Protests in Iran against the government spread to more than five dozen cities on Friday even as authorities escalated a crackdown that is believed to have killed dozens of people and made arrests of prominent activists and journalists, according to human rights groups and media outlets.
Internet access – especially on mobile apps widely used for communication – continues to be disrupted or completely blocked, affecting Iranians’ ability to communicate with each other and the world outside. News from Iran flooded in with a delay of many hours.
In many cities, including the capital Tehran, security forces Open fire on the crowd. On Ferdous Avenue and at the Shahrak Ekbatan apartment complex in Tehran, forces opened fire on windows; In the city of Rasht, they threw tear gas at apartments, according to witnesses and videos on social media.
Iranian state media on Friday said at least 35 people had been killed in the unrest, but human rights groups said the number could be much higher. The previous death toll of 17 was reported by state media including at least five members of security services.
Videos posted online and the scale of response from authorities are difficult to independently verify, but videos and photos submitted by witnesses to The New York Times generally match those posted. widely available online.
Understanding the protests in Iran
Protests erupted after the death of a young woman in the custody of Iran’s ethics police, who enforce the country’s strict Islamic rules.
According to reports to the northwest of Iran, the small city of Oshnavieh fell into the hands of the protesters as local security forces retreated after days of intense fighting, said the editor of a Kurdish news site.
“I can confirm the city is under the control of the people,” editor Ammar Golie, an Iranian-Kurdish in Germany who edits the NNS Roj news site, said in a phone interview. . He added, “The remaining security forces have retreated to an old fort located in the heart of the city.”
Mr. Golie said he has been in regular contact with residents of Oshnavieh, West Azerbaijan province and has a population of 40,000 ethnic Kurds. He said residents had set up barricades at the entrance to the city’s only two roads.
Mr. Golie said local contacts had told him that an army battalion and a unit of the Revolutionary Guards Corps from the nearest city, Oroumiyeh, had been deployed to quell the protests and bring Oshnavieh back.
“We are hoping for blood to be shed,” Mr. Golie said. “It was an extremely stressful situation.”
The nationwide uprising was sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Aminiin the custody of the ethics police on September 16. Ms. Amini was arrested for allegedly violating the headscarf rule. Women led protests this past week, some tore off their headscarves, waved them and burned them as the men cheered them on.
For seven days and nights, Iranians fed up with oppressive laws and oppressed by a tank economy took to the streets, faced with bullets, tear gas, beatings and arrests to send a message to the clerics, who have led the country for 43 years. They chanted an end to the rule of the Islamic Republic, according to witnesses and videos shared on social media.
In Tehran, protests have changed from mass gatherings at designated landmarks to smaller prison cells spreading in most of the vicinity – including the affluent northern region. and the southern part of the working class.
In the religious city of Qum, the power center of the Shiite faith and the government’s power base, videos posted on social media showed never-before-seen scenes: young women removing their headscarves and crowds chanted against the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and called him the “shame” of the nation.
President Ebrahim Raisi, upon returning to Iran from New York, where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly, warned Friday in a speech at Tehran airport that the government would “not allow, during under any circumstances, for the security of the country and the community. be dangerous. “
The Intelligence Ministry sent a text message to all mobile phone users warning that anyone who participates in the protests it believes are organized by Iran’s enemies will be punished. according to Shariah law. Copies of the texts were shared with The New York Times and also posted on social media.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said there are at least 11 journalistsincluding Niloofar Hamedi, the reporter for the daily Shargh who first reported on Amini’s case and interviewed her family in the hospital, were arrested.
Among the activists arrested were Majid Tavakoli and sociologist Mohammadreza Jalaeipour, the organization said.
