Iranians in several cities as well as the capital Tehran held protest rallies Wednesday to mark the 40th day since the Bloody Friday in Zahedan, when security forces killed about 100 protesters.
People in several Tehran neighborhoods poured into streets and chanted slogans against the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei while women unveiled in public as a gesture of solidarity with antigovernment protests, which have been raging for the past 54 days since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was killed by the country’s hijab, or the so-called morality police.
Wednesday’s protests were in the memory of those killed during the regime’s crackdown on protesters 40 days ago. The 40th day after one’s death carries immense significance in the Iranian culture. The Bloody Friday in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan and Baluchestan took place September 30, when security forces killed at least 93 people, and injured many more. Zahedan is one of the few Sunni-majority cities in predominantly Shiite Iran.
People prefer to protest after darkness falls primarily to avoid easy identification and targeting by government agents, while also they can about their business during the day.
According to videos posted on social media, several neighborhoods in Tehran as well as Mashhad in northeastern Iran, Shiraz in the southern Fars province, Esfahan (Isfahan) in central Iran, Rasht and Kianshahr in northern province of Gilan, and BandarAbbas in Hormozgan province on the southern Persian Gulf coast, and Kerman were scenes of demonstrations in support of the protesters in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Moreover, people in the Kurdish majority cities of Mahabad, Saqqezz – the birthplace of Mahsa Amini – Kermanshah, Shahrekord, and Sanandaj – the provincial capital of Iran’s Kordestan province – also held rallies against the clerical regime. Situation was also tense in several Turkish-majority cities such as Ardabil and Bukan and Mahabad in West Azarbaijan province.
Clashes have been reported in some western cities such as Marivan, where people are mourning the death of Nasrin Ghaderi -- a PhD candidate in philosophy who died November 6 after being beaten by security forces with batons during protests in Tehran a day earlier.
Also on Wednesday, university students across the country and people on streets held ceremonies and performances for Khodanour Lajei, one of those killed on Bloody Friday in Zahedan. A photo of him that was taken about three months ago when he was arrested by security forces has become one of the symbolic pictures that show the atrocities of the Islamic Republic’s security agents.
Holding rallies on the 40th day of people died during the Islamic Republic’s crackdown on protesters is reminiscent of a similar turn of events 44 years ago, during the revolution against the monarchy that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Marking the 40th day for people who were killed during the revolution turned into fresh protests that fueled the movement.
The US-based Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on Wednesday that about 15,000 people have been detained in Iran, adding that at least 328 people, including 50 minors, were also killed.
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When he scored a goal in the final of the Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup at Cottage Beach in the United Arab Emirates November 6, instead of the usual display of his joy Iranian player Saeed Piramoun made a gesture of cutting his hair, a symbolic act in solidarity with women protesting forced hijab in Iran. With his goal Iran won the match against Brazil 2-1 and the championship of the competitions.
The “hair-cutting” gesture has become an international symbol of solidarity with Iranian women and the protest movement with many international athletes and celebrities posting images of themselves re-enacting the move.
Authorities have made serious threats against athletes and other celebrities to stop them from public displays of solidarity with protesters but to no avail.
Many Iranians have hailed Piramoun, an ethnic Baluch from the southeastern port city of Chabahar.
“These symbolic gestures attract global attention to the protests and hit [the regime] domestically,” a tweet after the match said.
Another Twitterati opined that similar actions by sports teams and athletes may force the Islamic Republic to forsake the Qatar World Cup to avoid international disgrace. Iran will be playing its first match against England on November 21.
Without naming Piramoun in its statement Monday, Iran’s Football Federation vowed to discipline those who display their political stances in sports arenas. “Those who have not abided by professional and athletic ethics,” the statement said, would be punished according to regulations.
The federation’s exhortation against involvement in politics is in stark contradiction with its own pressure on athletes to avoid competing with Israelis in international sports competitions, even at the cost of being eliminated from the games or losing titles.
Less than a month ago Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei praised Iranian athletes who refuse to play against Israelis, and said not competing with Israeli athletes is “a victory” in itself.
