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Will Protests in Iran Start the Counter-Revolution?

1 year ago babelfish

Will Protests in Iran Start the Counter-Revolution?

The protests in Iran are turning into a movement to overthrow the Islamic regime of the ayatollahs. The facts and comments of analysts

The protests in Iran do not subside, on the contrary they are gradually turning into a counter-revolution, which aims to overthrow the regime of the ayatollahs who, in the meantime, defends itself with the usual brutal methods sowing death among the demonstrators.

The tragic balance of the demonstrations

 It is difficult to orient yourself among the figures of this revolt whose effects are censored by the regime or told by a whole series of unofficial sources that offer conflicting data.

The estimates of Human Rights Activists in Iran, which are also taken at face value by the BBC , nonetheless allow us to obtain a reliable picture of the situation.

As can be seen from the tweet published by the NGO, more than two months after the first spark was ignited at the funeral of Mahsa Amini, the twenty-two year old of Kurdish origin murdered by the so-called morality police for violating the Islamic dress code, the balance is impressive.

As of November 18, 402 protesters had been killed by the security forces, 58 of whom were minors; instead, 54 members of the paramilitary bodies involved in the repression died during the 1,008 protests that took place in 150 cities from 16 September to today. The number of people arrested reaches 16,813, of which 524 are students. Finally, 104 universities are involved in the riots.

As the Associated Press points out, the high number of victims is due to the hard fist adopted by the regime: human rights groups accuse the security forces of firing guns at eye level and clubbing demonstrators at head with large sticks.

The protests in Izeh

The latest protests took place at the funeral of Kian Pirfalak, a nine-year-old boy who according to his mother was killed by the Basij during the previous day's demonstration in the city of Izeh. Hundreds of people were present at the funeral who shouted anti-regime slogans and shouted "death to Khamenei".

According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) cited by CBS , Pirfalak was not the only minor to lose his life in that city. To his name would be added that of fourteen-year-old Sepehr Maghsoudi. There would also be, according to an opposition group, a second 14-year-old who died, Artin Rahmani. The total death toll from the protests in Izeh is seven dead and many injured, but according to another NGO, Iran Human Rights, the victims would have been thirteen.

Hundreds of people had taken to the streets in Izeh to protest, chanting anti-government slogans and throwing stones at police who, state media reported, used tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The regime's propaganda, as always, started accusing "terrorists aboard two motorcycles" of having killed seven people in a shopping mall in Izeh. In reality, as ISPI reports, the demonstrators said that it was the Basij militias who opened fire in the shopping centre.

Khomeini's house museum on fire

In another glaring development reported by Reuters , protesters set fire to the house museum of Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, in an incident which was flatly denied by the Tasmin news agency.

But images of the fire as well as of Khomeini's hometown, besieged by protesters, appeared punctually on social media.

The protests enter a new phase

As ISPI writes in a dossier dedicated to the events in Iran and significantly entitled "Iran, a protest against the counter-revolution", the regime is now in difficulty; "never before had the waves of cyclical protests against the system lasted for so long, gaining strength with the passing of the days rather than losing it".

"From the squares and streets", continues ISPI, "protests have gradually infiltrated universities, high schools and factories, the scene of various strikes in recent weeks".

"More than nine weeks after the first spark", is the Institute's conclusion, "the movement has entered a new phase, transforming itself into the main challenge to the theocracy that has guided the country for 44 years".

The sociologist's comment

As Farhad Khosrokhavar , a sociologist expert on Islam and the Middle East and author of essays such as The New Martyrs of Allah writes, the revolt “has turned into total and constant insubordination, day and night, against theocratic rule. This mutation, initially timid, is now an incontrovertible fact”.

According to Khosrokhavar, it is now clear that the Iranians no longer want anything from the Islamic Republic. "This system", comments the sociologist, "has failed everywhere: in ecology, in terms of the country's development, in its rejection of the dignity of women and men, in its inability to establish a peaceful relationship with the rest of the world, and in terms of social justice (because the rich of the regime have monopolized social goods). It has become a state of generalized repression, which does not hesitate to kill its citizens".

The relentless repression

Aware that it is fighting for its own survival, the regime intensifies its repression.

As noted by CNBC , citing an Amnesty International report, 1,024 charges were brought against protesters captured by security forces last week. According to Amnesty, twenty-one detainees have been charged with crimes involving the death penalty.

In fact, last week the head of the judiciary Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei announced that the "insurgents" will be accused of crimes such as "moharebeh" (enmity against God), "efsad fil-arz" (spreading corruption on earth) and "baghy" (rebellion army), all charges punishable by the death penalty.

As reported by the BBC , the first death sentence has already been issued against a demonstrator accused of "enmity against God". But according to CNBC, which cites the Mizan Online judiciary site, there are already four death sentences.

The judges' decisions come after, at the beginning of November, the Parliament voted with 227 votes in favor out of 290 the proposal to punish with the most severe penalties those who, in the eyes of the regime, are guilty of serious crimes against the state.

The photo of the kiss

Despite the pall of lead, protesters continue to invade the streets of Iranian cities protesting mostly peacefully and with symbolic gestures.

A photo of a young couple kissing in the middle of a busy street with her without a veil, in jeans and a T-shirt quickly went viral on social media.

As Middle East expert Lisa Daftari explained to Fox News , there's a reason why that snapshot went around the world: the photo “symbolizes many aspects of the current revolution in Iran. There is a woman who is boldly defying the headscarf laws, a couple who are violating Islamic law which forbids kissing in public especially if you are not married, and who are bravely standing in traffic to get their message across reach out to the whole world." 

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/iran-proteste-controrivoluzione/ on Mon, 21 Nov 2022 06:59:37 +0000.