The mobilizations for the death of Mahsa Amini enter their second week and add up to dozens of deaths while the Government maintains its heavy-handed policy
His name was Hadis Najafi, he was 22 years old and was shot six times in Karaj, on the outskirts of Tehran, according to his family. Hadis had become one of the symbols of the revolt against compulsory hijab use due to viral footage of her pulling her blonde hair into a ponytail before a protest. A gesture so common in other parts of the world becomes a challenge when it comes to the streets of Iran and the security forces facing the most serious social unrest in the last three years.
Iran is experiencing its second week of mobilizations after the death of the young Mahsa Amini at the hands of the Moral Police. There are already at least 35 dead, according to official data, but activists and human rights organizations say they count many more. The authorities have warned that they will not tolerate more chaos in the streets and consider that the mobilizations are “encouraged by external enemies to overthrow the Islamic republic.” There are more than fifty cities that have registered violent clashes with the Police, from Iranian Kurdistan, the area where Amini was originally from, to the main arteries of Tehran.
Every day that passes it is more difficult to obtain information due to the internet cuts imposed by the regime to make it difficult for the protesters to communicate. To this must be added the arrest of local reporters, as warned by the Association of Journalists of Iran, which asked the authorities for the immediate release of colleagues arrested while covering the protests. “They were carrying out their professional duties,” reads the association’s statement, which also reports that their homes were searched by the Police.
Artists and athletes
In the absence of political leaders in the streets capable of leading the anger of thousands of Iranians and offering an alternative to the Islamic system, people from the world of culture or sports show their support for the demonstrations on social networks. Two-time Oscar-winning film director Asghar Farhadi took to Twitter to call on “all artists, filmmakers, intellectuals and human rights defenders around the world to show solidarity with the people of Iran by shooting videos or writing messages of support. From the world of music came the support of Kayhan Kalhor, who denounced that the Instagram social network censored part of his content, in which he showed his support for the demonstrations and criticized the regime.
National soccer legend Ali Karimi, with a past at teams like Bayern Munich, shared an image of a number of VPN providers that Iranians can use to bypass government-imposed internet disruption and directed a tweet at the military. which obtained more than 140,000 ‘likes’ in which he wrote: «A homeland awaits you. Don’t let innocent blood be spilled.” The Revolutionary Guards called for Karimi’s arrest because of his public support for the protests, but Karimi has long lived outside the Islamic republic.
The European Union also reacted after ten days of protests and the Head of Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, stated that he hopes that “Iran will clarify the number of deaths and arrests, release all non-violent protesters and provide due process to all arrested. Furthermore, Mahsa Amini’s death must be properly investigated and anyone responsible must be held accountable.”
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