2022 Iranian Protests

World Cup 2022: Iranian man killed celebrating football team's loss - report​

A man is reported to have been killed by security forces in northern Iran, as anti-government protesters publicly celebrated the national football team's elimination from the World Cup.
Activists said Mehran Samak was shot in the head after he honked his car's horn in Bandar Anzali on Tuesday night.
Videos from other cities showed crowds cheering and dancing in the streets.
Many Iranians refused to support their football team in Qatar, seeing it as a representation of the Islamic Republic.

State-affiliated media blamed hostile forces both inside and outside Iran for putting unfair pressure on the players following their 1-0 loss to the USA in the final group game.
The players did not sing the national anthem before their first game, a 6-2 defeat by England, in an apparent expression of solidarity with the protesters.

But they did sing at the Wales game, which they won 2-0, and at the politically-charged showdown against the USA.
Some protesters saw that as a betrayal of their cause even though there were reports that the team came under intense pressure from Iranian authorities.
The unrest started 10 weeks ago following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab.
Authorities have responded to what they have portrayed as foreign-backed "riots" with a violent crackdown in which the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights says at least 448 people have been killed, including 60 children. More than 18,000 others are reported to have been arrested.

Iran Human Rights reported that security personnel shot and killed Mehran Samak, 27, when he honked his car's horn in the Caspian Sea city of Bandar Anzali on Tuesday night to celebrate the Iranian football team's defeat.
BBC Persian obtained a video that showed Mr Samak's burial on Wednesday morning. The mourners can be heard chanting "You are the filth, you are the immoral, I am a free woman" - a slogan frequently used during the protests.

Iranian security forces have denied killing peaceful protesters.
However, the opposition activist collective 1500tasvir posted videos that it said showed security forces opening fire at people in the south-western city of Behbahan overnight and beating a woman in Qazvin, south of Bandar Anzali.
Other videos showed men and women celebrating the World Cup elimination in Tehran and a number of cities in the predominantly Kurdish north-west of the country. Dozens of protesters have reportedly been killed in recent weeks there as security forces intensified their crackdown.
In footage from Mahsa Amini's home city of Saqqez, dozens of people could be seen cheering and waving scarves in a main square before fireworks are set off.

Crowds were also filmed dancing to music in Sanandaj, an epicentre of the unrest, while in Kermanshah and Marivan they were heard chanting "Woman, life, freedom" - one of the main slogans of the protests.
Kurdish human rights group Hengaw reported that at least 30 people were shot and wounded by security forces while celebrating in Marivan, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Saqqez, Ilam and Bukan.

In Tehran, students at Imam Sadiq University gathered outside a hall of residence and chanted "Death to the dishonourable" - an adjective protesters have used against security forces and which was shouted by fans inside the stadium during Iran's match against England.
There was also a confrontation between opponents and supporters of the government outside the Al Thumama Stadium in Qatar after Tuesday's match.
Danish journalist Rasmus Tantholdt filmed several men carrying Iranian flags shoving a man wearing a T-shirt saying "Woman, life, freedom" in English. A woman with him is then heard complaining that she was attacked and asking for help to leave the stadium safely.

Another video obtained by BBC Persian showed a male protester being violently arrested by security guards outside the stadium while shouting "Woman, life, freedom".
Asked about the treatment of Iranian spectators who staged protests in Qatar, football's world governing body Fifa said it continued "to work closely with the host country to ensure the full implementation of related regulations and agreed protocols".
State-affiliated media in Iran meanwhile praised the national football team despite their failure to qualify for the World Cup's knockout stages.
The conservative Farhikhtegan newspaper said "we are proud of Iran", while the Revolutionary Guards-linked daily Javan said the team had "won the real game: the game of uniting people's hearts".
Before the match, the hard-line Tasnim news agency rejected a report by CNN, which cited an unnamed security source as saying that the Revolutionary Guards had threatened the families of the Iranian players with "imprisonment and torture" if they did not "behave".
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63805284
 
so , it seems the Iranian football team would never be the signal for a revolution or two .
 

