: Rewind: No Veils #IndiaNEWS #News The anti-regime protests that have convulsed Iran for over a month now mark one of the biggest challenges to the country’s clerical rulers since they seized power

Rewind: No Veils #IndiaNEWS #News
The anti-regime protests that have convulsed Iran for over a month now mark one of the biggest challenges to the country’s clerical rulers since they seized power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ movement following the Sept 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, who was detained by the ‘morality police’ in Tehran for allegedly wearing her headscarf too loosely, is showing no signs of tapering off.
The protests first erupted at Amini’s funeral in her hometown Saqqez, in the Kurdish region. Crowds of young women soon swamped the streets twirling their hijabs in the air and cutting their hair, chanting ‘Death to the Dictator’ targeting Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Over 300 protesters have been killed and thousands arrested, including numerous journalists and children, since the unrest began, say human rights groups. The protests have spread to over 133 Iranian cities and 129 universities as well as several secondary schools.
World over, in Berlin, 80,000 people joined the march waving Iranian flags and holding banners ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ on October 22. Iranians travelled from the United States, Canada and all over the European Union to participate. The Berlin march was the largest-ever demonstration against the Islamic Republic by Iranians abroad. Similar scenes were witnessed on the streets of Washington, Australia and Japan, among others.
Defying Dictator
Zahedan, the capital of the poverty-stricken Sistan-Baluchistan province on the Pakistan border, has become a flashpoint for the protests. There were at least 66 deaths on September 30 in Zahedan, now called ‘Bloody Friday,’ according to Amnesty International, when security forces cracked down on protesters, worshippers and bystanders after Friday prayers outside the city’s main mosque.
Young people, including university students in Tehran, Isfahan and other major cities, have defied warnings by security forces to participate in demonstrations. They are even fighting back the Basij – Organisation for the Mobilization of the Oppressed – established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution to Islamise Iranian society and combat enemies within.
Restrictions on the internet, including Instagram, LinkedIn and WhatsApp, have been imposed to prevent protesters from organising and sharing videos with the outside world. Only short clips find their way out, including those of security forces firing at protesters and women defiantly cutting off their hair and burning their hijabs.
Iran’s Chief of the Staff of the Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri acknowledged that the traditional methods of the past and carrying out repeated and ineffective actions were not the answer.

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