Iran International
Iran's Security forces attacked protesters Saturday after the burial of a young woman who died following a brain injury while in the custody of hijab police.
Footage from social media shows riot police directly aiming to fire at protesters and throwing stones at them outside the city governor's office where they had gathered chanting anti-government slogans. Gunshots are clearly heard in videos posted on social media which also show the use of tear gas against protesters.
Originally from Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, known as Zhina to family, collapsed at a detention center two hours after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran. She passed away Friday afternoon at Kasra Hospital in northern Tehran.
A hospital source told Iran International Saturday evening that her brain tissue had been seriously damaged because of multiple blows to the head and there was no chance of surgery.
The source said authorities demanded that she be kept alive for longer than 24 hours to circumvent a legal requirement for an investigation by the coroner.
According to social media reports, several protesters were injured with shotgun birdshots. In one of the videos protesters are seen rushing a young man with head injuries to a nearby hospital. He has been identified as Kian Derakhshan and is still in hospital in critical condition.
Hengaw Human Rights Organization, a Kurdish rights group, has identified another young man seriously wounded by security forces in Saqqez as Parsa Sehat.
Protesters in Saqqez chanted “Down With the Dictator” and “Our Shame, Our Foolish Leader” at the burial ceremony attended by thousands of locals and later outside the governor’s office and a large banner with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s photo was set on fire.
“Zhina was martyred. She was martyred for all the young people of this country and has opened the road to freedom for all of us,” her aunt wailed and cried in Kurdish at her grave as seen in one of the videos posted on social media. “Our darling Zhina, you will not die. Your name will become a symbol,” a temporary stone to mark the young woman’s grave read.
Activists say the family resisted pressure from security and intelligence forces who wanted to bury their daughter under the cover of darkness to avoid a gathering of people at the cemetery where many of the female participants in the ceremony later removed their headscarves and waved them chanting slogans against compulsory hijab.
Social media reports also indicate that security forces fired tear gas at protesters in Sanandaj, capital of Kurdistan Province, where thousands of angry residents took to the street Saturday evening to protest the young woman’s death in custodyand against forced hijab for which she was arrested.
“Saqqez is not alone, Sanandaj Stands With It,” Protesters in Sanandaj chanted in the local Kurdish language. They also shouted “scoundrels” in Persian at security forces.
According to social media reports, the government has dusruptd internet access in the Kurdish cities of Saqqez, Baneh, Marivan, and Sanandaj. Global internet watchdog Netblocks also said Friday evening it had registered a significant internet outage in Tehran with real time network data showing connectivity at 67% of ordinary levels amid protests over Amini’s death in the capital which could affect coverage of events on the ground.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman visiting Tehran from her native Kurdistan province was arrested by a hijab police patrol for not covering her hair properly. Immediately after her detention she received a severe head trauma and when two hours later she was transferred to hospital she was already in coma and brain dead.
Part of the political elite has shown rare sympathy for a citizen that many people see as the victim of the regime’s policies and the brutality of its agents. But judging by reactions on social media, not many people believe in these expressions of sympathy, some saying that politicians are after gaining credit from the incident.
Some politicians have criticized the hijab patrols, stopping women on the streets for their loose headscarves, but many on social media say the problem has gone beyond that and it is the clerical regime that is the root of this and similar draconian measures.
Nevertheless, many hardliners are defiant and defend the regime in the tragic incident.
Vice President Ensieh Khazali who has been under attack in recent days for her son having emigrated to Canada, denied the existence of hijab squads which are more than visible in the Iranian streets.
Although Iran's reformists have at times reacted to social events, this is the first time hardliners such as Khazali feel the responsibility to be accountable, but they still evade genuine regrets and express support for the wrong side of the argument.
Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi wrote in a tweet that he has appointed one of his deputies to investigate the case. Many to his tweet, often harshly criticizing the way the government is handling the case and the issue of hijab and civil liberties in general.
IRGC-linked Fars news agency tried in an utterly fabricated report to whitewash the event by quoting unnamed "reliable sources" as saying that the young woman was ill before being arrested and taken to the notorious Vozara police station in Tehran.
Some Iranian hardliner lawmakers have expressed often vague opinions about the alleged murder. Lawmaker Hassan Lotfi told reporters that he is too busy and that he has not heard about the death of the young woman. He further advised Iranian women to observe the compulsory hijab rules.
