Day 15: Global Solidarity and National Strikes as Iran Protests Grow

A third week of nationwide protests in Iran began on Saturday, in which Iranians in exile and citizens of other countries chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic in more than 150 cities around the world, in solidarity with the Iranian people.

At the same time, protests continued inside Iran. According to many users of social networks, Tehran was already agitated around noon. In Kurdistan, at least 12 cities were on a complete strike and, in most Iranian universities, instead of attending classes, students demonstrated against the government and for freedom.

Zahedan witnessed a heavy security forces presence, after at least 42 people died on Friday when security and military forces attacked crowds protesting the rape, allegedly by a police commander, of a 15-year-old girl. The Baluch Activists’ campaign group has announced that the entire city is being monitored by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) drones. Reports say Zahedan is under military rule and routes in and out of the city are closed.

So how was the fifteenth day of nationwide protests of the Iranian people, the day that started with the slogan "The time has come"?

The world woke up

A few days ago, the Instagram page of novelist Hamed Esmaeilion – who lost his wife and daughter when the IRGC shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane – was filled with pictures of posters telling 150 cities around the world "It's time".

These calls were quickly amplified on social media by the Association of the Families of the Ukrainian Plane Victims. They determined that on Saturday, October 1, it would be time to rise and demand freedom.

Iranians abroad and non-Iranian supporters joined to rally against the Iranian government, in Barcelona, Brussels, Warsaw, Cologne, Amsterdam, and Hamburg, as well as Toronto, New York, Montreal and San Francisco, Ljubljana, and cities in New Zealand and Australia.

Esmaeilion announced on his Instagram page that the Toronto police reported the presence of more than 50,000 people in the gathering in this city.

Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, wrote on Twitter that Niagara Falls would be illuminated with the colors of the Iranian flag for 22 minutes on Saturday night in solidarity with the people of Iran and in memory of Mahsa Amini – who was 22 years old when she died in morality police custody.

Reports from Washington, DC indicated a very large gathering in the American capital. In this gathering, slogans against the Islamic Republic system were chanted and a woman cut her hair as a sign of protest.

The slogans in these gatherings were similar to the slogans chanted inside Iran, calling for the overthrow of the Iranian regime and the freedom of women. The song "For…" by Shervin Hajipour, was also repeated many times in the gatherings by thousands of people. Hajipour wrote the song based on the tweets of users about their regrets, sufferings, and motivations to overthrow the Iranian government. The song was viewed over 40 million times on his Instagram page in less than a day.

Shervin Hajipour has been missing for three days. Although his family says that he was arrested, the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran have denied it.

The spread of protests despite severe repression

Hossein Salami, the Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Guards, announced in a threatening message that "revenge the blood of the martyrs of the Revolutionary Guards and Basij and the people who were victims of the Black Friday crime in Zahedan may be on our agenda."

Despite this public threat, human rights organizations of Baluchestan have announced continued protests in Zahedan and other cities of Sistan and Baluchestan. Rasad-e Baluchestan Telegram channel and Rasankwebsite have reported that Zahedan city is on strike and traders and merchants have closed their shops. According to social media, the cities of Pahreh, Chabahar, Khash, Saravan, Sarbaz, Rask, Mehges, Soran, Zabul and Panouch have become the scene of citizens' protests.

Reports from Tehran also indicate that citizens turned to the streets to protest in various neighborhoods of Tehran, including the City's Bazaar, central streets such as Palestine Street, Jomouhori Street, Keshavarz Boulevard, Bozorgmehr, Valiasr Square, and City Theater metro station, from noon on Saturday.

Clashes in the central streets of Tehran were intense. Eyewitnesses disrupted the movement of repression forces' vehicles by closing the Jomhouri Street and breaking the guardrails of the special BRT line. The protesting citizens also pulled down the sign of Islamic Republic Avenue in Palestine Street.

Also, neighborhoods such as Saadat Abad, Gheitarieh and Shariati Street in the north of Tehran have also been the gathering places of protesting citizens. The slogans of the protestors in Tehran were mostly centered on "woman, life, freedom", "freedom freedom, freedom", "the mullahs must get lost", "if we do not stand together, we will be killed one by one" and "death to the dictator".

