What's new

Death toll rises in Iran amid wave of anti-government protests [Update #11]

MenInG

PakPassion Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Runs
217,977
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/29/iranian-police-disperse-anti-government-protests

Demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans in several cities across Iran on Friday, as protests against alleged corruption and rising prices turned into the largest wave of demonstrations since nationwide pro-reform unrest in 2009.

Police dispersed protesters in the western city of Kermanshah as spontaneous rallies spread to Tehran and apparently several other cities, a day after demonstrations in the north-east, the semi-official news agency Fars said.

The outbreak of unrest reflects growing discontent over rising prices and alleged corruption, as well as concern over the country’s costly involvement in regional conflicts such as Syria and Iraq.

An official said a few protesters had been arrested in Tehran, and videos posted on social media showed a heavy police presence and demonstrations in a number of othercities.

The US State Department said it “strongly condemns” the arrests and was monitoring the protests. Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement the US urged “all nations to publicly support the Iranian people and their demands for basic rights and an end to corruption.”

“Iran’s leaders have turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos,” she said. “As President Trump has said, the longest-suffering victims of Iran’s leaders are Iran’s own people.”

About 300 demonstrators gathered in Kermanshah after what Fars said was a “call by the anti-revolution”. They shouted “Political prisoners should be freed” and “Freedom or death”, and some public property was destroyed. Fars did not name any opposition groups.

The protests in Kermanshah, the main city in the region where an earthquake killed more than 600 people in November, took place a day after hundreds of people rallied in Iran’s second largest city, Mashhad, shouting anti-government slogans in protest against high prices.

Footage that could not be verified showed protests in other cities including Sari and Rasht in the north, Qom south of Tehran, and Hamadan in the west.

Mohsen Nasj Hamadani, the deputy security chief in Tehran province, said about 50 people had rallied in a square in the capital but that most had left after police asked them to do so. A few who refused were temporarily detained, the ILNA news agency reported.

A resident in the central city of Isfahan said protesters had joined a rally held by factory workers demanding back wages. The slogans quickly changed from the economy to target the country’s president, Hassan Rouhani, and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the resident said by telephone.

Purely political protests are rare in Iran. The last unrest of national significance occurred in 2009 when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election as president ignited eight months of street protests. Pro-reform rivals said the vote was rigged.

Workers often organise demonstrations, however, over layoffs or non-payment of salaries, as do people who hold deposits in bankrupt financial institutions.

The prominent conservative cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda had called earlier for tough action against the protests. “If the security and law enforcement agencies leave the rioters to themselves, enemies will publish films and pictures in their media and say that the Islamic Republic system has lost its revolutionary base in Mashhad,” the state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.

Alamolhoda, who is Khameini’s representative in north-eastern Mashhad, said a few people had taken advantage of Thursday’s protests against rising prices to chant slogans against Iran’s role in regional conflicts.

Tehran backs Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, in his country’s civil war, Shia militias in Iraq, Houthi rebels in Yemen and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Social media videos showed demonstrators chanting: “Leave Syria, think about us.”

Eshaq Jahangiri.
The Iranian vice-president, Eshaq Jahangiri.
Iran’s vice-president, Eshaq Jahangiri, a close Rouhani ally, suggested hardline conservative opponents of the president might have triggered the protests.

“When a social and political movement is launched on the streets, those who started it will not necessarily be able to control it in the end,” IRNA quoted Jahangiri as saying. “Those who are behind such events will burn their own fingers.”

Rouhani’s leading achievement, a 2015 deal with world powers that curbed Iran’s disputed nuclear programme in return for the lifting of most international sanctions, has yet to bring the broad economic benefits the government says are coming.

Unemployment stood at 12.4% in this fiscal year, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran, up 1.4% from the previous year. About 3.2 million Iranians are jobless, out of a total population of 80 million.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IranProtests?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IranProtests</a></p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/946949708915924994?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
At least Iranians can protest openly against the government, despite some heavy handedness. Can equivalent protests occur in Saudi Arabia or other parts of the Gulf ?
 