Elnaz Rekabi: Family home of Iranian climber demolished​

The family villa of Elnaz Rekabi - an Iranian climber who competed abroad with her hair uncovered - has reportedly been demolished.
Ms Rekabi, 33, broke Iran's mandatory dress code at the contest in South Korea - but later said her headscarf had fallen off "inadvertently".
The BBC was told her apology was forced.
Opposition to the headscarf has fuelled protests that have swept Iran, with the climber being hailed as a hero.

A video showing the ruins of a house with sports medals on the ground started circulating this week.
Davood - Elnaz Rekabi's brother and also a top athlete - is seen crying in the video.

Anti-government activists denounced it as an act of revenge against Ms Rekabi - although it is not clear when the footage was shot.
Now, the semi-official Tasnim news agency has confirmed that the house has been demolished, but says this was due to the family not having a valid permit for its construction.
It said all this took place before Ms Rekabi competed without a headscarf in October.
Women in Iran are required to cover their hair with a headscarf, or hijab, and their arms and legs with loose clothing. Female athletes must also abide by the dress code when they are officially representing Iran in competitions abroad.
A large crowd greeted Ms Rekabi at Tehran airport after the competition in South Korea, calling her a "heroine". She arrived at the airport without a headscarf, covering her hair with a black baseball cap and hoodie.
The next day she met the Iranian sports minister with the same clothes on, which raised suspicion that she had not been home during that time.

The source said Ms Rekabi was detained in a room at Iran's National Olympic Committee building with plainclothes agents present until she met the minister.
The day before returning to Iran, a post on Ms Rekabi's Instagram account apologised for "getting everybody worried".
"Due to bad timing, and the unanticipated call for me to climb the wall, my head covering inadvertently came off," it explained.
However, the source said that authorities threatened to take her family's property if she did not make the statement.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63847173
 
As I've already said in a US politics thread, Erika, clearly people who are not invested in choices of women (i.e. men) should be the ones who make those choices.
 
Hope the Iranian regime eventually collapses and the fundamentalists get the revolutionary treatment they deserve.
 
voice of Russia reports the Morality Police will be abolished ; Iranian clerics declare studies will be conducted to see whether women can be allowed to go scarves free . China relaxes Coronavirus measures , despite the risk of human intervention in spreading stuff . Paulus , despite all his rage at being made a Marshall , would have been impressed . No , the Iranian Regime is not going anywhere . Fireworks expected , that's all .
 
Eh, the Taliban eventually reneged on promises to liberalise. Religious fundamentalism has a powerful hold on minds.
 
It might not be going away, but possibly going in other directions.
Policisation of Islamic lifestyle among civilians is of the most iconic values of the Islamic Revolution.
 

Iran to disband morality police amid ongoing protests, says attorney general​

Iran's morality police, which is tasked with enforcing the country's Islamic dress code, is being disbanded, the country's attorney general says.
Mohammad Jafar Montazeri's comments, yet to be confirmed by other agencies, were made at an event on Sunday.
Iran has seen months of protests over the death of a young woman in custody.
Mahsa Amini had been detained by the morality police for allegedly breaking strict rules on head coverings.

Mr Montazeri was at a religious conference when he was asked if the morality police was being disbanded.
"The morality police had nothing to do with the judiciary and have been shut down from where they were set up," he said.

Control of the force lies with the interior ministry and not with the judiciary.
On Saturday, Mr Montazeri also told the Iranian parliament the law that requires women to wear hijabs would be looked at.
Even if the morality police is shut down this does not mean the decades-old law will be changed.
Women-led protests, labelled "riots" by the authorities, have swept Iran since 22-year-old Amini died in custody on 16 September, three days after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran.
Her death was the catalyst for the unrest but it also follows discontent over poverty, unemployment, inequality, injustice and corruption.

'A revolution is what we have'​

If confirmed, the scrapping of the morality police would be a concession but there are no guarantees it would be enough to halt the protests, which have seen demonstrators burn their head coverings.