At the same time, the videos and statements of IranWire sources from Kurdistan have reported the widespread strike of trades and guilds in more than 12 cities in Kurdistan province and Kurdish cities in neighboring provinces. In a video obtained by IranWire from Marivan, a woman is seen distributing leaflets about these strikes, and in other videos from this city and Saqqez, women are waving their scarves.

According to Kurdistan Human Rights network, a young man named Mokhtar Ahmadi was shot dead in Marivan by security forces during the protests on Saturday. The network announced that nine others were injured during the shooting by special unit agents in Marivan.

In other Kurdish cities, such as Oshnavieh, Bukan, Baneh, Piranshahr, Javanroud, Sanandaj, and Saqqez, shops were closed and people took to the streets and chanted slogans against the government and for freedom.

Other cities of Iran such as Karaj, Mashhad, Shahin Shahr of Isfahan, Babol, Kermanshah, Shahrekord, Arak and Rasht have also been the scene of anti-government protests.

Despite the widespread arrest of students, protests continue in universities

Videos from Iranian universities show that in all parts of the country, students have turned campuses into protest arenas. These videos show the violent treatment by the security forces of protesting students. United Students' Telegram channel reported that the Basij forces had attacked students at the University of Science and Technology with sticks.

News from Iran indicates the continuation of the widespread arrest of students. Dozens, including Reza Kianipour, a medical student at Tehran University, Fatemeh Rashidi Aberghani, a student of English literature at Al-Zahra University, Ali Mohammad Doust Hosseini, a dental student at Yazd University, Mohammed Reza Masoudi, a student at the Faculty of Islamic Revolution at Technical and Vocational University, Helia Karimnejad, a biology student at Khorezmi University, were among those arrested on Saturday.

It is not only students who were arrested, but some faculty members too. Reports indicate that Mohammad Sadeq Akhundi, a professor at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, was arrested by security forces at his home on Friday night, September 30.

Earlier, Ali Sharifi Zarchi, a professor at Sharif University of Technology who had issued a statement along with hundreds of other professors calling for the release of students, reported threats from the security forces.

In Khamenei's silence, Hassan Nasrallah entered the scene

The official news agency of the Islamic Republic, IRNA, announced on Saturday evening the meeting of the heads of the three branches of power at the Iranian presidential office. This meeting, which was held with the presence of President Ebrahim Raisi, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the judiciary head, and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the speaker of parliament, was called to discuss "combatting riots" and "protecting public order and security". The three leaders thanked the people for "failing" what they called the "planning of the enemies to create a crisis in the country".

And while Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, has not shown any reaction to the protests against him and the Islamic Republic system over the last two weeks, Hassan Nasrollah, the leader of Lebanese Hezbollah, has said that Iran is too strong to be shaken by the recent events. He claimed the reason for international and media support of the Iranian people's anti-government protests is that Iran is the "heart of the axis of resistance" against the West.

It's time to join the people

Despite the government's efforts to suppress the protests, Mir Hossein Mousavi, one of the leaders of the 2009 protests against the fraud in the presidential election, who is under house arrest, has issued a statement in support of the protesters.

Mousavi asked the military forces to stand "on the side of the truth, on the side of the nation". He called Mahsa Amini "the daughter of Iran, the daughter of Kurdistan, the daughter of humanity" and addressed the repressive forces: "No one has the right to follow the order of the commanders, as a blindfolded agent, and stand against the members of his nation and forget his covenant with his nation."

The protests of the people of Iran have also received support from current and former football players such as Ali Karimi and Hossein Mahini.

Rokna news agency reported that the passport of Ali Daei, a former Iranian football star, was confiscated when he entered the country. Daei supported the protests of women and the people of Iran by sharing a short animation in which a woman takes off her headscarf and flies in the form of a phoenix, and wrote: "Instead of repression, violence and arrests, calling the people hypocrites and rioters, solve their problems."

However, the managers of the Premier League of Iran Football, which is affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, called the protesters "separatists" and have arranged to stage upcoming football matches to empty stadiums.

Also, news has been published about the confiscation of the passport of Mehran Madiri, an actor and director of satirical series. Madiri was an artist who, among others, and in the first days of the protests, released a video calling for an end to violence against the protesters.