Iran organizes more counter-demonstrations as protests continue

Created: 06/10/2022 04:54

By: Lukas Zigo, Moritz Serif, Johanna Soll, Stefan Krieger

Protests continue in Iran.

Meanwhile, the regime is organizing further counter-demonstrations via state media.

The news ticker.

• Protests against the mullahs' regime have been raging in Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

• Free again:

  soccer player Hossein Mahini released on bail

• Iran's police crack down:

  Blogger arrested at her birthday party

+++ 9:06 p.m.:

The Iranian regime has organized further counter-demonstrations in support of it.

The protests that broke out after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody on September 16 have been going on for almost three weeks.

The pro-government demonstrations in northern Tehran began early Wednesday afternoon (local time) and are expected to last several hours.

As before, they were announced via state media and bulk SMS and are said to condemn "the recent unrest and the crimes of inciters".

Ali Fadavi, the second-in-command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday that the "average age of many of those recently arrested is 15" and that many of them have "fallen victim" to a narrative circulating on social networks and foreign media will be spread.

+++ 19:10:

The judiciary in Iran has ruled out a connection between the death of a young person and the ongoing anti-government protests in the country.

No gunshot wounds were found on the body of Nika Shahkarami, who was killed in September.

The incident has "nothing to do with the recent disturbances".

Meanwhile, new images of protests by young people against the Islamic Republic's state power keep emerging.

Allegations had previously been raised in online networks that security forces had killed Shahkarami.

Iran's Tasnim news agency reported eight people had been arrested in connection with her death.

The investigation into the case continued, the forensic experts had not yet submitted their final report to the judicial authorities.

The BBC Persian broadcaster and the Iran Wire news portal had previously reported that the authorities had seized the young woman's body and buried her secretly on Monday to prevent a burial that could fuel further protests.

+++ 5:33 p.m .: In

solidarity with the women and girls demonstrating against repression in Iran, more than 50 French actresses and other celebrities cut off strands of hair.

"For freedom," says actress Juliette Binoche at the beginning of a two-minute video that circulated on the Internet on Wednesday.

Then she gathers her hair with one hand and cuts off about 15 centimeters of her braid in front of the camera.

The actresses Isabelle Adjani, Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Isabelle Huppert also grab scissors in the video and cut more or less long strands of their hair.

The singers Jane Birkin and Angèle can also be seen.

According to the credits, the French lawyer Richard Sedillot initiated the action.

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Intermediate texts tell the story of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the moral police in Tehran on September 13 and died three days later.

"She was only accused of not wearing the headscarf correctly," the video says.

"She died because she showed a few strands of hair."

+++ 3:50 p.m .:

Iran has warned the European Union against “imprudent measures” in connection with the ongoing protests in the country.

"If the EU takes hasty and ill-considered action (regarding the protests), it should be prepared for Iran to take effective countermeasures," Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian said in a phone call with his Italian counterpart Luigi Di Maio on Wednesday.

Iran respects the demands of its people, but not riots organized by foreign countries and terrorists.

"The Iranian people will never allow foreign countries to use such methods to endanger the country's independence and territorial integrity," the Iranian chief diplomat said, according to the Isna news agency.

+++ 2:00 p.m .:

The protest against the government in Iran always spreads to the country’s schools.

Videos and photos published via Twitter allegedly show Iranian schoolgirls who have taken off their headscarves and yell "Death to the dictator".

The students are said to have expelled the responsible education director and "took over the school".

The authenticity of the videos and photos cannot be confirmed without a doubt.

+++ 11.40 a.m .:

More than 600 cultural workers such as the actress Iris Berben, the literature Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek and the author Carolin Emcke have expressed their support in an open letter to the protesters in Iran.

“The call for a feminist revolution in Iran is loud and clear.

We see your courageous resistance, we hear your determined voices.

We admire your courage and your resistance,” it says.

The letter is not addressed to the federal government or international political institutions, as is usual with similar formats, but to the protesters themselves, the initiators explained in a press release.

000_32KQ7UQ.jpg © afp

Protests in Iran: Hossein Mahini free on bail

+++ 10.30 a.m .:

The Iranian footballer Hossein Mahini, who was arrested because of his support for the system-critical protests, has been released on bail, according to media reports.

The former national player was released from prison on Wednesday night on bail equivalent to 30,000 euros and has since returned home, the sports portal

Mahini, 36, was arrested last week for condemning the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody and supporting the protests that followed.

His arrest caused waves in Iran and prompted nationwide rallies in solidarity with the former captain of 14-time champions Persepolis Tehran.

The Iranian national team also showed solidarity.

