Iran leader praises force tasked with quashing protests : NPR
Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran via AP
BAGHDAD — Iran’s supreme leader praised paramilitary volunteers tasked with quelling dissent on Saturday in a televised speech as dozens of doctors The faculty warned that an increasing number of protesters had been blinded by security forces during anti-government protests.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke to members of the Basij, the volunteer paramilitary wing of the elite Revolutionary Guards, and reiterated unsupported claims that protesters rallying across the country are “tools” of the United States and their “mercenaries”.
“(The) Basij should not forget that the main clash is with global hegemony,” Khamenei said, referring to the United States.
Praising Basij’s social and military virtues over the decades, Khamenei said these forces “sacrifice themselves to save the people from a group of rioters and mercenaries”, referring to recent unrest across the country. “They sacrificed themselves to confront oppression.”
Basij played a leading role in suppressing protests that began on September 17, sparked by the death of a young woman while in the custody of Iran’s ethics police. Her death sparked months of protests over the country’s mandatory hijab but quickly became one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the tumultuous years following the Revolution. Islamic network in 1979.
Protests continued on Saturday at several universities in the capital Tehran and other cities, according to social media. Due to severe nationwide repression by Iranian security forces, protests have become more scattered. Protesters have also called for trade strikes.
Khamenei’s comments came a day after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met with a group of Basij members and praised their efforts in maintaining security, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Iran’s brutal crackdown on dissidents has come under criticism, with at least 448 people killed and more than 18,000 arrested in protests and a violent response by security forces. then, according to human rights activists in Iran, a group oversees the protests. Iran has not provided a number of deaths or a number of arrests.
In a letter, 140 ophthalmologists raised concerns about the growing number of patients suffering serious eye injuries from being shot with metal pellets and rubber bullets, according to news site Sobhema and Iran International as well. like other Iranian social media sites in favor of reform. “Unfortunately, in many cases, the blow left one or both eyes blind,” the letter to the head of the country’s association of ophthalmologists read.
The doctors asked the head of the Iranian Ophthalmology Association to convey their concerns about the irreparable damage caused by the security forces to the concerned agencies.
It was the second letter from eye doctors expressing concern about police brutality and the shooting of rubber bullets in the eyes of protesters and others. An earlier letter was signed by more than 200 ophthalmologists.
Last week, videos went viral on social media of law student Ghazal Ranjkesh in the southern city of Banda Abbas, who lost an eye after being shot with a metal pellet on his way home from work.