Iran: Protests Continue Despite Regime’s Threats Of More Executions – OpEd

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Iran’s nationwide uprising is marking its 87th day on Sunday as cities across the country continue to see protesters taking to the streets and chanting slogans against the mullahs’ dictatorship. Regime authorities had Mohsen Shekari hanged on Thursday morning on charges of participating in recent protests as part of the ongoing Iranian uprising. Regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sought to install fear into the society and bring an end to the protests threatening the very core of his rule.

The Iranian people have responded by condemning Shekari’s execution and continuing their anti-regime demonstrations. State media in Iran and their social media affiliates continue to publish a stream of reports about more young protesters being sentenced to death as means to intimidate the general public.

Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 280 cities. Over 700 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 580 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.

Early Sunday morning, students of Allameh Tabataba’i University in Tehran were seen protesting the regime authorities’ refusal to allow suspended students back on campus.

Various reports indicate that the regime’s security forces are on high alert in different cities to prevent protests. In Isfahan, the regime has deployed a large number of security forces in streets to intimidate the public.

Initial reports on Saturday showed students at an all-girls technical school protesting and chanting anti-regime slogans, including “Death to the dictator!” and “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” Regime security forces eventually launched an attack targeting these protesting students.

In Isfahan, farmers were protesting yet again and demanding authorities address their concerns regarding their share of water for their lands. In Najafabad, the owners of stores that have recently been shuttered by authorities rallied outside the local governor’s office demanding the reopening of their stores.

In Tehran, storeowners on Manouchehri Street were on strike today while students of National and Khajeh Nasir Toosi universities were boycotting their classes and holding protest rallies.

The regime had dispatched a large contingent of security forces to Tehran’s Sattarkhan district to prevent protests from taking shape. Videos show security forces randomly beating and shooting at civilians. Sattarkhan has become a sensitive location for the regime since Thursday, after authorities executed 23-year-old Mohsen Shekari for taking part in protests in the district. The brutal execution, which violated even the regime’s own barbaric laws, has sparked outrage across the country. The people of Sattarkhan in particular have been taking to streets every day to protest the regime’s brutality and vow to avenge Shekari’s murder.

Despite heavy security measures, the people of Tehran held rallies in several locations, including Narmak, Sattarkhan, Naziabad, Jannat Abad, and Shariati Street. Protesters chanted anti-regime slogans and called on other citizens to join them in their rallies. The protesters have also been chanting:

“We want neither a shah nor a mullah!” “Damned be the ayatollah!”

There was also a large protest rally in Gohardasht, west of Tehran, where people gathered and chanted slogans against the regime and the brutal repression and execution of protesters.

Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi marked International Human Rights Day with a all on the global community to condemn the mullahs’ regime and take meaningful action to help the Iranian people in their ongoing uprising.

“On Human Rights Day, my country Iran, under the mullahs’ rule, is wounded by whips and bullets, battered by humiliation, slander, torture; its hands are tied, its feet in chains, and its head hanging from the gallows. Still, it is standing tall and roaring for a revolution,” she explained. The NCRI President-elect also wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on International Human Rights Day regarding the violent suppression of the nationwide uprising in Iran.

Freedom-loving Iranians and supporters of the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK have been holding various photo exhibitions, gatherings, and demonstrations in support of the Iranian people’s ongoing uprising. This campaign has since December 8, the day when Mohsen Shekari was executed, also focused on condemning this barbaric crime of the mullahs’ regime and raising awareness among the general public to call on their elected representatives to have their respective governments take meaningful action against Tehran’s rulers and the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

These gatherings have been taking place in Washington, Paris, London, Vienna, Toronto and Vancouver in Canada; Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö in Sweden; Berlin, Munich, Kassel, and Cologne in Germany; Geneva and Bern in Switzerland; Aarhus in Denmark, and other cities across the globe.

The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.

She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.


Mahmoud Hakamian writes for PMOI/MEK, where this article was published

Mahmoud Hakamian

Mahmoud Hakamian writes for The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mujahedin-e-Khalgh (MEK)

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