Protests In Iran Spread, Putting Government In Quandary

Meanwhile, some Iranian lawmakers continue to spread disinformation about the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, and her health condition before her arrest, to clear the hijab police of responsibility.

A group of about 13 hardliner lawmakers who advocated a harsher reaction to the protests might be seen as irrelevant in this juncture of widespread unrest, or these remarks might inflame the situation.

Esmail Zarei Kousha, the governor general of Kurdistan Province, who has also suggested that the government should take harsh measures against the leaders of the protests, has said at the same time in an interview with Hamshahri Online that lawmakers should avoid making unnecessary remarks.

Kousha has called the grandeur and momentum of this round of protests unprecedented and called on the people to dissuade their children from taking part in the protests.

In another development, Aftab News reported that the 13 lawmakers have suggested to the government to take harsher measures against those they claimed have been turning protests to the death of the hijab victim into “riots”.

However, according to Rouiydad24 news website, Iranian lawmakers are divided into at least four groups on how to react to the protests that have so far rocked over 80 cities in Iran as well as scores of smaller towns nearly all over the country.

However, all of these four groups have tried to reduce the root cause of the nationwide protests to dissatisfaction about hijab patrols, while the people in the streets are in a revolutionary mood against the who;e regime.

Roiuydad24 wrote that at least seven lawmakers are absolutely against the activities of the hijab patrol, at least 10 still support the hijab police despite its harsh treatment of young women including Mahsa Amini, while 8 lawmakers including Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf have taken ambiguous positions about the matter to stay on the safe side. Oddly enough, only seven of Iran's 290 lawmakers, including 4 hardliners and 3 reformists, have expressed sympathy with the family of the hijab victim. On the other hand, all of the 10 lawmakers who still support the hijab patrols, including former nuclear chief Fereidoun Abbasi, are the members of the ultraconservative Paydari Party.

Iranian social media users have been keen to lash out at politicians who ignore or belittle the protests.

Nearly all Twitter users who commented on a tweet by Tourism Minister Ezzatollah Zarghamiharshly criticized him for saying that law enforcers should act in a calculated way and crack down on "protest leaders who are linked to foreigners and have been trained to instigate riots." The comment was completely in line with the approach of security forces who attribute the protests to foreign elements particularly since 2017. Several Twitter users have responded that trained elements who instigate terror and riots during rallies are the members of Iran's security and intelligence organizations.

As news came in Wednesday afternoon that Instagram, as the only social media platform that was not officially banned in Iran, has been blocked, social media users warned that this could be sign that the regime is about to start its usual violent crackdown on the protests. Earlier on Wednesday, Communication Minister Isa Zarepour had said that new restrictions are likely to be imposed to limit Internet access as a way of confronting with the protests.

Iranians have taken to the streets once again in the capital Tehran and most major cities including Orumieh in the northwestern province of the same name, Gonbad-e Kavous in northern Golestan Province, Kermanshah, capital of a province of the same name in western Iran, and Amol in northern Mazandaran.

Protests have also been reported for the first time from the southern, working-class areas in the south of the capital such as Pakdasht and Eslam Shahr, some other major cities such as Zahedan, capital of the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan; Semnan, capital of a central province of the same name; Ardabil, capital of northwestern Ardabil Province; Sirjan, a city of around 325,000 in southern Kerman Province; and Marand, in East Azarbaijan Province.

People have also been protesting in many smaller and remote towns across the country including the Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf.

In Noshahr, a port city in the Caspian Sea area, at least four security forces vehicles were torched by protesters early Wednesday evening.

Social media reports trickling slowly from Iran say mobile Internet has completely been cut off in the central areas of the capital Tehran where thousands protested in the past two nights, as well as some other cities including Karaj, Saqqez, Kermanshah, Sanandaj, and Orumieh where protests have also taken place.

Around 90 percent of Iranians use mobile internet rather than broadband. According to government figures, there are 10.6 million broadband and 84.1 million mobile internet subscribers.

Telecommunications Minister Isa Zare’i had earlier Monday said security bodies may slow down the internet speed “due to security considerations” and said this was “normal”.

Disruption in mobile internet may prevent or delay news and footage of protests tonight from reaching the Iranian people and the outside world. It may also be an indication of plans to use more violence against protesters to end the protests that have now spread to most major cities as well as some smaller ones and many universities. This is a tactic the Iranian government has used during unrest in the past.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivered a speech today to military commanders but completely ignored any mention of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, the young woman whose death in custody of morality police has sparked the protests across the country since Friday.

At least six people have been shot dead by security forces and many have been arrested in the past four days. Younger Iranians, especially younger women, have rallied in several major universities, and appear to be the driving force of the protests. Young women have taken unprecedented steps in many places, such as removing their headscarves on campuses which could lead to their expulsion. Many women also burned their headscarves on the streets.

Below is a continuous update of developments from across Iran until midnight local time.

