Iranians Mourn Dozens Of Teens, Youths Slain In Protests

Chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic, the protesters gathered in front of the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa on Tuesday, the thousandth day since IRGC shot down the plane over Tehran and killed all passengers and crewmembers onboard.

The spokesperson of the association of victims’ families, Canada-based activist Hamed Esmaeilion, whose daughter and wife were killed in the tragic event, called for the expulsion of all the agents and officials affiliated with the Islamic Republic as well as their family members who have immigrated to Canada.

Criticizing the Canadian government, Esmaeilion said the regime's politicians, military and security personnel and their families have turned Canada into a "safe haven" for themselves and should be "deported without delay."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also issued a statement on the occasion, saying,“One thousand days ago today, the Iranian regime unlawfully and horrifically shot down passenger Flight PS752, cutting short the lives of the 176 innocent people on board,” adding, “Canada and its Coordination Group partners are committed to holding Iran accountable, in accordance with international law.”

In a joint statement for the occasion, the International Coordination and Response Group for the victims of Flight PS752, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom said, “We renew our demand that Iran fulfills its international legal obligations and ensures transparency and justice for its actions.”

The airliner was shot down by two air-defense missiles fired by the IRGC as it took off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, killing 63 Canadians.

Jared Genser posted a photo of Namazi in a plane before leaving Iran for Oman. “He will arrive in Muscat, Oman, and then will travel on to Abu Dhabi for urgent medical treatment,” he said.

The United States said Sunday that reports from Iranian sources of a transfer of funds related to the release of Bagher (Baquer) Namazi and to a furlough for his son Siamak Namazi are categorically false.

According to Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Oman's Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi appreciated Iran's move to allow Namazi to leave the country during a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Tuesday.

In response to an inquiry by Iran International, a US State Department spokesperson said that "Any claim that Iran's lifting of a travel ban on Baquer Namazi was part of a deal for a transfer of frozen funds is categorically false,” adding that “We understand that the lifting of the travel ban and his son’s furlough were related to his medical requirement.”

Tehran had claimed that it will receive $7 billion of its frozen funds for a prisoner exchange deal with the United States, but it did not specifically claim that the money is related to the Namazis.

United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric announced about Namazis in a statement on Saturday, but the Islamic Republic periodically announces that release of its frozen funds is imminent to prop up its currency.

Reformist commentator and political analyst Mohammad Reza Tajik has said in an interview with Didban Iran website that Iranians are more angry than scared, and the government needs to be wise enough not step on mental mines. He also warned that suppression will make the protests more violent.

On the other hand, the deputy leader of the reformist National Trust Party Esmail Gerami Moghaddam told Etemad Online website that the people's suppressed demands do not go away by suppression and re-emerge as events unfold. He warned that suppression will make the protests more violent.

Both Tajik and Gerami Moghaddam attached high significance to accumulated and suppressed popular aspirations and warn the government about unmet demands and forgotten promises.

Tajik said that protesters will inevitably return to the streets with an accumulated rage. The academic further said that the ongoing protests are different from what happened in previous years. He warned that the current generation of Iranians who have taken to the streets in recent weeks are part of a movement that has no ideology, no leader nor even an organization. He described the movement as "A unity within a plurality."

Schoolgirls chanting slogans for the dowfall of the Islamic Republic

The eye-catching presence of women in the uprising is another characteristic of this round of protests. It is a women's uprising, said Tajik, the former chief of the Iranian presidential office's Strategic Studies Center.

Quoting a prominent Iranian poet, Tajik said that the new generation of Iranians "does not like what it sees in society and cannot see what it likes."

He said the government wants the society to be timid and intimidated but the society is full of activists who do not wish to remain passive. Iranians are no longer obedient servants of the government, he said.

On the other hand, politician Gerami Moghaddam said that what we see today is a set of demands that were pushed back to the people's subconscious as a result of previous suppressions.

He reminded that the Iranian Constitution promised in its article 27 that protests are allowed in the Islamic Republic, and although everybody has been talking about this, the right to protest has never been recognized by successive governments during the past four decades. As a result, the people have lost their trust in the government and cannot believe its promises.

Gerami Moghaddam added that trust between the people and the government does not take shape easily, particularly if the government does not allow criticism and protest.

Although scholars and politicians have been debating the reasons of the current protests and although many of their arguments are valid, they are so intimidated by the regime's despotism that they never mention the root-cause of the problem which is the presence of a dictatorship that makes all the decisions without being accountable for their consequences. It is not responsive to people's views and ruthlessly crashes any resistance.

