Protests, Sanctions, Strikes Continue on 33rd Day of Protest

Iran’s youth are calling on fellow citizens to join them on the streets in protest this weekend, at the end of five weeks of growing public demonstrations against the government.

The "Youth of the Neighborhoods of Tehran" group called on people to join gatherings in Tehran and other Iranian cities, and also in Berlin. German police say 50,000 people have already registered to take part in a rally there on Saturday to protest against oppression and gender discrimination in Iran. The youth group also backed a call from the Association of Families of the Ukrainian Plane Victims for G7 countries to expel Iranian ambassadors.

"We need to remember that the regime of the Islamic Republic is not representing the people of Iran,” the group said in a statement Wednesday. “We support the campaign to expel the ambassadors and mercenaries of the regime from the nests of corruption and terror [Iranian embassies] in all countries."

In other developments Wednesday, Canada announced a new round of sanctions against Iranian officials and institutions; the athlete who competed without a headscarf was pictured at a meeting with the sports minister; and social media footage from various Iranian cities, universities and schools showed angry protesters on the streets and chanting anti-government slogans.

On the streets

Protests passed their 33rd night Wednesday when people took to the streets of several cities across Iran. There were protests in Javanshir in Kurdistan province; Saveh Road, Narmak neighborhood and Ekbatan town in Tehran; and the western cities of Arak and Ilam. Protesters blockaded streets and lit fires.

Security forces in Ekbatan sought to stop a third night of protests and clashed violently with protesters. High school students gathered at a bus station in the Narmak neighborhood of Tehran and chanted "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, we are all together." University students at Razi University of Kermanshah and Zahedan University of Medical Sciences also chanted anti-government slogans.

The city of Saqqez in Iranian Kurdistan, the birthplace of Mehsa Amini, continues to be very tense. A source in the city told IranWire that local people are gathering every night, chanting slogans against the government and celebrating life and gender equality. They are keeping security forces at bay with barricades and bonfires.

Major industries on strike

Workers’ strikes have hit production in several key industries in Iran, including oil and gas, steel, and sugarcane. Social media users have revealed labor strikes at the Kian tyre factory, the Ghadir steel complex in Fars province, and some sectors of the Persian Gulf oil and gas industry in Bushehr, Asaluyeh, Abadan, and Bandar Abbas.

The refinery and associated petrochemical industries at Asaluyeh are a vital source of revenue for the state. But the organizing council of oil industry contract workers warned the government last week they would go on strike if security forces continued to suppress the protests.

John Bolton, the former national security advisor of the United States, wrote in the London Daily Telegraph that it was labor strikes that had brought an end to the rule of the Shah, and could do the same thing for the rule of the Ayatollahs.

Pressure on families of critics

The regime continues to pile pressure on the families of its critics, forcing them to support a pro-government line.

The latest victim is Mohammad Reza Panahi, whose sister Asra, a school pupil, died after she was beaten by the security forces after she took part in a protest. A few days ago, state TV aired an interview with Panahi in which he said that his sister had had a heart problem.

On Wednesday, Javad Mogoei, a documentary maker of the so-called fundamentalist government spectrum, reported on his Instagram page that Panahi had tried to take his own life, but had survived.

At the same time, the father of Mehsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman whose death in custody sparked the last 33 days of protests, said he and his brother-in-law, Mahsa's uncle, had been put under great pressure to give an interview to state TV.

Elnaz returned

Another individual under government pressure Wednesday was the Iranian athlete who made history after competing in an international climbing competition in South Korea without a hijab, contrary to Iran’s strict dress code. Elnaz Rekabi’s failure to wear one in Seoul was widely taken as a very public display of support for the protests in Iran which were sparked by the death of a women detained for not wearing her hijab correctly on the streets of Tehran.

Rekabi received a jubilant welcome on her return to Iran as hundreds of people gathered at Imam Khomeini international airport outside Tehran. Videos showed crowds chanting the 33-year-old’s name and calling her a national hero.

But Rekabi did not go home from the airport and was instead whisked to meetings with Hamid Sajjadi, Iran’s Minister of Sports and Youth, and a sports official, IranWire has learned.

A few hours later after landing, pictures were published of Rekabi standing next to the sports minister. Her brother Davoud Rekabi was also present. Some social media users praised Rekabi for “not wearing the hijab required by the Islamic Republic” even during her meeting with the minister. But while she was not wearing a scarf or veil, she was wearing a hat, so her hair was covered in accordance with the rules.

Observers have also asked why Rekabi needed to meet the Minister of Sports after traveling from South Korea without first even changing her clothes. And her brother Davoud was wearing a yellow shirt and a white vest at the meeting – just as he had when he went to meet his sister at the airport

Friends of the athlete told IranWire Wednesday that she had not answered their calls since returning to Iran and that she had not been to her parent’s home in Zanjan.

One IranWire source, who had previously said that Rekabi was tricked or forced to enter the Iranian embassy in Seoul and that her brother Davoud had been summoned by the security agencies, told IranWire that Rekabi had been promised that she would be able to go straight home to Zanjan to see her family.

The International Federation of Sport Climbing has been told that Rekabi was summoned to the Ministry of Sports and Youth, IranWire can report. It has contacted the ministry regarding her safety.

New sanctions

Canada has imposed additional sanctions on six Iranian individuals and four entities for participating in, or enabling, human rights violations against women and spreading propaganda.

Those sanctioned are Iran’s Deputy Interior Minister Seyyed Majid Mirahmadi; Mohammad Karami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Operational Base in Sistan and Baluchistan; Ezzatollah Zarghami, former head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Corporation; Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, former head of the Iranian National Security and Foreign Policy Commission; Soghra Khodadadi Taghanaki, current director of Qarchak Women’s Prison; and Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, former speaker of the Constitutional Council.

The statement describes the sanctioned individuals and entities as “the worst offenders” that have carried out such violations, “including against Iranian women, and disseminated propaganda to justify the Iranian regime’s repression and persecution of its citizens.”

This is Canada’s third package of sanctions against Iran due to “its ongoing gross and systematic human rights violations and continued actions to destabilize regional peace and security,” a press release stated.