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Global internet watchdog NetBlocks says Iran is now subject to the most severe internet restrictions since November 2019. Mobile networks have been shut down, there are regional disruptions. Instagram and Whatsapp have been restricted.

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Wednesday evening - Protesters chanting in Bojnord, capital of northeastern North Khorasan Province.

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LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Britain is extremely concerned at reports of serious mistreatment by Iranian security forces of a 22-year-old woman whose death last week has sparked unrest in the country, British foreign office minister Tariq Ahmad said on Wednesday. Read full story

"We urge the Iranian government to investigate the circumstances of her death with rigour and transparency, and to hold to account anyone responsible," Ahmad said.

"We call on Iran to respect the right to peaceful assembly, to exercise restraint and to release unfairly detained protesters."

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Security forces are firing at protesters in Boukan, a city of around 200,000 in West Azarbaijan.

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21:30 local time - Some social media users from Tehran report that their mobile internet providers are directing them to the National Information Network (NIN), a highly controlled intranet, to prevent uploading images from protests to social media. NIN stops anti-filtering software and VPNs used for access to blocked social media and websites.

Global Internet watchdog NetBlocks has confirmed that Iran has restricted the WhatsApp messaging application amid widening protests. “Metrics show WhatsApp servers now disrupted on multiple internet providers, hours after the restriction of Instagram,” NetBlocks tweeted.

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Protesters chanting “Down with the Dictator” in Shahin Shahr, a city of around 180,000 in Esfahan Province.Protesters chanting “Down with the Dictator” in Shahin Shahr, a city of around 180,000 in Esfahan Province.

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Security forces are firing at protesters in Garmssar, a city of around 50,000 in the central Semnan Province.

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Wednesday evening - Protests have spread across Tehran: There are reports of protests in the eastern district of Nezamabad, western district of Sadeghiyeh, northern district of Tajrish.

The video in this tweet shows protests in Tajrish, Tehran

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Pahlavi said on Tuesday that "continuing and expanding protests and strikes is the key to victory," describing the recent protests as the most significant since November 2019 and a "point of no return" on the way to "taking back our country from the anti-Iranian regime of the Islamic Republic".

Pahlavi lauded "the brave and justice-seeking women" of Iran and participation of different strata of the Iranian society in the ongoing protests, adding that the events of the last few days would foil the Islamic Republic’s efforts “to create division” among Iranians.

He also called on the "agents of repression" of the protests to "join the open arms of the nation as long as there is a chance."

The latest round of nationwide protests in Iran appears to be different from the protests that have rocked the Islamic Republic since 2017 in more than one way.

The protests that started in Tehran late evening on September 16 following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, was not triggered by financial hardships Iranians have been experiencing in recent years.

On Wednesday, students at some universities such as the University of Tehran and Allameh Tabataba'i University as well as Al-Zahra University -- a female-only public university – held protest rallies, chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic’s authorities with many women removing their headscarves.

Universities in the cities of Semnan, Tabriz, and Orumiyeh (Urmia) were also scenes of similar protests as the country is going into the fifth day of unrest over the death of a young woman in custody of hijab enforcement patrols.

The protests started after the death of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini first in her hometown and then reached the capital Tehran and expanded to many Iranian cities and towns, with several people reported dead and hundreds injured or arrested.

The videos sent to Iran International show that in the funeral ceremony of Farjad Darvishi, who was killed by security forces during the protests in Orumiyeh on Tuesday, the participants chanted “Death to the Dictator,” a reference to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In his speech to military commanders on Wednesday, Khamenei did not mention the ongoing protests that can pose a serious challenge to his rule.

Khamenei spoke for the second time in a week despite earlier reports that he had a serious health issue and was under observation by doctors. This time the occasion was the 42nd anniversary of Iraq’s sudden invasion of Iran in September 1980 that led to a bloody and destructive 8-year war.

The Treasury made the comment in reaction to a tweet by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, suggesting that a license is not needed to provide the firm's Starlink satellite broadband service in the country.

Some people on Twitter had asked Musk to provide the satellite-based internet stations as he did for the people of Ukraine after the Russian invasion. However, most Ukrainians have not been able to access the internet via Starlink because it needs special equipment and is somehow too complicated to set up. Also, the Iranian government would allow any equipment intended for circumventing its internet censorship to enter the country.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has a longstanding license that "authorizes certain exports to Iran of hardware, software, and services related to communications over the internet, including certain consumer-grade Internet connectivity services and residential consumer satellite terminals authorized under General License D-1," a department spokesperson said, without specifying whether the license would apply to Musk's plans.

On Monday, Musk said that his company will ask for an exemption from US sanctions to provide Internet access for Iranians as the country is engulfed in widespread protests over the death of a young woman in the custody of hijab enforcement patrols.

Since protests over the death of Mahsa Amini have started, internet connection was significantly slowed down, a strategy the government usually uses during protests to prevent news of unrest reaching the rest of the country and abroad.