Piramoun was not alone in his protest action. His teammates had unanimously refused to sing along when the Islamic Republic’s anthem was played before the semi-finals and at the awards ceremony. They stood with their arms crossed without showing any signs of celebrating their win. The state television (IRIB) hastily cut its live reporting short to prevent people from receiving the team’s message of solidarity with protests.
Authorities have tried to distort the meaning of such gestures in other instances when individual athletes and sports teams displayed less obvious gestures of solidarity with protesters than Piramoun’s, such as refusing to show any signs of celebration for scoring goals or winning games.
The state TV anchor last week claimed Esteghlal FC players’ refusal to cheer when they won this year’s Super Cup was a sign of respect for those killed in a shooting attack in Shahcheragh Shrine in Shiraz for which ISIS apparently took responsibility.
Many Iranians suspect the government of complicity with ISIS in the attack, in the least, to create its own narrative and martyrs. The Shahcheragh incident, they claim, was meant to distract attention from the opposition’s protests and those killed in them or justify harsher suppression of the protesters who, the government claims, have caused insecurity in the country.
The mourning ceremony for Nasrin Ghaderi turned into a scene of protest in the western city of Marivan where residents chanted anti-regime slogans.
Ghaderi, 35, who was a philosophy doctoral candidate in Tehran died on Saturday after being beaten by security forces with baton during Friday’s protests.
A video received by Iran International shows a girl cutting her hair at the grave of this young woman, as a symbolic act against forced hijab.
Iran's official news agency IRNA has dismissed media reports that Ghaderi was killed with baton strikes, saying she was "living her normal life" when her family suddenly lost touch with her, and once their son-in-law broke into her residence in Tehran, they found her dead.
In the meantime, several calls for protest have been issued for Wednesday in Zahedan and other cities on the occasion of the 40th day after “Bloody Friday of Zahedan”.
The Bloody Friday in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan and Baluchestan took place September 30, when security forces killed at least 93 people, and injured hundreds more. Zahedan is one of the few Sunni-majority cities in predominantly Shiite Iran.
Videos received by Iran International also show students in various Iranian universities, including Beheshti, Sharif, Kordestan Medical Sciences and Babol Noshirvani staged sit-ins on Tuesday.
Amid high inflation and an economic crisis, a group of retired teachers and civil servants gathered in front of the Planning and Budget Organization in Tehran to demand their unpaid pensions and benefits.
Another video shows a protester setting fire to a Qassem Soleimani banner. Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) extra-territorial Quds Force, was killed in Baghdad along with nine others in 2020 by a drone strike ordered by then-President Donald Trump.
The Islamic Republic and its supporters have portrayed Soleimani as a beloved hero, but protesters who want to topple the regime regard him as a war criminal who was responsible for killing both Iranians and others, such as Syrians during that country’s civil war.
Since September, people have destroyed Soleimani’s statues and pictures including in his hometown to show anger at regime’s propaganda.
A hardliner member of the Islamic Republic parliament called the move an “anarchic hate crime” that is becoming a public issue, he said.
Ali Asghar Annabestani said Tuesday that “the enemy has very cleverly turned people's protests into an anarchist riot, and protesters break all the boundaries that can be sacred for human society.”
“The people and government do not tolerate doing this to a national hero, so the security organizations must step in and prevent such acts. Destroyers should be identified and punished and then introduced to all people,” added the MP.
In another development, Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of dissident figure Mirhossein Mousavi, in a message demanded the release of imprisoned students and an end to threats, suspensions and expulsions of schoolchildren. Stating that “protest is the nation's right,” she added “Respect the youth, don't kill the nation's children and listen to the nation's voice.”
Zahra Rahnavard’s husband Mirhossein Mousavi, who has been under house arrest since February 2011, was Iran’s Prime Minister from 1981 to 1989. He was a candidate in the disputed presidential election in 2009 and challenged the results leading large protests for months before he was arrested and put under house arrest without a trial. His wife Zahra Rahnavard and another candidate Mehdi Karroubi suffered a similar fate as all three were accused of “sedition” against the regime.
Reports say after darkness fell on Tuesday, people in Tehran began chanting slogans on rooftops and at their windows, while people in the flashpoint Kurdish city of Sanandaj in the west took to the streets lighting fires and chanting antigovernment slogans.