These Iranians have always made trouble for us as well. Now taste some in return as well. People have the right to protest if they are unhappy.
 
Iran has moved to restrict social media networks that have been used to organise three days of anti-establishment protests.

The restrictions on messaging app Telegram and photo sharing app Instagram are "temporary", state news agency Irib reported.

The decision was taken "to maintain tranquillity and security of society", a source was quoted as saying.

The protests have been the biggest show of dissent since huge rallies in 2009.

They began in the north-east as an outcry against economic hardship and rising prices, but turned political in many places, with slogans chanted against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and Iran's interventionist foreign policy in the region.

After violence flared in many places on Saturday, it is unclear how many demonstrations are occurring on Sunday. There are reports of water cannon being used by police in Tehran against protesters who have gathered in a central square.

Why are these social networks being restricted?
In a tightly controlled media environment, much of the information about the demonstrations has emerged via social media, and platforms like Telegram and Instagram have been used extensively by protesters.

Telegram in particular is very popular in Iran, with more than 50% of the country's 80m population said to be active on the app.

The company's CEO Pavel Durov tweeted that Iranian authorities took action after his company refused to shut down "peacefully protesting channels".

Mr Durov explained in a Telegram post that a major foreign-based opposition channel, Amadnews, was blocked on Saturday by Telegram after it called for violence against police.

He said a new "peaceful channel" - access to which is now being restricted - was set up for hundreds of thousands of their subscribers.

Iranian Communications Minister Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi had earlier accused channels like Amadnews of promoting "armed uprising and social unrest", including the use of petrol bombs.

Where will the protests lead?
Analysis by Kasra Naji, BBC Persian

There is widespread and seething discontent in Iran where repression is pervasive and economic hardship is getting worse - one BBC Persian investigation has found that on average Iranians have become 15% poorer in the past 10 years.

Protests have remained confined to relatively small pockets of mostly young male demonstrators who are demanding the overthrow of the clerical regime.

They have spread even to small towns throughout the country and have the potential to grow in size.

But there is no obvious leadership. Opposition figures have long been silenced or sent into exile.

Even in exile, there is no one opposition figure that commands a large following. Some protesters have been calling for the return of the monarchy and the former shah's son, Reza Pahlavi, who lives in exile in the United States, has issued a statement supporting the demonstrations. But there are signs that he is as much in the dark about where these protests are going as anyone else.

BBC Persian, which broadcasts on TV, on radio and online from London, is banned in Iran - where staff and their families routinely face harassment and questioning from the authorities.

Has there been violence?
There were outbreaks of clashes in several cities on Saturday and two protesters died of gunshot wounds in the western city of Dorud.

The authorities said security forces did not open fire on demonstrators, and blamed the deaths instead on Sunni Muslim extremists and foreign powers.

US warns Iran: The world is watching
Iran's Revolutionary Guards take lead on foreign affairs
Who are the Basij militia?
Correspondents say the reference to foreign intelligence agencies was intended to mean Saudi Arabia.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have warned anti-government protesters they will face the nation's "iron fist" if political unrest continues. Scores of people are reported to have been arrested in recent days.


The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is a powerful force with ties to the country's supreme leader, and is dedicated to preserving the country's Islamic system.

Brig-Gen Esmail Kowsari told the Isna news agency: "If people came into the streets over high prices, they should not have chanted those slogans and burned public property and cars."

Iran's interior minister has also warned the public that protesters will be held accountable.

graphic showing many cities where there have been protests
What has been the response, at home and abroad?
The Iranian authorities are blaming anti-revolutionaries and agents of foreign powers for the outbreak of protests.

But politicians have also weighed in. Reformists tend to stress people's right to freedom of expression, while conservatives highlight economic problems and accuse some of attempting to hijack the protests and divert attention from economic problems to political demands.

Who is Hassan Rouhani?
The US has led international support for the protesters.

In his latest tweet on the issue, President Donald Trump said that Iranians were "finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism".