Several other conservative lawmakers such as hardliner Jalal Rashidi Kouchi have also promised to follow up the case and end such "bitter events that are against religious teachings". Social media users have reminded other netizens that the MPs made many promises on other matters but failed to stand by their word.
On the reform front former IRGC Navy Commander Hossein Alaei called for a thorough investigation of the hijab squads. He has cautiously suggested that the not only the squads have failed to change Iranian women's lifestyle, but their behavior has led some of women to oppose the compulsory hijab. He further suggested that the hijab squad personnel should be assigned to necessary jobs such as tackling theft and muggings in the streets.
Other pro-reform figures such as former President Mohammad Khatami and politician Gholamhossein Karbaschi seemed to be concerned more about what the tragic event can do to the prestige of the regime. Former lawmaker Ali Motahari also wrote that he feared that the death in custody of Mahsa Amini could portray the Iranian government internationally as an entity like the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Pro-reform commentator Majld Tafreshi also called for an investigation into the case and expressed concern that anti-Iran elements might take advantage of the event.
One of the reformist Green Movement leaders Mehdi Karroubi said in his condolence message that the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has obstructed all avenues for reforms in Iran.
Some former officials and presidential candidates such as Mohsen Mehralizadeh and Abdolnasser Hemmati also mildly expressed regret for what had happened but did not point fingers at anyone. Former Vice Pesident Es'haq Jahangiri simply said that "You cannot ignore such bitter events. Stop this kind of behavior," without making clear who he was addressing.
There was no mention that he would be speaking at the gathering when the news of his presence at the ceremony emerged. In fact, he was not sitting at his usual spot, facing the crowd. But according to media in Tehran, he gave a short address at the end, after the scheduled mourning ceremony.
The ceremony was held to mark Arbaeen with members of Basij militia from Iranian universities. Arbaeen is the 40th day after the death of the third Shiite Imam, Hussain Ibn Ali, who was killed in a power rivalry by the reigning caliph in a clash in Karbala in 680 AD.
According to the official news agency IRNA, in his short address Khamenei preached about Arbaeen and its significance and urged the Basij students to keep the Shia tradition alive.
The Iranian leader’s official website, Khamenei.ir, had announced Friday that he would be hosting a group of students at Imam Khomeini Hoseinieh, a gathering hall adjacent to his residence and office in central Tehran.
Iran's 83-year-old leader had not appeared in public for over two weeks after a visit to the religious city of Mashhad, his birth city, to attend a ritual at the Shrine of Imam Reza.
Khamenei’s office even cancelled his annual meeting in early September with members of the Assembly of Experts (AoE) whose only responsibilities is selecting a successor for the Supreme Leader and disqualifying an existing one. One of the members of the assembly explained the cancellation as their wish not to put “a heavy burden” on Khamenei.The cancellation of the meeting with the Assembly, as well as at least one other scheduled meeting fueled rumors and suspicions that he was very sick or even dead.
The New York Times on Friday quoted four people familiar with Khamenei’s health condition as saying that he is gravely ill and is currently on bed rest under observation by a team of doctors, adding his appointments have been cancelled. But Khamenei public appearance Saturday put the NYT report in doubt.
Assembly of Experts spokesman, Ahmad Khatami, said September 7 that the members of the assembly had discussed the criteria for choosing the next leader during the previous week and said recent public discussions about Supreme Leader’s succession were simply rumors. Khatami did not elaborate, but it was obvious that he was speaking about widespread discussions on social media about Ali Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, being groomed to be the country's next leader.
On August 9 Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a prime minister in the 1980s who has been under house arrest since February 2011, had published a scathing attack hinting at plans for Khamenei’s son to succeed him and warned the nation over an alleged ‘hereditary leadership’ scheme.Hardliners focused on other topics in Mousavi’s note and fiercely attacked him but made no mention of the succession issue.
In recent weeks there has also been claims that Khamenei has delegated the responsibility for the nuclear talks to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. (JCPOA) to President Ebrahim Raisi.
If true, the handover of the responsibility gives rise to speculations whether the leader delegated part of his authority because of a medical emergency, or to shift the responsibility to Raisi to remain in a position to criticize any possible deal, if things did not work well.