Activists called for new anti-power demonstrations across Iran on Saturday, a month after the start of the protest movement sparked and bloodily repressed by the death of Mahsa Amini.
The protests were sparked after the September 16 death of this 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, who died three days after she was arrested by Tehran’s vice police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women, including wearing the veils.
The protest sparked solidarity rallies abroad and the international community condemned the crackdown, which NGOs say left more than 100 dead.
Iranian authorities say the young woman died of an illness and not “strokes,” according to a medical report denied by her father. Her cousin claimed she died after “a severe blow to the head.”
Ahead of the protests, the NetBlocks website reported a “new major internet traffic disruption in Iran” as of 2:30 a.m. QC on Saturday.
But despite the disruption and authorities’ blocking of access to the Instagram and WhatsApp apps, activists have launched an online call to protest themed “The beginning of the end!” Energy.
They encouraged young people and the Iranian people to demonstrate in places where the security forces are not present and chant “Death to the dictator” in a nod to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Amid calls for anti-power demonstrations, the Islamic Development Coordination Council, an official body, called on Iranians after evening prayers “to express their anger at the rioters and riots in the mosques in protest at the attacks by the Iranian to counter enemies”.
Young women and students have been leading the demonstrations since September 16: they chant anti-government slogans, take off their headscarves and face the security forces.
At least 108 people were killed in the raid, according to Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR).
Amnesty International said at least 23 children between the ages of 11 and 17 “were killed by security forces”. And hundreds of people were arrested.
Iran’s head of diplomacy, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, condemned the policy of double standards, saying on Friday: “Who would have thought that the death of a single girl would matter so much to Westerners? What have they done about the hundreds of thousands of martyrs and dead in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon?”.
Westerners continue to support the protesters.
On Friday, US President Joe Biden, whose country is a sworn enemy of Iran, said he was “standing with the citizens, the brave women of Iran,” and urged the government to “end violence against its own citizens.” .
Iranian leaders have accused the United States of destabilizing their country by fomenting “riots” and have denounced the crackdown as interference in their affairs.
While the European Union is preparing sanctions against Iran on Monday, Iran’s top diplomat Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called on the EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell to take a “realistic approach” in a telephone conversation on Friday.
Mr Borrell told him on Twitter that “the violent crackdown must end immediately. The demonstrators must be freed”.
After a massive campaign to arrest artists, dissidents, journalists and athletes, Iranian filmmaker Mani Haghighi has claimed his country has banned him from entering the UK for the London Film Festival because of his support for the protests.
In a video message posted to Twitter on Friday, he called the protests a “great moment in history.”
Elsewhere in Iran, in Zahedan, capital of southeastern Sistan-Balochistan province, security forces killed at least 93 people during protests over the alleged rape of a young girl by a police officer in late September and early October, according to IHR.
The protests in Iran are the largest since 2019 against rising gasoline prices in the oil-rich country.