2023-08-18 10:05:33
On a street in Tehran, August 13, 2023. WANA NEWS AGENCY VIA REUTERS
Repression intensifies in Iran as the first anniversary of the uprising which took place on September 16, 2022, is approaching, carried by its flagship slogan, “Woman, life, freedom”. On August 16, at least a dozen women’s rights activists were arrested in the province of Guilan, located in the north of the country. Among them, researcher Jelveh Javaheri, graphic designer Shiva Shahsiah and photographer Matine Yazdani. Their families, gathered in front of the prosecutor’s office in Rasht, the capital of Guilan province, this Thursday, August 17, failed to obtain information on their detained relatives.
Elsewhere in the country, the list of arrests is also growing, especially among followers of the religious minority not recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Bahais, including the couple Maria and Jamaloddin Khanjani. The latter, aged 90, has already served a ten-year prison sentence, between 2008 and 2018. Others, protesting students on the front line of the demonstrations which have shaken Iran for months, are numerous, these these days, to be summoned by the secret services. Same thing for former political prisoners, arrested at the time of the uprising.
On September 13, 2022, Mahsa Amini, an Iranian of Kurdish origin, was arrested in Tehran by the morality police, responsible for monitoring the proper observance of dress codes in Iran and arresting offenders. The Iranian will die three days later, probably as a result of blows received in the head while in police custody. In the days following his death, a wave of protest, unprecedented in its scope and duration, overwhelmed the country. At the heart of this protest: Iranian women who have decided to remove their headscarves. Then tens of thousands of protesters were arrested. At least seven young men were hanged for taking part in the movement.
“Forced to sign”
Today, there are no more demonstrations in the streets of the country. But Iranian women continue to go out without veils, while the regime does not seem ready to make concessions. Vice police officers are back in Iran, harassing those who dare to walk bareheaded in public. “For the past few weeks, we have been witnessing a new wave of repression in anticipation of the anniversary of the uprising”, confirms Sima, who wished to speak with a pseudonym. Arrested during a demonstration in Tehran in September 2022, this 40-year-old Iranian woman spent nearly three months in prison, before being pardoned by the courts. At the beginning of August, she was summoned again by the police.
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