Posted Sep 30, 2022 10:14 AM
Iran is increasingly tightening repression. The country further stepped up pressure on celebrities and journalists on Thursday amid a wave of protests sparked by the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, days after she was arrested by vice police. The repression of this protest movement has already caused dozens of deaths since mid-September, prompting numerous condemnations abroad.
Iranian filmmakers, musicians, actors and athletes expressed solidarity with protesters, including the national football team whose players wore black tracksuits during anthems performed ahead of a game in Vienna against Senegal. “We are going to go after the celebrities who blew on the embers (of) the riots”, declared the governor of the province of Tehran, Mohsen Mansouri, quoted Thursday by the news agency Isna, in reference to the demonstrations.
Several dozen dead
Iran’s justice chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, also pointed to the celebrities: “Those who became famous thanks to the support of the system, during the difficult days, joined the enemy instead of being with the people. All must know that they must repay the material and spiritual damage caused to the people and the country,” he said.
For his part, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned that despite “the grief” aroused by Amini’s death, “no one was authorized to break the law and cause chaos”. A journalist who covered the funeral of Mahsa Amini was arrested Thursday, according to her lawyer. This arrest came after that of the journalist Nilufar Hamedi, of the daily “Shargh”, who had gone to the hospital where the young Kurd was in a coma and who had helped to publicize the affair.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) announced on Thursday that three more journalists – Farshid Ghorbanpour, Aria Jaffari and Mobin Balouch – had been arrested, bringing the total number of arrests to 28. According to the Iranian news agency Fars, about 60 people have been killed since protests began on September 16, while the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights has reported a death toll of at least 83.
Blaming the protests on outside forces, Iran on Wednesday carried out cross-border strikes that left 13 people dead in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, accusing armed opposition groups based there of fueling the unrest. An American national was killed in these strikes, according to American diplomacy. On Thursday, Iran summoned the French charge d’affaires, denouncing France’s “interference” in its internal affairs after Paris condemned the “violent repression” of the demonstrations.
“Ruthless Violence”
Demonstrations of solidarity with Iranian women are taking place around the world and rallies are still planned in 70 cities on Saturday. In Afghanistan, the Taliban dispersed Thursday a rally in front of the Iranian embassy in Kabul of Afghan women who came to support the Iranian demonstrators, whose struggle they say they share.
In a statement to the Fars news agency, intelligence agents of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, said they had arrested 50 members of “an organized network” behind the “riots in the Shia holy city of Qom. Amnesty International has criticized the “widespread practices of unlawful use of force and ruthless violence by security forces” in Iran.
SourceAFP
