Canada Slaps Sanctions On Iranian Officials, Entities Over Protests

The Sunday attack by security forces and vigilantes on students at Sharif University in Tehran arresting dozens of young people angered students in other universities.

Protests were taking place on Monday in Mashhad University, the second largest city, in Esfahan, the third largest city and many other universities. Security forces attempted another assault against students in Tabriz university, similar to what they had done in Tehran the previous day.

The protest mood spread to schools where teenage girls started writing anti-regime slogans on blackboards and taking off their headscarves once they left the school grounds, protesting openly in the streets. Theis phenomenon is perhaps one of the biggest challenges for the regime as attacking children will enrage the whole population.

Khamenei in his speech dismissed all that, claiming that all the protests in more than two weeks were planned by the United States and Israel, a theory most Iranians who witness prevailing conditions find laughable.

No reports about street protests were received Monday night, which would not necessarily mean there were no demonstrations. The government has almost cut off all Internet acess in evening hours, making it very difficult for people to connect to social media.

There was also a revolt among football (soccer) players of major teams, including the national team, weeks before the World Cup in neighboring Qatar.

Some players were taken into custody and warned against any statements in support of the protests. Players of the most popular club Persepolis all were wearing black wrist bands at a game on Sunday as a sign of protest. The only palyer who was not wearing it missed a penalty kick against the rival team and Persepolis lost, in what some people called “poetic justice”.

This live coverage of events in Iran ended at 00:30 Iran time on Tuesday.

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Iranian football (soccer) star Ali Karimi, who has become an icon for protesters and critics of the Islamic Republic, has tweeted addressing the armed forces.

"Hey soldier, what are you defending?"

“Are you defending rampant corruption? Are you defending the children of regime insiders who have emigrated to the West and are having a good time? Are you defending Iran’s humiliation and isolation in the world? Are you defending the poverty, prostitution, hunger, and misery among your fellow citizens?"

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A journalist from Iran has commented on social media that regime supporters who were beating up people and attacking anyone who disagreed with their views, are now calling for "dialogue" to solve the crisis in Iran.

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Nika Shahkarami, a young woam disappeared during protests in tehran on September 20 and later her body was found with a disfigured face. Security forces buries her in her home province of Lorestan, without informing her parents. In a video which is probably from the cemetary where was butied, her mother shouts. "Congratulations Nika for you martyrdom".

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Baluch Human Rights group annnounced Monday that from September 30 until October 3, 67 civilians were killed and 300 injured at the hands of securiyt forces. They have published graphic photos that we will not post here.

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Anti-riot and security forces have concregated near a university in tehran, ready to act against protesting students.

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Women in a shopping street in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj have removed their hijab and are dancing in this video.

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Oct 3 (Reuters) - Canada imposed fresh sanctions on Iran on Monday for alleged human rights violations, including the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old from Iranian Kurd who died while in custody of Iran's "morality police," the Canadian government said.

"These sanctions are in response to gross human rights violations that have been committed in Iran, including its systematic persecution of women and in particular, the egregious actions committed by Iran's so-called 'Morality Police,' which led to the death of Mahsa Amini while under their custody," the Canadian government said in a statement.

(A series of IRGC and other officials are lsited.)

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Skype has made all calls to Iran free, considering that the govenrment is blocking access to the Internet.

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Schoolgirls protesting in Karaj, a city 20 miles west of the capital Tehran. They were chanting "Death to the dictator".

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During Monday, students protested in the University of Industry in Shiraz perhaps responding to calls by students of Sharif University in Tehran.

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Protesters out in the streets in Tehran Monday afternoon, chanting "Death to the dictator."

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University students in Mashhad, Iran's secong largest city and an important religious center, protesting on Monday.

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Medical students in Bandar Abbas, a port city on the Persian Gulf, held a protest on Monday responding to calls by Tehran's Sharif University students.

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In response to our correspondent, Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pierre-Alain Eltschinger said that "Switzerland is following current developments in Iran closely.”

The ministry said that Switzerland on September 26 called for a rapid, impartial and independent investigation into the death of Mahsa Amini -- the Iranian girl whose death in police custody sparked an uprising across Iran -- within the framework of the Human Rights Council. 

It also urged Iranian authorities to exercise restraint towards peaceful demonstrators and to end Internet restrictions, Eltschinger added.

Based on the guidelines of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the country continues its efforts to protect human rights in Iran “specifically in the areas of freedom of expression, abolition of torture and the death penalty, women's rights and the protection of minorities,” the spokesperson noted.

Amid its heavy-handed clampdown on protesters throughout Iran, the Islamic Republic has so far summoned several ambassadors and foreign diplomats over their respective countries’ support for the protests.

A German foreign ministry source said on Monday that Germany, France, Denmark, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic have submitted 16 proposals for new measures by the European Union against Iran over its violent clampdown on current protests.

The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations called on all teachers and students to refuse to attend classes on Tuesday, October 4. The teachers’ union was among the first to start nationwide strikes in support of the current protests, ignited by the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody of hijab police. 

In the statement, the council referred to huge protests by different social groups for justice and their rights, saying "Many of these protestors are students who, along with millions of other Iranians, are fed up with the existing unbearable suffocation."

It also called on the military and law enforcement forces to stand behind the people so that in the near future they would not regret it before a “people's court".

As the protests in Iran entered its third week, an organized violent government attack on protesting students in Tehran’s Sharif University Sunday has heightened tensions in Iran that can lead to more unrest.

The university’s Islamic Student Association Monday issued a call for a general, national student strike and early reports and images already show protests in many universities including in Esfahan, Mashhad, Sanandaj, Semnan and Kermanshah.

While Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei was delivering a speech Monday dismissing nationwide protests, students in a dozen universities began rallying against his regime.

A German foreign ministry source said on Monday that the new sanctions would target people and institutions primarily responsible for the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on Iranian protest, ignited by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in custody of hijab police. 

The EU foreign ministers are set to decide on the measures at their meeting on October 17, with no resistance expected from the members of the bloc, Spiegel magazine reported. "We are now working flat out to implement these proposals," the source said.

Promising to sanction Tehran over its bloody crackdown, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday that Iran's suppression of protests was "an expression of sheer fear of education and the power of freedom,” referring to the organized violent government attacks on protesting students in Tehran’s Sharif University Sunday night. 

"It is also difficult to bear that our foreign policy options are limited. But we can amplify their voice, create publicity, bring charges and sanction. And that we are doing," she tweeted.

The university’s Islamic Student Association Monday issued a call for a general, national student strike and early reports and images already show protests in many universities including in Esfahan, Mashhad, Sanandaj, Semnan and Kermanshah.

In a tweet, he said that the Islamic Republic is firing on students at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology, “yet reports indicate the US may send this criminal regime billions yet again.”

Sunday night, an organized violent government attack on protesting students in Tehran’s Sharif University heightened tensions in Iran that can lead to more unrest. After the fog of battle cleared Monday morning, the extent of what security forces planned and executed in Sharif University became clear. The emerging picture shows maneuvers and deception by security forces to corner the students and beat and arrest many.

Addressing President Biden, he said that “you have yet to help our people. At least don't fund the bullets piercing the hearts of our youth!”

Earlier in the day, Pahlavi had urged the US and other Western nations to do more than provide “moral support,” saying that “As Iranian workers strike to protest and cripple this regime, the West can support them by facilitating the creation and administration of strike funds for their families.”

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, sparked in Tehran late evening on September 16 following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, are dominated by women and youth yearning for freedom and equality.