Situation In Iranian Town 'Dangerous' As Hundreds Of Troops Deploy
Reports from Semirom in Iran indicate a dangerous situation for residents, as security forces have arrested many people following protests on Saturday.
Reports from Semirom in Iran indicate a dangerous situation for residents, as security forces have arrested many people following protests on Saturday.
Residents in the town held a large memorial gathering on Thursday for Ali Abbasi, a protester killed by security forces in November, chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic and its ruler Ali Khamenei. They also held a protest outside the local governor’s office on Saturday.
Reports on Sunday say that the government deployed hundreds of regular and irregular security forces in Semirom in Esfahan Province and began arresting residents, particularly family members of victims killed in November.
A Twitter account, 1500 Tasvir, reporting on protests in Iran described the situation in Semirom Sunday as a “war.” “The Islamic Republic has placed is ‘Special Force’ troops everywhere in the city who are acting brutally and people are fighting them with empty hands,” a tweet said.
Another tweet reported that at 5 am Sunday, security forces attacked houses of the families of those killed last November.
Semirom was one of dozens of sleepy rural towns where no one expected a antigovernment protest. But in November unrest began in the settlement and several residents were killed by security forces.
More than 500 civilians have lost their lives as a result of government violence since September, when protests began after Mahsa Zhina Amini, a 22-year-old woman was fatally beaten in police custody apparently for not fully abiding by the government’s Islamic dress code.
The current wave of protests threatening the Islamic Republic started in mid-September after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was killed in custody of the country’s hijab police. In the months that led to the tragic incident hardliner President Ebrahim Raisi had been intensifying measures over the observance of mandatory hijab in public, which many urban women were barely following.
However, the measures apparently backfired and led to many campaigns of removing hijab in public in protest to the mandatory Islamic dress code. Moreover, after the death of Mahsa Amini, appearing in public without hijab has become a very popular way of protest, especially in bigger cities. Now the regime seems frustrated over its inability to impose hijab because every measure makes people angrier. But the clerical rulers and their religious followers cannot tolerate the growing phenomenon.
Following the recent propaganda stunt by the government claiming that the ‘morality police’ was disbanded, media are full of interpretations of how the regime plans to both enforce the dress code regulations and at the same time appease protesters. Iran's police declined to confirm Prosecutor General Mohammad-Jafar Montazeri’s claim on December 3 that the notorious "morality police" was deactivated.
Hardliners say hijab enforcement will never be abolished, insisting that “veils will be back on women’s heads soon,” while acknowledging that a growing number of women are appearing in public without hijab. A lawmaker said in December that the regime is making some decisions about hijab rules, explaining that the methods for enforcing hijab may change. He added “it is possible that women who do not observe hijab would be informed via SMS, asking them to respect the law. After notifying them, we enter the warning stage... and last, the bank account of the person who unveiled may be blocked."
On Sunday, Fars news agency, affiliated with the hardliners and the IRGC, cited an unnamed police source as saying that a new phase of a plan to enforce hijab has started across the country. The news agency also confirmed reports that many people had received warnings via SMS about removing hijab in their cars.
Also on Sunday, Ali Khan-Mohammadi, the spokesperson of Iran’s Headquarters For Enjoining Right And Forbidding Evil, tasked with promoting the Islamic Republic’s interpretation of Islamic laws, defended the government’s move to shut down and seal businesses that serve women who are not observing the Islamic dress code.
In recent days, a large number of lawmakers and other officials have called for plans to deal with women who unveil. Among these plans for facial identification of those without hijab using CCTV cameras and refusing them social services. In some cities, people without hijab have been prevented from entering some banks and other institutions. In addition, some bank managers have been fired for providing services to women without hijab.
Last week, the Islamic Republic’s prosecutor-general threatened Iranian women again, saying unveiling in public is an act “planned and promoted by enemies,” and described it as a “crime.” Montazeri said one of the “enemies’ plots” in the past few months was breaking the norms and redlines of the Islamic regime. He went on to threaten that people who unveil will be strictly confronted.
A video footage of Revolutionary Guard Commander Brigadier General Hamid Abazari is one of these contentious leaks. In a video released recently, Abazari hinted at division among the Islamic Republic’s top military men amid continuing anti-regime protests.
Abazari, who formerly served as deputy commander of the Imam Hossein Training and Officer University, criticized senior commanders and officials who had "failed [to stand by] the values of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the regime." He claimed that he personally knows several high-ranking IRGC senior officers, including some of his own commanders, who caved in and did not support the regime.
Abazari also rebuked senior civilian officials who had not condemned the protests and alleged that some stood against Khamenei.
IRGC’s public relations department reacted to his remarks on December 31, issuing a statement stressing that this was Abazari's personal opinion and "does not correspond to existing facts."
Moreover, another senior officer in the Revolutionary Guards who formerly commanded Basij forces, Gholamhossein Gheybparvar, criticized "some elites" for staying silent about the protests and abandoning the “Islamic Revolution.”
Criticizing the unnamed individuals he lamented that "We should not have doubts in such a situation,” adding, “We do not deny having economic problems, high prices, unemployment, etc., but does the regime deserve that everybody stabs a knife into its body?"
Such remarks were also brought up in early December when hacktivist group Black Reward released tens of files containing IRGC-linked Fars News Agency's exclusive security briefings for the Guard’s Commander Hossein Salami. One document said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had complained to former Parliament Speaker and his close relative Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel that some of the regime’s elites have remained silent about the protests.
Many insiders not only stopped expressing support, but have started to denounce the regime’s policies that have led to the current uprising.
