Iran’s Exiled Prince Urges Widespread Strikes, More Protests

By early afternoon, demonstrations in Tehran and several other cities were noisy and large, in parallel with protests in many universities.

Demonstrations were taking place during the day in Esfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz, Rasht, Mashhad, Sanandaj, Kerman, Hamedan, and other cities.

By evening, there were reports and videos of unrest in several districts of the capital Tehran, but due to government disruption of Internet access it is hard to get a full picture of the situation in all cities.

Saturday's protests are an indication of a new strategy by activists in Iran. Instead of sporadic demonstrations every day, which is easier to control for the government, weekly protests appear to be more effective, showing government's inability to suppress protesters when crowds are larger and appear simultaneously in many cities and locations.

Street protests had become less frequent and more limited since October 2, prompting senior clerics and officials supporting the regime to claim that the uprising had been crushed. However, it was clear that civil disobedience and smaller protests were continuing amid continuing negative news about teenage protesters having been killed by security forces in September.

Haphazard government attempts to explain away the deaths as accidents or suicides were dismissed by a public extremely distrustful of the authorities who have severely restricted access to the Internet.

In the meantime, Western pressure is increasing on the Islamic Republic to respect international norms and the human and civil rights of its citizens.

While the United States imposed sanction on some officials responsible for cracking down on dissent, Canada on Friday imposed sanctions on the Revolutionary Guard that are the backbone of Tehran’s repressive machinery.

We provided live coverage of Saturday’s protests below by posting news and videos that were appearing on social media and received by our newsroom.

Our coverage lasted roughly 11 hours and ended at 00:10 Tehran time on Sunday.

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Protest in Mehabad, a town in Western Iran, Saturday night.

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A lone woman with hijab standing in the street with a sign bearing the name of Mahsa Amini that says, "No to the dictatorial Islamic Republic".

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Police attacking houses that opened their doors to give refuge to protesters fleeing arrest in Karaj, a city 20 miles west of Tehran.

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Hengaw Kurdish-Iranian human rights monitoring group reported around 20:00 local time of intense clashes between protesters and security forces in several Kurdish-majority cities in western Iran, including Saqqez, the hometown of Mahsa Amini, the woman who was killed in police custody in September.

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Protesters are seen around 20:00 local time in Tehran chanting "Death to the dictator".

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A video from earlier Saturday shows security forces in a Tehran street with one armed man firing a shotgun toward protesters.

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A new video from the Saadat Abad district of Tehran shows men and women chanting "Women, Life, Liberty" in evening hours."

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A video has been received showing protests in the central city of Arak.

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President Ebrahim Raisi held a meeting with the speaker of parliament and the head of Judiciary Saturday evening to discuss the ongoing unrest.

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People blocking the roads in the western city of Sanandaj where security forces killed a driver earlier in the day.

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Around 19:00 local time. Demonstrations in the working class district of Nazi Abad in Tehran, reported earlier, appears to have become larger without any visible reaction from security forces.

Another video from Nazi Abad shows protesters milling around.

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Another protest in the western part of Tehran where is big fire is burning in the street. It is hard to say if protesters have lit a fire to block the street or it is a police car ablaze.

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Early evening in Tehran (around noon Washington DC time). Protest in Shariati Avenue, a main boulevard in Tehran.

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Early evening in Tehran. Protest in the eastern Tehran Pars district. The tweet says the crowd is getting larger by the minute.

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Saeed Hafezi, an Iranian journalist currently residing in Germany, has tweeted that a workers' strike has spread in the Abadan refinery near the Persian Gulf. The director of the refinery has sent a report on the strike to government officials. He added that since yesterday truck drivers at the refinery refused to work and today the strike has expanded. Oil workers are key to Iran's strategic energy sector that provides its main export and revenue.

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It is now early evening in Tehran and a huge column of protesters are seen in Nazi Abad, a working calls district in the south of the capital.

At 18:00 local time, again in Nazi Abad.

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At Vosughi Sqaure in Tehran protesters chant "Mojtaba, you will die before you see yourself as leader". Mojtaba is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's son, said to be preparing to succeed his 83-year-old father when he dies.

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An iconic scene of security forces fleeing protesters in the western city of Sanandaj with a Kurdish population.

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ALERT - A YOUNG WOMAN SHOT BY SECURITY FORCES IN MASHHAD. VIDEO CONTAINS SENSITIVE IMAGES.

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A group of protesters marching in the northern city of Rasht and passing cars blow their horns to show support.

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Protests in the western city of Hamedan and at its university on Saturday. People chant, "Women, Life Liberty".

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Security forces in a Tehran street attacking and beating up people, while some are aiming their guns at them.

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Reports from Tehran say all the traditional Bazaar has shut down and merchants and retail workers have joined protests. In the video below the voice says people have taken over downtown streets near a subway station.

A smaller bazaar in northern Tehran was also on strike Saturday - Tajrish

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A member of security forces shot and killed a male driver in Sanandaj, western Iran, because he was honking in his car in support of the protests. The incident has outraged Iranians on social media.

WARNING: DISTURBING IMAGES

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A large crowd of students in Tehran's Polytechnic University protested on campus Saturday.

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One of several protests in the capital Tehran. This one is in the Narmak district. The leading role of women can be seen among the chanting crowd.

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Protesters in Esfahan (Isfahan) central Iran chanting "Death to the dictator".

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Protests in Shiraz, southern Iran, early Saturday afternoon.