The fact that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei finally spoke about the protests among military men rather than anywhere else, showed more or less that he feels safe only among the gunmen who protect him. In his speech, he blamed everyone and all foreign powers for the Iranian people's revolt, but it apparently never occurred to him that he and his decisions were responsible for the havoc that pushed him to his comfort zone at the corner of a military garrison to defend himself and attack others.

Previously, when he was more confident, he made such remarks at universities and among preachers at Friday prayers. It appears now, that he fears facing the people, even those who go to Friday Prayers.

"The British side, by issuing unilateral statements, shows that it has a role in the belligerent scenarios of terrorists active against the Islamic Republic," the director general of Western Europe at Iran's foreign ministry added, after saying that London's remarks on Iran's internal affairs were "based on fake and provocative interpretations."

Britain's foreign ministry said on Monday it had summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires, Iran’s most senior diplomat in Britain, over the crackdown on protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody.

"The violence levelled at protesters in Iran by the security forces is truly shocking," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had said.

The British envoy in Tehran was summoned on Tuesday, but local media reported it on Wednesday.

The Iranian official added Tehran consider possible options in response to any unusual actions from Britain.

A 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, Amini was arrested on September 13 by the morality police in Tehran for wearing "unsuitable attire" and after two hours transferred to hospital with a serious injury to her head that put her into a coma. She died three days later, sparking nationwide protests. So far almost 150 people have been killed in the ensuing government crackdown.

The atmosphere of many cities, however, is extremely volatile and smaller, flash mob style protests may erupt any moment in the most unexpected of places and spread to other areas, those familiar with the situation say. Some photos and videos posted on social media show the almost unprecedented deployment of female anti-riot officers on the streets of Tehran Tuesday evening.

A video posted on Twitter early evening showed cars blocking the street in front of an underground station on a busy street and honking their horns while a group of protesters chant on the street. Drivers resort to this tactic to prevent the vehicles and motorbikes of security forces from reaching the areas where protesters have gathered. Another video posted later showed people chanting on the same street (Shariati).

A video from the southern city of Bandar Abbas Tuesday shows people honking their horns on the street and security forces trying to take away some protesters while others chant “Scoundrels, Scoundrels”, a slogan often used when confronting security forces.

Across the country many university and high school students boycotted their classes and gathered on campuses Tuesday to demand the release of university students who have been detained in recent days in universities or at their homes. In their rallies students chant against the Supreme Leader and demand freedom and in some insitutionss such as Mashhad University Tuesday students chanted “This is not a protests anymore. It’s the beginning of a revolution!”.

A professor teaching to a completely empty classroom as university students boycot lectures

A video posted on Twitter Tuesday showed a diehard professor of Khajeh Nasir University in Tehran, where students held a large rally Tuesday, teaching to a completely empty classroom.

Dozens of students have been arrested by security forces in the past two weeks. Not all names of detainees have been made public so the total number is not known. In their protests students often chant “Evin has become a university” referring to the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran where most political prisoners are usually held.

Most Iranian universities are not gender-segregated but normally male and female students are required to sit separately in classrooms as well as in canteens and cafeterias but on Tuesday students at one of the universities in Tehran broke the taboo and sat together to eat. Some girls had flouted their headscarves, both were unimaginable only a few weeks ago. They also chanted the most-heard slogan of the protests, “Women, Life, Liberty” and clapped together. By breaking the rules, they have risked being expelled in the least.

Students have also been expressing, or supporting, grievances of ethnic groups who say they are discriminated against. “From Kordestan to Tabriz, Just poverty, corruption and discrimination,” university students chanted in Tabriz.

They have also been expressing support for the people of Zahedan, capital of the impoverished Sistan and Baluchestan Province in the southeast, where security forces opened fire on a Friday prayer congregation of Sunnis as they were returning to their homes. Local sources say the death toll has now risen to 80 people. “From Zahedan to Tehran, We will die for Iran!” students chant in response to hardliners and authorities’ who blame Baluchi separatists for the incident in Zahedan.

A top Sunni cleric, Molavi Abdolhamid, has confirmed that plainclothes security agents targeted the heads and hearts of unarmed protesters. Local Baluchi activists say arrests have continued in the province and security forces have been using helicopters and drones to shoot Baluchi citizens indiscriminately. Locals also say the number of those wounded in the attacks is so large there is a shortage of blood in hospitals.