In December, a member of Iran’s Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution acknowledged that the Islamic Republic has failed to achieve its desired religious ideological goals. Ultra-conservative Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi is regarded as a leading advocate of the ruling clergy and the ideology of a government controlled by the clergy, in contrast with traditional Shiite thinking that favors keeping seminarians independent of the government.
Some people on social media believe that such leaks are meant to pressure regime insiders to come out in defense of the Islamic Republic, which has never seemed so battered and bruised by over 100 days of popular protests challenging its existence. Even if such statements are leaked intentionally or as publicity stunts, it cannot be ignored that Ali Khamenei and his top supporters feel isolated and unable to change the situation to the former status quo.
“In 2022, we witnessed the blossoming of unprecedented solidarity among Iranians of diverse backgrounds and beliefs,” tweets posted simultaneously on the eve of the new year by the former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, footballer Ali Karimi, actor Golshifteh Farahani and activists Nazanin Bonyadi, Masih Alinejad and Hamed Esmaeilion said in Persian, in some cases accompanied by English versions.
“Through further solidarity and organizating, 2023 will be the year of victory for the Iranian nation, and the achievement of freedom and justice in Iran,” the tweets said.
Some other prominent figures such as Iran's Peace Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi and many activists have also shown support by sharing the same greeting message on their social media.
The greeting messages have received a total of around 400,000 likes, thousands of positive comments and been retweeted extensively since the posts were published although some social media users have not been as enthusiastic.
Given the regime’s policy of silencing voices of dissent, many Iranians who are fighting on the streets to topple the regime have invested their hopes for a leadership to emerge for their ‘revolution’ with an eye on influential opposition figures abroad who can represent them in the international community.
Accordingly, many Iranians have been incessantly urging opposition figures to join forces to provide leadership to Iran's hitherto ‘leaderless revolution.’
“This was a great move by the Crown Prince, Masih and others,” a young man in Tehran who since the very beginning of the protest movement has been fighting the regime security forces on the streets, and on social media, told Iran International.
“The regime has always tried to divide the opposition to conquer, but this move neutralizes their efforts and can help unite the supporters of individual figures who have shown solidarity with their New Year greeting. Unity is our key to victory [against the regime],” he added.
Many allege that posing as ‘revolutionaries’ and supporters of opposition figures, the cyber-army of the Islamic Republic is trying more than ever to divide the opposition and supporters of influential figures abroad such as the former Crown Prince and Hamed Esmaeilion by muddying the waters with fake news, negative commenting, making accusations, and aggressively attacking those perceived as rivals.
The former Crown Prince said at a press conference in late October that “supporting the movement inside the country and cooperation [between those] in Iran and abroad” was the most important requirement for success against the regime and that the opposition had to send a united message to the international community.
The warm welcome this first sign of solidarity among diaspora opposition figures has received needs to be followed up by more concrete messages of unity. “A joint [-ly prepared] tweet for the new western year may be a positive political performance but is not necessarily a [sign of] a ‘coalition’,” Elahe Boghrat, chief editor of the London-based Kayhan warned in a tweet.
New York-based sociologist Majid Mohammadi told Iran International that the short greeting message posted with coordination was a harbinger that the opposition could organize and unite in the future. People expect those who issued this coordinated message to create bodies to support their revolutionary movement legally, logistically, and intellectually to help it focus on its goals and move forward.
Hassan Beheshtipour, an Iranian international relations analyst, told Nameh News website in Tehran that there is no positive indication for the resumption of talks over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, known as JCPOA. He was responding to a question about the possible outcome of Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian's recent visit to Oman in a bid to use its Arab neighbor as a mediator with the US.
The analyst argued although Iran claims that the West has been sending secret messages to Tehran, open-source information show that the West is not interested in resuming the negotiations. He added that the West is mainly waiting to see where the ongoing protests in Iran are headed.
Beheshtipour said despite criticism that the Iranian government does not tie people’s financial hardship the JCPOA and sanctions, Tehran has reached the conclusion that a deal would the most important factor in improving Iran's economy.
Meanwhile, Foreign policy analyst Kourosh Ahmadi told Entekhab News website that Iran's position about Russia's war in Ukraine has changed Europe's stance regarding Tehran. He added that Russia's use of Iranian drones in attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine has left a negative impression on public opinion in Europe and has toughened Europe's stances toward Iran.
Ahmadi added that the negative trend in relations has led Europeans to minimize the importance of trade with Iran which was previously among Europe's priorities. Ahmadi added that the ongoing nationwide protests have also affected Europe's stance on Iran.
The analyst argued that Europe has even adopted a tougher stance toward Iran than the United States, because Tehran has not grasped Ukraine's importance for Europeans and the fact that Ukraine is only 500 kilometers from Germany. He said: "That is why the spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry has said that Germany has no reason to support the continuation of talks with Iran.
Ahmadi said Europeans are extremely sensitive to the fact that Iran is Russia's partner in threatening Europe’s security. He pointed out that in 2011 the volume of transactions between Iran and Europe reached 28 billion euros. The figure dropped by 78 percent in 2020 and finally reached to just over one billion euros in the first six months of 2022.
In another development, Iranian sociologist Bijan Abdolkarimi has said in an interview with Rouydad24 website that "Iran is entangled in a political impasse and Iran's power-house is currently under pressure both from abroad and from within the country."
Abdolkarimi added that the Iranian people are the main victims of this political impasse while the regime has no solutions.
Asked if a possible improvement in the economic situation would reduce the general sense of dissatisfaction among Iranians, Abdolkarimi said: "I cannot answer this question properly because the situation is getting worse on a day-to-day basis. In fact, we are facing an economic collapse in Iran for which officials cannot offer any solution."
He added that the only solution is a return to the JCPOA, but in the current situation reaching an agreement is practically impossible.