Status: 11/08/2022 12:17 p.m
In the fight against the protests in Iran, the regime continues to be tough and threatens the death penalty. Activists complain that targeted kidnappings are also being used. A grandson of the revolutionary leader, on the other hand, calls for reforms.
Even after almost two months, protests by government opponents continue in Iran. The regime is taking tough action against the mostly young demonstrators. Security forces shot the protesters with tear gas and paint cartridges, among other things, but also with live ammunition. The “Aswaran” cavalry squadron, founded in 2013, is deployed to quell the protests, as can be seen in a video from Tehran.
More than 300 dead, 15,000 arrested
Human rights organizations have registered more than 300 killed demonstrators since the protests began, including at least 30 minors, according to Amnesty International. According to human rights activists, 15,000 participants in the protests have been arrested so far. According to official information, more than 1,000 people have already been charged. Most of their negotiations should be public. Conservative hardliners in parliament had recently called for harsh sentences, up to and including the death penalty.
According to human rights activists, the country’s leadership is increasingly using the kidnapping of young people to quell the protests. At least 38 Kurds, mostly young people, have been kidnapped by “unknowns” since last Saturday, said the Middle East expert at the Society for Threatened Peoples, Kamal Sido. In fact, the regime’s security forces were behind it: “They want to intimidate the young people’s parents so that they don’t let their children take to the streets to protest against the regime.”
Iranian security forces on the campus of Kurdistan University’s medical faculty in Sanandaj in late October.
Image: AFP
Khomeini’s grandson calls for reforms
The prominent Shiite cleric Hassan Khomeini – grandson of revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini – calls for reforms: “The most sensible way of governing the country is the ‘majority-oriented democracy’ that results from the ballot boxes,” he told the online portal Bayanfarda. “Other ways are associated with far more errors and costs.”
The ayatollah’s grandson, who lives in Iran, thus hinted at criticism of the Islamic country’s political system. He had already expressed criticism at the beginning of the protests in mid-September.
Kermani: Finally take a clear position against the Islamic Republic
There are also clear calls from Germany to react politically to the protests: the writer and peace prize winner Navid Kermani called for the federal government to “finally take a clear stance against the Islamic Republic”. Warm words and symbolic sanctions merely signaled to the regime that no serious pressure should be expected from the European Union, despite the violence against peaceful demonstrators. Kermani criticized the fact that Berlin was apparently still counting on the preservation of the Islamic Republic in order to get cheap Iranian gas and oil after a nuclear agreement.
In an interview, Green Party leader Omid Nouripour announced full support for the “courageous Iranian women”. “We have to make it clear to those in power that their system, which is based on oppression and enrichment, has no future,” Nouripour told the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”.
The protests have spread across the country and not just Tehran province. They were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The Kurd died in police custody on September 16. The so-called vice police arrested her because she was said to have been dressed inappropriately. The protests have become the biggest challenge to spiritual leadership since 1979.