Iran Digest Week of September 30 - October 7
/AIC’s Iran digest project covers the latest developments and news stories published in Iranian and international media outlets. This weekly digest is compiled by associate Samuel Howell. Please note that the news and views expressed in the articles below do not necessarily reflect those of AIC.
US-Iran Relations
U.S. announces new sanctions on Iran, even as it seeks a new nuclear deal
The U.S. announced fresh sanctions on Thursday against Iranian officials in punishment "for the continued violence against peaceful protesters and the shutdown of Iran's Internet access."
"We condemn the Iranian government's crackdown on its people's rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly, including by shutting down access to the internet. We will use our sanctions as long as Iran continues to disregard its people's rights," State Department spokesperson Ned Price tweeted.
Thursday's sanctions announcement follows days of growing pressure from activists for the U.S. to support the Iran protests, now in their third week, following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the country's so-called morality police.
(npr)
Nuclear Accord
Over three-quarters of Americans support Iran nuclear talks - survey
Over three-quarters of Americans think the United States should pursue negotiations to prevent Iran from obtaining or developing a nuclear weapon, according to a survey taken by the nonpartisan Eurasia Group Foundation last month to be released on Wednesday.
The survey asked 2,002 American adults between Sept. 2 and 8 about U.S. foreign policy and the global role of America. It found 78.8% of respondents, an increase from last year, think Washington should continue to pursue talks to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in the near future.
Broken down by party affiliation, the survey found that 88.0% of Democrats supported such negotiations, as did 76.9% of independents and 71.8% of Republicans after the survey informed them the United States withdrew from the original deal in 2018.
(Reuters)
Women of Iran
Nika Shakarami: Iran protester's family forced to lie about death
Relatives of a girl who died during protests in Iran have been forced into making false statements, a source close to the family has told BBC Persian.
Nika Shakarami, 16, went missing in Tehran on 20 September after telling a friend she was being chased by police.
On Wednesday night, a state TV report showed her aunt, Atash, saying: "Nika was killed falling from a building."
Her uncle was also seen on TV speaking against the unrest, as someone seems to whisper to him: "Say it, you scumbag!"
(BBC)
Why Iranian Protesters Chant 'Woman, Life, Liberty'
In a country where a man’s voice has historically been louder, the women of Iran now lead the fight for change.
Over two weeks since the innocent death of 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini by the brutal forces of the Iranian regime’s morality police, the nation’s ever-present cry for change has been supercharged by the country’s fearless women and girls calling for individual, social, civil and economic reforms.
These unprecedented protests—the largest since the 2009 “green movement”—continue to be met by a systematic crackdown including the killing and arrest of hundreds of civilians, journalists, and activists. Among those detained are two young female journalists, Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, without whom the world would have never known about Amini’s horrific plight.
(Time)
Iran protests: Why is cutting hair an act of rebellion?
Iran has been shaken by more than two weeks of protests following the death of 22-year old Masha Amini on 16 September, after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly not adhering to the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.
She was detained in a “re-education center” and three days later died in hospital. The government has argued that Amini died of a "sudden heart attack", but her family said that she had no underlying health conditions and believe she was killed.
Since then, from the Middle East to Europe and the United States, demonstrators have marched to protest Amini’s death, rally against the country’s hijab laws, and show signs of solidarity with the female population of Iran.
Economy
Iran Protests Fueled by Sickly Economy
When Nader, a 41-year-old construction company employee in Tehran, shops for groceries, he constantly adjusts his list as he wanders the aisles, double-checking prices and factoring them into his budget. His basket keeps shrinking as inflation surges: A year ago, he gave up red meat, then chicken.
Now, with Nader’s savings gone and his rent having doubled, even cheese and eggs are becoming luxuries.
“I can’t keep up with the rising prices, no matter how hard I run,” said Nader, who moonlights as a taxi driver to afford clothes and schoolbooks for his son, in a telephone interview. “Our demand is for the government to fix the economy, to understand that we are breaking under financial pressure.”
Inside Iran
How Iranian students are shaping the anti-regime protests
Twenty-year-old Melina is one of a new generation of Iranian students eager for change, and she says nothing, not even a crackdown on anti-regime demonstrations, will stop her going out on the streets to protest.
The protests would continue until “we have the freedom to choose a democratic, secular system under which there will be no discrimination”, said Melina, an electrical engineering student in Tehran.
For the first time in years, Iran’s universities have re-emerged as a central focus of protests following the death in custody of a woman arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code. These protests have spread across the country and, despite crackdowns, are continuing.
At least 82 Baluchi protesters and bystanders killed in bloody crackdown
Iranian security forces unlawfully killed at least 66 people, including children, and injured hundreds of others after firing live ammunition, metal pellets and teargas at protesters, bystanders and worshippers during a violent crackdown after Friday prayers on 30 September in Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchistan province, Amnesty International said today. Since then, another 16 people were killed in separate incidents in Zahedan amid an ongoing clampdown on protests. Evidence gathered from activists, victims’ families, eyewitness testimonies, and images and videos of the protests suggest the real death toll from Zahedan is likely to be higher.
Widely referred to by Iranians as “bloody Friday”, the onslaught on 30 September marked the deadliest day on record since protests started spreading across Iran nearly three weeks ago, after Mahsa Amini died in custody following her arrest by Iran’s “morality” police.
“The Iranian authorities have repeatedly shown utter disregard for the sanctity of human life and will stop at nothing to preserve power. The callous violence being unleashed by Iran’s security forces is not occurring in a vacuum. It is the result of systematic impunity and a lacklustre response by the international community,” said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
Regional Politics
Iranian Kurd exiles in Iraq under fire as protests rage
As protests flare across Iran over the death of young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, the Kurdistan region of neighbouring Iraq has paid a price, coming under bombardment from the Islamic republic's forces.
Their target is the long-exiled Iranian Kurdish opposition, installed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein during his war with Iran in the 1980s.
Tehran regards these armed factions as "terrorists" and accuses them of attacking its territory.
A general in Iran has charged that the Kurdish opposition groups have been inciting the Mahsa Amini protests in Iranian Kurdistan, in the face of a lethal crackdown by the security forces.
(Al-Monitor)
Analysis
The institutional roots of Iran’s protests
By: Javad Heiran-Nia
Revolutions tend to have lofty ideals, but the reality of governance often falls short of those aspirations. The 1979 Islamic Revolution was no exception. It was based on the ideals of gaining independence from foreign superpowers and achieving freedom, democracy, and justice, as well as fighting internal tyranny and supporting oppressed peoples. Forty-three years later, however, many of these goals have not been reached.
Taghi Azadarmaki, an Iranian sociologist, asserts that the Islamic Republic has become an organization suffering from many problems that cannot be solved without rational pluralist discourse. He believes that the Islamic Republic has been hostile to the middle class, which could be a culture maker and problem solver by creating civil society. Instead, according to Azadarmaki, Iran has a “quasi-middle class’’ of military generals and clerics susceptible to corruption and inefficiency.
The lack of a civil society has handicapped Iran. In developed countries, barring issues related to war and international diplomacy, many matters are dealt with by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Iranian political scientist Mahmood Sariolghalam has written that societal progress requires socio-cultural capital: interaction, trust, cooperation, and mutual respect. Only in this way can a country achieve economic growth and freedom. The responsibility for this change lies with political elites.