Security forces armed with shotguns seen trying to push protesters back.

Another scene of protests from Shiraz. People are chanting "Freedom, freedom"

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By early afternoon, protests began in Tehran's Keshavarz Blvd, where the first demonstrations took place on September 19, after the killing of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran's notorious 'morality' police.

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A large protest in Mashhad's Azad University, where students were chanting "Women, Life, Liberty". Mashhad is an important religious center.

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Hundreds of students protesting at women's Al Zahra University in Tehran as President Ebrahim Raisi visited the campus. They chant "Raisi, get lost".

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Police use tear gas near Sharif University in Tehran, where student protesters last week were surrounded and many arrested after beatings by plainclothes agents.

Gunshots are heard around Sharif University around noon time in Tehran.

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Protest in Tehran's technical University Saturday morning.

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A sizeable crowd protesting in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city and an important religious city controlled by a firebrand ayatollah, Ahmad Alamolhoda, who is President Ebrahim Raisi's father-in-law.

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Security forces were heavily present in all parts of the capital Tehran since Saturday morning, as one citizen reported that they have brought buses for possibly taking away protesters, but as of mid-day no large demonstrations were reported.

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Friday night, October 7, some individuals set fire to a large propaganda banner depicting former IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a targeted US air strike in Iraq in January 2020.

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High school student in the western Kurdish city of Sanandaj demonstrating as they chant, "Women, Life Freedom".

There was also a general strike in Sanandaj with all shops closed as seen in this video.

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Protest in the central city of Kerman at mid-day on Saturday, as crowds chant, "Death to the dictator".

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Vahid Jalalzadeh, the chairman of the National Security Committee of the Iranian parliament, said on Saturday the Islamic Republic will provide Iranians with access to the Internet if the European countries cut off “anti-Iran” networks in cyberspace.

Late in September, Iran’s foreign ministry had summoned the British ambassador in Tehran over what it called “a hostile atmosphere” created by London-based Persian media outlets. There are three London-based major Iranian satellite TV channels beaming programs into Iran; Iran International TV, Manoto TV and BBC Persian.

After protests began in mid-September the Biden Administration pledged to help the people in Iran to circumvent Internet filtering as well as providing alternative methods of connectivity as opposed to traditional land and phone line internet.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee is now considering a bill to support global Internet freedom, following government disruption of access in Iran amid protests.

Authorities disrupt the Internet to prevent news of unrest reaching the rest of the country and abroad, and to prevent protesters from galvanizing support in nearby regions.

Amid heightened restrictions on Internet access following nationwide antigovernment protests, Iranians’ use of VPNs has risen over 3,000 percent in the previous month.

Hacktivist group Edalat-e Ali (Ali's Justice) hacked the Iranian state TV's live news broadcast, displaying a photo of Ali Khamenei with the verse "The Blood of Our Youths Is on Your Hands" along with photos of Mahsa Amini and three teenage girls killed in the current uprising across the country. 

The photo bore a message to the Iranian people, calling on them to join the protests and be part of the uprising that was ignited by the murder of 22-year-old Amini in the custody of hijab police.

Earlier in the year, the group hacked the television website and broadcasted a video with a strong opposition message after it disrupted a few TV and radio channels a week earlier. The video started with footage of people in Tehran’s Azadi stadium shouting “death to dictator” referring to Supreme Leader Ali Kamenei, then it cut into a close up of a masked man similar to the protagonist of the movie V for Vendetta, who said “Khamenei is scared, the regime’s foundation is rattling”.

Since the beginning of the protests in mid-September, several hacking groups have been helping the Iranians with targeting state websites and online services. They have released numerous documents and have disrupted hundreds of surveillance cameras. 

In an interview with Iran International, he denied the forensic report about the cause of his daughter's death and said that he has repeatedly requested to publish the video of his daughter's arrest, but the authorities have not done it yet. 

He added that "I saw with my own eyes that blood had come from Mahsa's ears and back of her neck."

He had earlier said that he held the police responsible for her death.

About three weeks after Mahsa death, the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization announced on Friday that her death was "not caused by blow to the head and limbs" but by multiple organ failure caused by cerebral hypoxia. It did not say whether she had suffered any injuries. The report did say she fell while in custody due to "underlying diseases".

Amini’sdeath while in the custody of Iran's morality police has ignited three weeks of nationwide protests. Young women and men have simply rebelled against enforcement of restrictive Islamic rules on their lifestyles and demand an end to religious government.

Iran International obtained Amini’s brain CT scan from hospital sources in September that shows bone fracture in the skull, hemorrhage and brain edema, Iran International has learned.

"Security forces are shooting at the protesters in Sanandaj and Saqqez," said the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Kurdish rights group. The widely followed 1500Tavsir Twitter account also reported shootings at protesters in the two western Kurdish cities.

Hengaw also published a video of a driver who was shot dead by security forces just because he was showing his protest with a long honk. 

High school students in Sanandaj have joined the demonstrations, chanting, "Women, Life Liberty" while there was also a general strike in the city with all shops closed. 

Oslo-based organization Iran Human Rights said on Saturday that at least 185 people have been killed in the uprising ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The NGO added that about 20 of the killed were minors. 

The protests first erupted in Mahsa Amini’s hometown Saqqez and capital Tehran and soon spread to all over the country and garnered support from Iranian expatriate communities around the world as well as foreign governments and officials. 

The Persian hashtag to express support for the protests has been retweeted over 270 million times and is still being used.