Iranian Regime Arrests Dozens Of Young People In Sunni City

The families were from the cities of Dehgolan, Sanandaj, Divandareh and Saqqez, who had traveled on Friday to visit the graves of those killed during the nationwide protests in Bukan and Saqqez.

The petitioning families chanted, "We Will Stand Until the End" and "Woman Life Freedom".

In Aichi cemetery in Saqqez, where Mahsa Amini’s body is laid to rest, dozens held the pictures of their loved ones.

However, regime agents arrested and transferred about 40 of them to an unknown location, including six mothers of young victims.

During the recent protests in Iran, ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Amini in September 2022, security forces killed hundreds of people and many more received permanent injuries. More than 20,000 people, including university students, actors and journalists were also detained.

The authorities not only failed to accept any responsibility but they put pressure on some of the victims' families who made statements against regime officials during funerals or on social networks. Relatives of many victims killed by the government have been summoned for questioning and arrested.

According to human rights groups, the Islamic Republic has killed over 500 people, including at least 70 children, during its crackdown on the ongoing protests.

Speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony in the northern province of Mazandaran Wednesday, Brigadier General Radan said his force will be reporting lack of adequate action in enforcing hijab laws by government offices as administrative infringement. 

He also vowed that police will be surveilling Caspian Sea beaches, in Mazandaran and Gilan provinces, by special patrols and electronically to prevent any behavior violating hijab laws. 

Threats against unveiled women have increased with the arrival of summer which has always been a season for women to ignore the strict government dress code. 

In July 2022, after weeks of harsher measures on the streets, President Ebrahim Raisi ordered all government entities to strictly implement a “chastity and hijab” law approved by the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council under hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005. 

Not long after that, the death of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of hijab enforcers, morality police, fuelled protests that spread throughout the country and lasted for several months. 

Since March hardliners have tried to put an end to women’s increasing defiance of the compulsory hijab and to reclaim the lost ground but to no avail: More women are now walking around, commuting, shopping, and jogging unveiled. 

Iran's media published the final version of a new hijab bill prepared jointly by the judiciary and the government. An earlier draft which was revealed two weeks ago was strongly criticized by hardliners which saw its punishments for unveiling “too lenient” to be able to stop women from unveiling. 

Punishments proposed in the bill are mainly cash fines ranging from 5 million rials ($10) to 240 million rials ($480) for repeat offenders, and deprivation from employment and social media activity for athletes, celebrity artists and activists who unveil. 

The bill, however, also includes provisions against “anyone” other than authorized entities, who confronts citizens in public and uses violence and threats against unveiled women. 

Hardliners such as Raisi’s very influential father-in-law, Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, who represents Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Khorasan-e Razavi Province, have strongly criticized the bill. 

Alamolhoda alleged on May 26 that the bill, if passed, would promote unveiling rather than prevent it. 

Firebrand Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of the flagship hardliner newspaper Kayhan wrote about the first version of the bill on May 21. “A look at the content of the bill and comparison with the existing laws suggests that the bill has been prepared with the possible aim of removing the existing legal obstacles [against unveiling] and preparing the ground for the spread of this nasty and abominable phenomenon rather than taking action against unveiling,” 

The population in general, however, even in many smaller and more conservative areas of the country, appears to have become much more tolerant of women who do not dress according to the prescribed codes and their newfound freedom from the hijab. 

“Women know that it’s now or never because the mullahs are afraid of more protests. They are persisting with all their might, given this opportunity, to normalize the presence of unveiled women in the society,” Ronak, a 34-year-old engineer in Tehran told Iran International. 

“They can pass any laws they want to convince their supporters they are doing something or reinstate their control but after the recent protests they have realized that the enforcement of such laws by force could be very costly and one little push too far may cause the Berlin Wall to crash down,” she said. “That’s why they are telling the vigilantes to back down.”

The telegram channel of the Amir Kabir University said Yusef Sevizi, a mining engineering master's student suffered a cardiac arrest on Wednesday in the dormitory while the university authorities did not provide medical service.

On Wednesday last week, another student named Basir Ebrahimpour suffered a cardiac arrest and died in the Abureihan building of the university.

According to the channel, the emergency department of the university caused the death of these two students within a week by "failing to send medical staff and taking care of them in time".

Mohammad Shahriari, Head of Tehran's Criminal Affairs Prosecutor's Office, said Sweizi's body was transferred to the forensics department claiming the cause of his death will be announced after "toxicology and pathology tests".

Farsi media has speculated that the two were poisoned, but so far, there has been no confirmation.

According to information received by Iran International, the funeral ceremony was held on Tuesday in the village of Rig Sefid near Khorramabad while regime agents closed roads leading to the village.

A large number of people showed up for her funeral service despite the heavy security presence. The mourners sang local folklore songs with themes such as ‘time to fight’ and ‘resistance’ while holding placards that called for justice over her death.

Sagvand had said in a message to her friend that she was threatened with death by the intelligence officers, emphasizing: "If something bad happens to me, I want everyone know that I did not commit suicide."

The young girl was a law student in the southern city of Abdanan and resigned from her position as a police aide amid the anti-regime protests in the past months.

Her body was found in her house in Abdanan a few days after she was released from police custody on bail on unknown charges.

Activists say evidence suggests Sagvand has been murdered by the Iranian regime as she was a staunch supporter of the exiled prince Reza Pahlavi. However, just like they did with Mahsa Amini who died in morality police custody, Iranian officials are claiming that Sagvand died of a cardiac arrest.

Exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi published a photo of Mansoureh Sagvand on Monday, calling on the people of Lorestan and neighboring provinces to participate in the funeral ceremony of “the daughter of Iran".

"Let the regime and its mercenaries know these crimes will not be forgotten, and any disturbance in the funeral ceremony and harassment of his bereaved family will only fuel the anger of the Iranian people," read his tweet.

Last week, Bamshad Soleimankhani, a 21-year-old student from Abdanan, died in hospital with symptoms of poisoning shortly after being released from prison after his arrest for participating in protests. Local media also said signs of fracture and torture were visible on the young man’s body.

Following Soleimankhani's suspicious death, the city of Abdanan became the scene of anti-government protests on Friday, in which at least 20 protesters were injured by birdshots.

This is not the first time the Islamic Republic does not assume responsibility for the ill-treatment and torture of detainees. During the nationwide protests the clerical regime claimed many protesters died after falling from a height or committing suicide.

The staff were summoned to the disciplinary committee after they signed a statement against the wave of chemical attacks on schools.

Back in March, over 300 university professors condemned the organized chemical attacks in hundreds of schools across the country which have since last year seen thousands of students made sick or hospitalized.

"Despite claims to protect domestic and cross-border security, the government has not taken preventive measures in the face of this obvious threat to national security," read the statement.

The action against the academics is part of a widespread crackdown on universities as the hotbed of anti-regime sentiment. Having been one of the main centers of popular protests, the regime has increased the number of security agents at campuses and beefed up inspection of the students’ belongings.

Iran's Student Union Council reported on Monday that during the past week, "a large number of students" of The University of Science and Technology were summoned for refusing to wear the mandatory hijab and what the officials called "improper outfits".

The report also claims security forces continue to threaten and harass the students in the university campus under the pretext of not wearing proper hijab while several female students have been summoned for not returning to their dormitory on time.

In the past few months Iran’s security forces summoned dozens of students to punish them for staging protests against the poisoning of schoolgirls across the country.