Protests in Iran: British ambassador summoned

+++ 8.25 a.m .:

Iran has again summoned the British ambassador in Tehran in connection with the ongoing system-critical protests.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the British government was accused of illegitimate interference and spreading false and inciting information about the protests.

By publishing such information, London was involved in the "staging" of Iranian opposition groups in Britain against the Islamic Republic, it said.

The British ambassador was summoned last week because of the critical reports from London-based Persian-language news channels.

Norway's ambassador and the charge d'affaires at the French embassy in Tehran were also summoned to the Foreign Ministry for interfering in the country's internal affairs.

Protests in Iran: USA plans further sanctions

Update from Wednesday, October 5, 7:20 a.m .:

Because of the ongoing violence against the protests in Iran, the United States is considering further sanctions.

"We will continue to hold Iranian officials accountable and support Iranians' right to protest freely," President Joe Biden said.

Amnesty International writes that 52 people have been killed by state security forces during protests in Iran.

There are also hundreds of serious injuries to complain about.

According to information from Amnesty International, the General Headquarters issued an order for the armed forces to proceed with all severity against the demonstrators.

Iran: Italian food blogger is in prison

First report from Tuesday, October 4th:

Rome – Alberto and Miriam Piperno are sitting in their bookshop in the south center of Rome.

But her thoughts are not on recommending good reading to customers.

The couple's 30-year-old daughter, Alessia, a well-known travel and food blogger, is being held in a Tehran prison.

Her parents were ordered by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to avoid reporters.

Even before they were called to silence, Alberto posted a plea for help on Facebook with a photo his daughter recently posted from Tehran, where she has been staying for the past three months.

"This girl is Alessia Piperno and she is my daughter," he wrote in the now-deleted Facebook post on Sunday (October 2, 2022).

"I received a call this morning.

She cried and let us know that she is in prison(…) She was arrested by the police along with her friends while celebrating her birthday.

It was only a few words, but they were desperate.

She asked for help.”

Iran's vice squad cracks down on protests

Several foreign nationals have been arrested in the crackdown on protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died on September 13 in the custody of Iran's notorious vice squad.

Before her arrest, Piperno had posted about the protests, recalling the Italian partisans' fight against the fascist regime at the end of World War II with their protest song Bella Ciao.

"A 22-year-old girl was killed by Iranian police for improperly wearing the hijab," she wrote in mid-September.

"The truth is, that girl could have been me, or my friend Hanieh, or one of the women I met on this journey.

Hijab in Iran is not synonymous with religion, but with government.” She continues: “Every woman must deprive herself of her femininity, hide her beautiful features and the shapes of her body, in order not to risk ending up in prison or else worse being flogged 70 times.”

"I feel part of it all, I feel part of these girls who are fighting for their rights, who are demonstrating for their freedom, but who are ultimately forced to hide in a blind spot," Piperno posted of the protests.

Iran - Italian blogger in custody: "I'm afraid I can't get out, help me"

Alberto Piperno writes that his daughter told him they were not told why they were arrested.

However, nine others were taken into custody with her.

"I'm fine, but there are people here who say they've been in jail for months and for no reason," she told her father, according to his post.

"I'm afraid I can't get out, help me."

The blogger's latest Instagram post showed her birthday party at what appeared to be a private home in Tehran.

The five women pictured have their heads uncovered.

Piperno wrote: "These years were the most beautiful of my life, the most lived, in which I learned and unlearned so much, in which I met wonderful people and friends and in which I discovered the true beauty of our planet.

The world and its people have given me more than I could ask for, day after day, year after year.” A few hours later she was in prison.

Italian blogger showed markets and mosques in Iran

Her earlier contributions show her at various markets and mosques in Iran.

Many of her videos show her cultural awareness, e.g.

B. how she wraps her hair according to the laws.

She had not posted any pictures of the protests, but had written about them.

"I don't think I'll ever forget that first night," she wrote a few days after the protests began.

"We had run to the hostel with our hearts in our throats when gunshots rang out behind us and the smell of gas filled the air.

(...) A mess I didn't know what it really was until this day.

I closed the dorm door as people screamed in the streets.”

The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed her arrest to the

news portal , but did not provide any details on the measures taken to ensure her freedom.

In many of her posts, she received harsh criticism as to why she was in Iran at all.

A number of commentators write that she deserves it.

"We Europeans know nothing about these people, the messages that reach us are retouched and we have become accustomed to marching like puppets and believing everything we are told," she wrote a week ago.

“Here, however, people are tired of being puppets and that is why thousands of people are taking to the streets to protest.

They demonstrate for their freedom.

women, men, young people and old people.

And every one of them, every single one, is risking his own life when he takes to the streets." (lz)