"Just because the government has decided to dismantle morality police it doesn't mean the protests are ending," one Iranian woman told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme.
"Even the government saying the hijab is a personal choice is not enough. People know Iran has no future with this government in power. We will see more people from different factions of Iranian society, moderate and traditional, coming out in support of women to get more of their rights back."
Another woman said: "We, the protesters, don't care about no hijab no more. We've been going out without it for the past 70 days.
"A revolution is what we have. Hijab was the start of it and we don't want anything, anything less, but death for the dictator and a regime change."
Iran has had various forms of "morality police" since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but the latest version - known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad - is currently the main agency tasked enforcing Iran's Islamic code of conduct.
They began their patrols in 2006 to enforce the dress code which also requires women to wear long clothes and forbids shorts, ripped jeans and other clothes deemed immodest.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63850656
 
João III said:
Morality police to be disbanded, but noticeably the laws they enforced are to remain. Morality Police 2: Electric Boogaloo coming to an Iran near you soon
Click to expand...
They've had plenty of versions of it so it will be like Morality Police IX - The Franchise Continues
 
Last edited:
João III said:
Morality police to be disbanded, but noticeably the laws they enforced are to remain. Morality Police 2: Electric Boogaloo coming to an Iran near you soon
Click to expand...
It could be possible that they'd reassign the now unemployed policemen to the regular police force.
 
From what I've read, this is only in "discussion" phase and not much farther. I doubt the mullahs will give up one of their most effective tools to suppress dissent. This may be just a trial balloon to see if just discussions might be enough to tamp down the rage in the streets.
 
Mandating the "hijab" as a legal requirement is very much a
Saudi islamic tradition that the late Ayattollah Khomeini imported.

If it is causing so much trouble, the ruling clerics may now decide that its
use should be voluntary or a condition of attendance or employment etc.
 
Remorseless1 said:
From what I've read, this is only in "discussion" phase and not much farther. I doubt the mullahs will give up one of their most effective tools to suppress dissent. This may be just a trial balloon to see if just discussions might be enough to tamp down the rage in the streets.
Click to expand...
Besides the fact that the actual morality laws would be to remain in place and simply the regular police could be now tasked to deal with that as soon as protests wind down and people resume their lives (after all, they have to earn a living so the government can wait them out), as already mentioned, there is the fact that now there is a call for a three-day genral (?) strike.
 

What Western media got wrong by claiming Iran abolished its morality police​

How one official’s vague claim was mischaracterized — and was this a diversion tactic by an embattled regime​

Over the weekend, news spread in numerous reputable media outlets that the Islamic Republic of Iran had dismantled its controversial morality police.

Wikipedia even changed its entry, with the edited text suggesting the force had officially been disbanded.

But these reports all rested on a vague statement made by one Iranian official, one who in the same breath said his department is not responsible for the morality police.

Not only is it unconfirmed that the morality police have been disbanded, but statements by officials since have made it clear that sharia law — and its restrictions on women's dress — will continue to be enforced.

  • Do you have a question about the latest developments in Iran? Reach out at ask@cbc.ca
The morality police came under the scrutiny of Western media as of Sept. 16, the day 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died after being detained by officers for not wearing her hijab properly.

The circumstances of Amini's death, and the force's involvement, have since triggered protests against the police and the Iranian regime that have swept across the country and the world.

What did media outlets claim? ​

On Sunday, multiple credible media outlets, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, led with the headline that the morality police had officially been abolished.

The New York Times for instance, reported it as being an "apparent victory for feminists."

Who did the claim come from?​

The original claim came from a vague comment made by one regime official — someone who is not in charge of Iran's morality police.

At a press conference, Iranian Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was asked why the morality police, which in Persian is called Gasht-e-ershad, has not been seen on the streets in recent days.

Montazeri said the following: "The morality police has nothing to do with the judiciary system. The same source that created it in the past, it has shut down from the same place. Of course, the judiciary system will continue its surveillance of social behaviours across society."

