Iran’s Security Forces Open Fire On Mourners In Cemetery
Iran's security forces opened fire Thursday on mourners at a cemetery in Lorestan province to mark the 40th-day memorial for a young protester, Nika Shakarami.
Iran's security forces opened fire Thursday on mourners at a cemetery in Lorestan province to mark the 40th-day memorial for a young protester, Nika Shakarami.
The 16-year-old Nika Shakarami’s body was found in suspicious circumstances ten days after she left home to take part in a protest rally against compulsory hijab on September 20.
The last time she spoke to anyone, she was on the run from security forces chasing her on motorbikes. Authorities claimed that she was thrown off a roof or jumped to her death after taking part in the protests.
The teen’s aunt, Atash Shakarami, announced Wednesday in an Instagram post that the family would gather at the cemetery where she is buried to mark her 40th-day memorial. A huge crowd of people gathered Thursday at the cemetery in Veisyan village near Khorramabad where she was buried to commemorate her on day 40th of her death, which is a long-held tradition in Iran
So far around 250 have been killed by security forces, nearly a hundred of whom were killed in one day in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchestan province when security forces opened fire on a crowd returning from Friday prayers on September 30. In the coming days there will be several such ceremonies every single day in various parts of the country for other victims.
As seen in videos posted on social media, security forces used tear gas and shot at participants in the ceremony in Veisyan.
Videos on social media show the mourners holding photos of Nika and chanting “Khamenei will be overthrown in this bloody year,” “We are all Nika, Fight us and we will fight back,” “Death to the Dictator,” “Death to Khamenei,” and “They took Nika away and brought her body back to us.” Videos also show people throwing stones at the security forces and singing a famous Luri folk song with the chorus “It's Time for War.”
This was the second 40th day memorial for the victims of government violence in protests triggered by Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody on September 16 . Huge crowds marked Mahsa’s own 40th-day memorial in her hometown of Saqqez and many other cities on Wednesday.
Nika’s mother was not informed of her death for ten days. Authorities claimed Nika’s body was found in a courtyard at the back of a building on the morning of September 21 but had not been identified. They initially claimed she had been pushed to death from the roof and it “had nothing to do with the protests.” A report by state media later quoted a Tehran prosecutor as saying that Nika had committed suicide.
Nika’s aunt, Atash Shakarami, and her uncle were arrested by security forces for publicly speaking about the suspicious manner of Nika’s disappearance and death.Both were forced to appear on the state television to corroborate the official account of the teen’s death.
On Thursday, CNN published an exclusive investigation into Nika’s death. CNN said it received several videos and had eyewitness accounts that suggested Nika was chased and arrested by security forces on the night she disappeared. The video showed Nika ducking behind a vehicle shouting to the driver not to move to shield herself from security forces chasing her.
On October 23, US Special envoy for Iran Rob Malley sent out a tweet that became a source of controversy and triggered a strong backlash from Iranian-Americans and others. Malley wrote that protesters in Iran wanted “their government” to respect them and safeguard human rights, while clearly, they simply reject the Islamic Republic and want a secular, democratic government.
Iranian activists began an online campaign against Malley, even demanding his resignation.
Malley on Monday admitted that his choice of words was wrong, in an interview with Iran International, and the new line from the State Department became, “We cannot speak on behalf of Iranian protesters.”
Reporters on Wednesday asked the deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel again how the US would characterize the demands of the protesters, or what is the US government’s understanding about their demands.
Patel, again avoided an answer, saying that no one in the US government “should claim or can claim to speak for these protesters; only they can do that. And we, our role is to continue to take steps and take practical efforts to use the tools at our disposal to hold the regime accountable for what we are seeing happen across Iran.”
But pressed further, Patel did begin to characterize the aspiration of the Iranian protesters. “What we are seeing is the Iranian people demand basic human rights, rights of expression, as this started in the death of Mahsa Amini, and we’re seeing the Iranian people make their voices heard. But I don’t have any other specific assessment to offer.”
Saying that the Iranian people want “basic human rights” is not much different from what Rob Malley said a few days earlier.
Meanwhile, Iranian activist and women’s rights advocate Masih Alinejad has launched an online petition demanding Malley’s resignation that has collected nearly 100,000 signatures.
Tehran has been claiming from the start of the protests that the United States and “other enemies” are behind the unrest, because Iran has become “too powerful,” as President Ebrahim Raisi said this week, and they want to weaken it.
It is not clear if the Biden Administration is concerned that if it speaks about the real demand of the protesters, it might help Iran’s unsubstantiated claims, or it is just loath to uttering ‘regime change’, a term more popular with the former Trump administration.
Former President Donald Trump who pulled the United States out of the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Tehran and his administration officials had no qualms about calling the clerical regime the main cause of trouble in the region.
Otherwise, the White House has been outspoken about the need to condemn the Islamic Republic for its violent crackdown on unarmed protesters. The administration has imposed sanctions on a series of Iranian officials and also adopted a tough position against Iranian drone deliveries to Russia that have terrorized Ukrainian civilians.