Iran's foreign ministry called earlier comments from Mr Trump and other US officials "opportunistic and deceitful".

What happened in 2009?

On Saturday, thousands of pro-government demonstrators turned out for pre-arranged rallies across the country to mark the eighth anniversary of the suppression of the 2009 street protests.

Those mass demonstrations - referred to as the Green Movement - were held by millions of opposition supporters against the disputed election victory of incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

At least 30 people were killed and thousands arrested in the wave of protests, which drew the largest crowds on Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42529576
 
Last edited:
The last frontier for USA,read there have been taring down posters of the Ayatollah,unheard of in my lifetime.
 
The iranian regime is very resilient, these random protests always crop up every few years, it's kinda like a seasonal flu - they'll be over it no time.
 
Looks like Iran needs some freedom! vis-a-vis Libya, Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia....
I wonder why the protests in Bahrain never make it on the top pages on BBC/Sky/CNN etc etc
 
Looks like Iran needs some freedom! vis-a-vis Libya, Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia....

If Iranian government tries to quash the protests with that in mind they are not going to solve anything. Seems like the protests are about corruption and unemployment unless people want to argue that they are American agents. So they have legitimate reasons to protest against the government.
 
Two people were shot dead in demonstrations in Iran on Sunday evening, bringing the death toll to four in the biggest wave of unrest that the country has seen since 2009.

The two were killed in the southwestern city of Izeh, the area's local member of parliament, Hedayatollah Khademi, told the semi-official ILNA news agency.

Khademi said he did not know whether the deadly shots were fired by security officials or protesters, according to the report.

Izeh is located in the oil-rich southern province of Khuzestan, just south of the Lorestan province where two other Iranians were killed in protests on Saturday evening.

The violence continued for a fourth day on Sunday despite President Hassan Rouhani's appeal for calm. In a pre-recorded address aired on state TV, Rouhani said that while Iranians had the right to criticize authorities, the government would show no tolerance for those stoking unrest.

"We are a free nation, and according to the constitution and citizen rights, the people are free to express their criticism and even their protests," Rouhani said.

"But criticism should not be accompanied with violence or vandalizing public property." Rouhani also acknowledged public concerns over the economy and corruption.

Earlier, state-run media outlet IRIB reported that Iranian officials had temporarily restricted access to social media apps Instagram and Telegram, which have been used by Iranians to share news about the protests.

Social media has helped galvanize tens of thousands participating in the protests -- described as the largest public display of discontent in Iran since the 2009 Green Movement, when people took to the streets to dispute the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The recent unrest stemmed from discontent over rising food and fuel prices, but has boiled over into a nationwide outcry against the government. In a rare act of defiance, some protestors have even called for the resignation of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

Video shared on social media captured Iranians chanting "We don't want an Islamic Republic" and "Death to the dictator." CNN has not independently verified the authenticity of the footage, purportedly shot in the western city of Khorramabad.

US President Donald Trump voiced his support for the demonstrations in a series of tweets on Sunday. He posted: "The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!"

Rouhani, who won re-election in May, said in his speech that Trump had been at the root of many of Iranians' woes, "constantly creating problems" for people in the country since he entered the White House.

http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/01/w...iran-protests-deaths-rouhani-intl0630AMVODtop
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration. The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/947810806430826496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Donald Trump's public support would only work in opposite direction, should work like Obama,don't show any interest and destroy the complete country aka Libya!
 
Protests in Iran continued late into Monday, despite the president saying that the unrest "is nothing".

Anti-government chanting and burning cars were reported on the fifth day of unrest, while police said an officer was killed in a central city and others wounded.

At least 13 people are believed to have died in the clashes so far.

President Hassan Rouhani said protests were an "opportunity, not a threat" but vowed to crack down on "lawbreakers".

The US meanwhile stepped up support for the protesters' "bold resistance".