While reports suggest the morality police is not seen prominently on the streets, the regime has continued its violent crackdown on Iranian protesters. It has employed multiple military forces, including members of the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its plainclothes agents, to brutally crack down on protesters. According to one human rights group, 500 Iranians have been killed, including at least 60 children — and more than 18,000 people have been detained.

What does that tell us?​

The top prosecutor's comments include a few important points the media should have taken into consideration.

Firstly, the attorney general admitted the morality police does not fall under the purview of the country's judiciary. And he also did not specify who exactly allegedly shut down the morality police — or when and how it was shut down. Instead, his comments were "vague and non-transparent," as BBC Persian reported early on.

Notably, Montazeri said the enforcement of the country's Islamic sharia laws would continue by means of "social surveillance" — demonstrating that whether the morality police exists or not, Iranian women will still be subjected to the same punitive legal system dictating the Islamic dress code.

Has the regime made false claims about the morality police before? ​

Yes. Late in 2017, IRGC Brig. Gen. Hossein Rahimi, who also heads the Greater Tehran police, claimed that Iranian women would no longer be jailed for not wearing the hijab. Rahimi said women would instead receive lessons to "reform their behaviour."

But in 2018, police in Tehran arrested 29 women for taking part in the "White Wednesdays" campaign, where women across Iran protested the mandatory hijab by climbing onto telecom boxes, taking off their headscarves and waving them on a stick.

A number of these women and their mothers are still imprisoned.

And while the morality police is the arms-length body that physically enforces the Islamic dress code, the country's strict mandatory hijab law — which came into effect in 1979 — remains in place.

What has the Islamic Republic said since the press conference?​

Iranian state media forcefully pushed back on the top prosecutor's comments, insisting it is the Ministry of Interior that oversees the morality police — not the judiciary.

Montazeri was also quoted in Iranian state media rebuking reporting by the international media, saying that "no official authority in the Islamic Republic of Iran has confirmed the closure of the morality police."

Why did media outlets mischaracterize this vague claim?​

Iranians on social media quickly expressed their dismay at the way international media reported the news, many suggesting it stems from an inherent misunderstanding of what the protests in Iran stand for.

"I think it simply underscores that the global community wants a neat resolution to this story and is not realizing that the Iranian people want a full overhaul of the system — not just the morality police," Gissou Nia, an Iranian-American human rights lawyer at the Atlantic Council told CBC News.

And Western institutions, including the media, have had a poor understanding of the Iranian regime for a long time, said Iranian-Canadian human rights activist and lawyer Kaveh Shahrooz.

"Instead of listening to democracy and human rights activists, these institutions mistakenly listened to analysts who told them that Iran's regime is basically normal and can be trusted," Shahrooz said.

"Iran's regime is not normal; its official statements are often lies designed to mislead the world. Our media should not take them at their word and must exercise extra caution when reporting on Iran."

Why some Iranians say this is a diversion​

Iran has seen an unprecedented wave of anti-regime protests for almost three months, beginning after Amini's death in custody.

This week, protesters organized strikes across different cities in the country.

Many activists argued on social media that Montazeri's comments were a form of misinformation and, in fact, a tactic employed by the Iranian regime to stop the ongoing protests in Iran.

"International media outlets must learn that when dictatorships like the Islamic Republic are in trouble, they spread propaganda, as the Iranian regime did in 2017 and as they did today," prominent Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad said on Twitter. "This is their modus operandi."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iran-morality-police-media-1.6674863
 
It's horrible to watch people being deprived of ordinary things. How can anyone these days tell a woman to cover her head or not. How can you infringe on a woman's rights? People don't know how to control each other, power disfigures people.
 
Through a letter published by her exiled son, the great leader's sister has called the ayatollah a ‘despotic caliph’ and more. Also, Mohammad Khatami, former president of Iran, has also expressed dissent with the theocracy.
 
so this is still going, ofc.

my iranian friend is furious, there's a court (in practice, an execution commitee) that's started to, well, execute. two protesters were hung today from a crane. it's absurdly gruesome. she sent me a clip of it, i naturally can't share it on cfc
 
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