No Let Up in Pressure on Iranian Government as Popular Protests Enter Fifth Week

Video emerging from across Iran Saturday shows people continuing to demonstrate against the government, as the protests entered a fifth week. Mindful that security forces have responded to protests with violence and lethal force, organisers encouraged people to gather in places where security forces were not present and chant "Death to the dictator," referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Demonstrations were reported Saturday in Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, Mashhad, Ilam, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Gilan, Ardabil, Hamedan, Shahin Shahr, Rasht and Marivan. 

A high school student was killed by security forces in #Ardabil on Oct 14. Today protesters in the city have been confronting the security forces chanting: We Don't Want a Child-Killing Regime! Oct 15, 22. #IranProtests2022 #Mahsa_Amini #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/NmFNqTXVAC

— IranWire (@IranWireEnglish) October 15, 2022

In the central city of Karaj, an armed riot squad violently stormed a group of women. Video shows police trying to push a young woman to a vehicle. She resisted and fell to the ground, screaming. Police fought off rescuers at gunpoint.     

In Shiraz, a group of women defied a heavy security presence, removed their headscarves and chanted "life, women, freedom”. A watching crowd applauded.

"Guns, tanks, fireworks; the mullahs must get lost," a group of women without hijabs chanted at a gathering at Tehran's Shariati Technical and Vocational College.

An angry group of mostly women was seen on footage from central Isfahan early Saturday chanting "Death to Khamenei!"

Across the country, students at several universities defied an order to return to class and instead joined anti-government rallies.   

The Islamic Republic of #Iran, Oct 15, 22. A daily scene across the country. Armed plainclothes officers fearing protesters' anger threaten bystanders with guns while shoving a man into a car. #IranProtests2022 #Mahsa_Amini #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/nG7wKbj9U6

— IranWire (@IranWireEnglish) October 15, 2022

A video from Ardabil shows protesters chanting "Death to the dictator!” Girls at one of the city’s secondary schools were beaten up and arrested for refusing to sing a government song on Wednesday. One was reportedly killed.

More than 200 people have been killed since the current wave of protests began on 16 September, according to Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR). The number includes at least 23 children between the ages of 11 and 17.

Receiving information about the demonstrations remains difficult amid tight restrictions on the internet and the arrest of at least 40 journalists in the country. 

The new wave of public anger was flared by the death last month in custody of a 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the morality police in Tehran for not wearing her hijab in a “proper” manner.

Iran’s government insists Amini was not mistreated, but video showed she was arrested forcefully and her family says her body showed bruises and other signs of beating.