The protests began last Thursday in the city of Mashhad, initially against price rises and corruption but now with wider anti-government sentiment.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-42535292
 
Jemima's idiot brother has been talking about things he has no knowledge of again

<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en-gb"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Zac Goldsmith loves all those brown people... he can't tell them apart mind...but he loves them all <a href="https://t.co/J4nwG8XveE">pic.twitter.com/J4nwG8XveE</a></p>— The Absolute Boy JC (@TheBirmingham6) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheBirmingham6/status/948336132785360901?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">2 January 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Very different to the previous protests...all in working class areas in places most haven't heard of...no leaders coming out...the ethnic areas...Azeri, Kurd, Arab are protesting...so there seems to be an inequality angle to this too...while the previous protests were still about working within the system...these ones seem to be about removing it...

Simply blaming foreign interference is poor form...and tbf Trump and Bibi's response has been equally pathetic...
 
Amazing that these Arabs and Iranians have a habit of protesting and throwing regimes

Compared to Pakistanis they are better fed and educated and have better leaders than Pakistanis no one can be worse in corruption than pmln and ppp.

Yet Pakistanis will never do a revolution , Iranians are moaning about no jobs the situation is worse for educated youth in Pakistan , Iranians moan about low quality imported chickens yet in Pakistan the masses are eating raw onions with roti like the old men did back in the old days

Imagine if these mighty Arabs and Iranians were eating onions with roti they would lose the plot they should learn some sabr from the Pakistani population and cool down their inflated egos
 
I would love to get an unbiased view inside the country and see how ordinary people live. Seems all we ever hear about Iran is propaganda from inside the regime and western powers who have their own interests at stake. I never could understand what brought about the Islamic revolution in that country in the first place.
 
Few days back you get the news of Israel heads saying change of govt is needed in Iran and only after few days you see this. We all know the realities behind the anti-corruption claims.
 
I would love to get an unbiased view inside the country and see how ordinary people live. Seems all we ever hear about Iran is propaganda from inside the regime and western powers who have their own interests at stake. I never could understand what brought about the Islamic revolution in that country in the first place.

So you doubt Iranian regime doesn't waste resources in other lands on 'proxy wars' against Saudi Arabia? They also waste a lot of money to spread and defend their version of Islam.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948548807612084224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
These Iranians have always made trouble for us as well. Now taste some in return as well. People have the right to protest if they are unhappy.

It's a start. Theocracy governments are not going to last for too long. We have already seen changes even in Saudi Arabia with women getting more rights like driving cars.
 
So you doubt Iranian regime doesn't waste resources in other lands on 'proxy wars' against Saudi Arabia? They also waste a lot of money to spread and defend their version of Islam.

The issue as it stands is they need to no? I mean people forget what a nasty civil war they had against Saddam. And the fact that they are surrounded by Sunni states. It was important for them to keep Bashar in power, just as it is important for them to keep the Saudis in check in Yemen, and to use Hezbollah against both Lebanon and Israel.

With Israel improving it's ties with the Sunni states (minus Turkey and Qatar) it becomes even more imperative for them to keep their proxies working. One of their interests is a base in Syria which is useful.

The issue that they have had though is they haven't managed to sell this idea well enough to the populace who don't feel an existential threat and would prefer the money be spent inside the country, and Iranian lives not be lost fighting 'others' wars. These aren't 'others' wars.

They tried to appeal to the masses with their Islam and i'd say their support for Palestinian groups won them a few fans in the Islamic world. The events however in Syria took away all that goodwill.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948548807612084224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Comments like this are cringeworthy. It just plays into the regime narrative of 'foreign hands' being at play. That said even if Trump weren't doing this the Iranians would probably be saying the same.
 
So you doubt Iranian regime doesn't waste resources in other lands on 'proxy wars' against Saudi Arabia? They also waste a lot of money to spread and defend their version of Islam.

I can see that they do those things, but I was wondering what would make them follow such a path and why they went in that direction after being almost the opposite when they were once a secular state under the Shah.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/948548807612084224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Hinting at clear and obvious interference in other nation's affairs, then they wonder when other countries do the same. Someone needs to shut him up, he's making the US look stupid.
 
