Iran began to receive severe sanctions from the United States.
“The population is very dissatisfied. It is an isolated country, with economic difficulties and an authoritarian regime. Unlike other moments of mobilization in the country in other years, this time there is greater resilience on the part of the demonstrators”, points out Andrew Traumann, PhD in History and professor of International Relations at UniCuritiba.
However, despite lasting, the movements lost strength and the economy plays a role in this. According to official data, in just a month and a half, the local currency fell by 40% and inflation rose by 50% between September and December, when the protests began. Even with conditions for an attempt to save the country’s economy – with the injection of dollars, for example, as the regime did in 2019 – the authorities did not take measures to prevent the fall of the rial.
“Demonstrations have subsided because people want to live,” explains Mohsen, a trader interviewed by figaro. “Before the poor could eat, today it is the greatest misery. Iranians are less vocal because they care about saving their families,” he concludes.
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