"This Time Feels Different": Iran's Women & Youth-led Protests Grow amid Brutal Crackdown

Anti-government protests in Iran, first sparked last month by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, have moved into their fourth week. The youth- and women-led protests cross class and ethnic divides, and the demands have grown in scale and scope, with many, even in the clerical community, now calling for the complete abolition of the Islamic Republic. Many sectors of society, including businesses and unions, have also joined in protest, with oil workers from one of the country's major refineries going on strike Monday. Iranian authorities have launched a violent assault on protesters in response, explains Amnesty International's Raha Bahreini, with security forces shooting live ammunition into crowds to disperse the protests, leaving thousands injured and at least 144 victims dead, 24 of them children. The government violence is "indicative of just what a threat the regime believes these protests are," argues Iranian American scholar Reza Aslan, who says that despite numerous revolutions in Iran's history, "this time feels different."

The mullahs should be toppled. Death to the Islamic Republic of Iran! The mere concept of a theocracy is a nonsense anyway. The theocracy in Iran is especially nonsensical, since no god worthy of being worshipped would ever condone such brutality towards his creation. This mullocracy is nothiing but a cruel and corrupt regime. The good and proud people of Iran deserve better, they deserve their liberty. – © Mark Alexander

This is Mojtaba Khamenei on Wikipedia.

Iran: Hacktivists Target State TV: What Is Their Message to the Supreme Leader? | DW News

Digital activists supporting Iran's wave of women-led protests have hacked a state television live news broadcast, superimposing flames on the face of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In the meantime, a video shared on social media also appears to show female students chanting "Raisi get lost" during a visit to a university by the country's president, Ebrahim Raisi. It follows four weeks of protest after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while she was in the custody of Iran's morality police.

Iranians Detail Atrocities in Their Home Country

This weekend thousands of people protested in central London against the human rights violations, and atrocities, being committed in Iran - particularly against young women by the morality police.

Down with the Mullahs! Down with the Islamic Republic of Iran! Liberation for Iranians! Let women dress as they wish! Let the people live as they wish! Let the people believe what they wish to believe! Theocracy? What a sick joke! – © Mark Alexander

Iran Rises Up: Can the Mullahs Be Toppled? | to the point

Protests in Iran are gaining momentum. Led initially by women and girls crying “Woman, life, liberty” after the death of a young Kurdish women detained for wearing her head scarf “inappropriately”, the uprising has drawn thousands of others onto the streets. The protesters chant “Death to the Dictator” – calling for the end of the repressive clerical regime. Which is hitting back hard – its violent crackdown has killed or detained hundreds of civilians, journalists, and activists and shut down the internet. Today we’re asking: Iran rises up: Can the mullahs be toppled?“

More on this story here.

Women around the World Cut Their Hair in Solidarity with Iranian Protesters | DW News

In Iran, there has been no let-up in the anti-government protests that have been sweeping the country. The unrest was triggered by death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died last month in the custody of the country's so-called morality police. She was arrested for allegedly violating Iran's strict Islamic dress code. Her death has drawn international condemnation and demonstrations of solidarity – including by female celebrities and politicians who cut off locks of their hair in a symbolic act.

Death to the Islamic Republic of Iran! Say yes to women’s rights! Say yes to gays’ rights! Say yes to freedom! Down with the Mullahs! Down with those damn stupid hijabs! Liberate the people! Let the people taste freedom! It looks increasingly as if the Mullahs’ days are numbered anyway. Alhamdulillah! – © Mark Alexander

Iran Protests: Unrest Continues over the Death of Mahsa Amini

Protests in ran turn violent as demonstrations continue over death of Mahsa Amini two weeks ago. The daughter of Iran's former president has been arrested for inciting crowds. Mahsa Amini was arrested by so-called morality police for not properly wearing hijab.

Iran Protests against Mullah-regime Enter Tenth Day as Death Toll Grows | DW News

Human rights groups say protests continued for a tenth night in Iran over the death of a woman in the custody of the country's hardline Islamic morality police. They're defying authorities, who have ordered a crackdown on so-called rioters without leniency. Videos reportedly filmed on Sunday show women burning their headscarves, and large crowds of demonstrators in several cities. There have also been large pro-government rallies. The NGO Iran Human Rights says at least 57 people have died in protests in recent days. Public anger was sparked by the death of a 22-year old woman who was arrested for failing to wear her headscarf as prescribed.

Shouldn’t we be saying 'Death to the Islamic Republic of Iran'? That’s what these people have been saying about America. How many thousands of times have we heard these mullahs chant “Death to America”?

It is high time for the nonsense of Iran’s so-called “morality police” to end. Iranians deserve much, much better than this. Enough of the BS!

Wouldn’t Iranians have been far better off as subjects of the Peacock Throne, the Iranian Imperial Throne? Wouldn't they be better off today being ruled by the Shah? Should the Peacock Throne, perhaps, be reinstated?

This theocracy is brutal. Iranians have had enough of this cr**. Iranians deserve better. Power to the downtrodden Iranians! – © Mark Alexander

Den Ajatollahs bleibt nur die Gewalt: Die Proteste nach dem Tod der jungen Mahsa Amini nähern sich einer kritischen Masse. Aber das Regime ist weder zu Reformen noch zu Kompromissen bereit. »

‘They Have Nothing to Lose’: Why Young Iranians Are Rising Up Once Again

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Amid growing repression, a sickly economy and bleak prospects, the death of one young woman was all it took.


Dozens have reportedly been killed by security forces as demonstrations continue to spread across Iran. Protests began after Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police. | Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The 22-year-old woman emerged from the Tehran subway, her dark hair covered with a black head scarf and the lines of her body obscured by loose clothing, when the capital city’s Guidance Patrol spotted her. They were members of Iran’s notorious morality police, enforcers of the conservative Islamic dress and behavior rules that have governed daily life for Iranians since the 1979 revolution, and newly energized under a hard-line president who took office last year.

By their standards, Mahsa Amini was improperly dressed, which could mean something as simple as a wisp of hair protruding from her head scarf. They put her in a van and drove her away to a detention center, where she was to undergo re-education. Three days later, on Sept. 16, she was dead.

Now, over eight days of rage, exhilaration and street battles, the most significant outpouring of anger with the ruling system in more than a decade, her name is everywhere. Iranian protesters in dozens of cities have chanted “women, life and freedom” and “death to the dictator,” rejecting the Iranian Republic’s theocratic rule by targeting one of its most fundamental and divisive symbols — the ailing supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In several of the videos of the uprising that have torn across social media, women rip off their head scarves and burn them in street bonfires, including in deeply religious cities such as Qum and Mashhad. In one, a young woman atop a utility cabinet cuts off her hair in front of a crowd of roaring demonstrators. In another, young women dare to dance bareheaded in front of the riot police. » | Vivian Yee and Farnaz Fassihi | Published: Saturday, September 24, 2022; updated: Sunday, September 25, 2022

Related here and here and here and here (auf Deutsch).

Are the Islamic Republic of Iran's days numbered, perhaps? Is freedom on the horizon for Iranians at last? – © Mark Alexander