It's a start. Theocracy governments are not going to last for too long. We have already seen changes even in Saudi Arabia with women getting more rights like driving cars.

The Rouhani administration has created 700,000 jobs for women and over 50% of Iranian university students are women.

The female literacy rate in Iran puts Pakistan's to shame. Even Iran's mullahs are far more progressive when it comes to issue of family planning/contraception than Pakistan.

Iran obviously is far behind international standards for womens' rights but it doesn't deserve to be compared with Pakistan or the hellhole for women that's Saudi Arabia.
 
The issue as it stands is they need to no? I mean people forget what a nasty civil war they had against Saddam. And the fact that they are surrounded by Sunni states. It was important for them to keep Bashar in power, just as it is important for them to keep the Saudis in check in Yemen, and to use Hezbollah against both Lebanon and Israel.

With Israel improving it's ties with the Sunni states (minus Turkey and Qatar) it becomes even more imperative for them to keep their proxies working. One of their interests is a base in Syria which is useful.

The issue that they have had though is they haven't managed to sell this idea well enough to the populace who don't feel an existential threat and would prefer the money be spent inside the country, and Iranian lives not be lost fighting 'others' wars. These aren't 'others' wars.

They tried to appeal to the masses with their Islam and i'd say their support for Palestinian groups won them a few fans in the Islamic world. The events however in Syria took away all that goodwill.

The thing is ,both Iran and Saudi Arabia are two theocracy states who are in power right now because of their religious movements. And they feel that it's their religious duty to expand their version of Islam beyond their borders and defend,fund and look after people who belong to their group. This is why Iraq,Pakistan,Afghanistan,Syria have become playgrounds for these countries to play their nasty games on.

I'm sure you are a better student of Muslim's political history but Why Saddam became anti-Iran if Iran wasn't interfering in Iraq's internal matters? I live in Pakistan and I can clearly see involvement and heavy funding of both Iran and Saudi Arabia on different madaras and religious groups.

Iranian people who are protesting have a fair point. There is one thing called "defense" and other thing called "expansion" which both Iran and Saudi Arabia are carrying for years.
 
The Rouhani administration has created 700,000 jobs for women and over 50% of Iranian university students are women.

The female literacy rate in Iran puts Pakistan's to shame. Even Iran's mullahs are far more progressive when it comes to issue of family planning/contraception than Pakistan.

Iran obviously is far behind international standards for womens' rights but it doesn't deserve to be compared with Pakistan or the hellhole for women that's Saudi Arabia.

But you cannot deny the amount of resources they spend on their religious duties as a state..for example these are some of the figures out of their next years budget for ideological entities..

$110 million for the High Council of Religious Seminaries, which oversees all religious seminaries in the country and issues permits for the establishment of new schools, among other things. Its budget shows an increase of more than 16 percent compared to the previous year.
$105 million for “supporting religious seminaries.” From that amount, $88 million will be allocated to training male clergymen and $16 million for “cultural and promotional activities” by male students of religious seminaries.
$5 million for supporting religious “research activities” by seminary students.
$150 million for the Service Center for Religious Seminaries, a welfare institution that provides support to retired and disabled clergymen and the families of deceased clergy. The institution also pays scholarships for religious seminaries and funds cultural and sports activities for students.
$29 million for the Council for Planning and Management of Religious Seminaries in Khorasan Province.
$64 million for the Policy Making Council for Women’s Religious Seminaries.
$75 million for Al-Mustafa International University, an umbrella organization for religious seminaries providing education to foreign students within and outside of Iran. This institution is also used for expanding influence abroad. It is worth mentioning that the budget allocated to Al-Mustafa University is much higher than the fund provided to some of the major regular universities, like Amir Kabir University in Tehran with $63 million, and Tabriz University with $64 million.
$23 million for the supreme leader’s representative in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The fund will be spent on deploying preachers, overseeing the compatibility of IRGC rules and regulations with Islam, spiritual ceremonies, and guiding and promoting political vision.
$17 million for maintaining the mausoleum and residence of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran’s Islamic Republic, and for protecting his ideological heritage by publishing books and holding commemorations and conferences.
https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-clergy-secures-millions/28920567.html
 
Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reportedly arrested in Shiraz city for inciting unrest, Al Arabiya reported on Sunday.

Ahmadinejad, who served as the president of Iran from 2005 to 2013, will be placed under house arrest if Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei grants permission to the authorities to do so, according to Al Arabiya. The news of his arrest has been reported by several news outlets.

On Dec 28, anti-government protesters had taken to the streets of Iran over economic issues. The protests quickly spiraled out of control and turned against the regime as a whole, leaving 21 dead.

The protests, which vented anger at high unemployment and official corruption, were the largest seen in Iran since the disputed 2009 presidential election, and some demonstrators called for the overthrow of the government. Hundreds of people were detained during the protests.

According to Al Arabiya, the former Iranian president has been arrested for inciting the unrest and more demonstrations that began late December.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported that during a visit to Bushehr city late last month, Ahmadinejad had said that Iran suffered from “mismanagement” and that current President Hassan Rouhani and his government “believe that they own the land and that the people are an ignorant society".

“Some of the current leaders live detached from the problems and concerns of the people, and do not know anything about the reality of society," Ahmadinejad had reportedly said.

On Sunday, Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a powerful paramilitary force loyal to Khamenei, had claimed victory against the protesters.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1381591/f...inejad-arrested-for-inciting-violence-reports
 
Amazing that these Arabs and Iranians have a habit of protesting and throwing regimes

Compared to Pakistanis they are better fed and educated and have better leaders than Pakistanis no one can be worse in corruption than pmln and ppp.

Yet Pakistanis will never do a revolution , Iranians are moaning about no jobs the situation is worse for educated youth in Pakistan , Iranians moan about low quality imported chickens yet in Pakistan the masses are eating raw onions with roti like the old men did back in the old days

Imagine if these mighty Arabs and Iranians were eating onions with roti they would lose the plot they should learn some sabr from the Pakistani population and cool down their inflated egos

Seems to me they just have more self respect and dignity then Pakistani's, maybe Pakistani people should learn from their neighbours.

In Australia we have always been taught that politicians and governments are our employees and we as taxpayers and voters are their employers, this mentality sets a precedent in overall expectations.
 
Iran has executed a wrestler accused of murder, state media report, defying international appeals for him to be spared.

Navid Afkari, 27, was sentenced to death over the murder of a security guard during a wave of anti-government protests in 2018.
He said he had been tortured into making a confession.

A union representing 85,000 athletes worldwide was among those to call for a stay of execution.

The World Players Association said he had been "unjustly targeted" for taking part in the protests, and called for Iran's expulsion from world sport if it went ahead with the execution.

US President Donald Trump also appealed for mercy, saying the wrestler's "sole act was an anti-government demonstration on the streets".

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) called his execution "very sad news" and said their thoughts were with his family and friends.

"It is deeply upsetting that the pleas of athletes from around the world and all the behind-the-scenes work of the IOC... did not achieve our goal," their statement said.

Afkari was executed by hanging in the southern city of Shiraz, state media report.

His brothers Vahid and Habib were sentenced to 54 and 27 years in prison in the same case, according to human rights activists in Iran.
In an audio recording leaked from the prison where he is being held, Afkari said he had been tortured. His mother said her sons were forced to testify against each other.

The brothers' lawyer, Hassan Younesi, said on Twitter that contrary to Iranian news reports, there was no video of the moment of the security guard's killing. He added that footage used as evidence in the case was taken an hour before the crime took place.
The Iranian authorities have denied accusations of torture.

Afkari was a national champion in wrestling, a sport that has a long history and is hugely popular in Iran.

In 2018, protesters in cities across Iran took to the streets over economic hardship and political repression.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54129949
 
Why does this even matter to other nations, it's an intern issue. If Iran wants to issue a death penalty for murder, then so be it.

Second, why are sports organisations getting involved in political matters?
 
Back
Top