University Students in Iran Protest Hijab Enforcement, Boycott Classes

In the southeastern region of Iran, at Kerman Central Prison notorious for its numerous human rights violations, 5 Baluch prisoners and one Kurdish prisoner were executed.

Iran has escalated executions in recent months amid a worsening economic crisis, and following nationwide anti-government protests in 2022-2023.

This comes in the wake of Amnesty International's recent report, which disclosed that Iran conducted at least 853 executions in the past year, marking the highest figure in eight years. More than half of these executions were linked to drug-related offenses.

Among them were Ahmadreza Miri, 34, from Zabol, Shamsuldin Kashani, 53, and Shokat Shahbakhsh, both hailing from Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province. Miri and Kashani were apprehended for drug-related offenses at the entrance of Kerman city in 2021 and subsequently sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Kerman, Haalvsh reported. According to sources close to Miri as reported by Haalvsh, he vehemently denied the drug transportation charges in court, maintaining that he was solely the bus driver where the drugs were discovered.

Additionally, an unidentified Baluch prisoner was simultaneously executed alongside these individuals on Sunday. Furthermore, Jamal Mardani, 54, from Miandoab, West Azarbaijan province, was also executed in the same prison, according to reports from Haalvsh and Hengaw. The 6 prisoners had their final family visitation on Saturday and were transferred to solitary confinement in anticipation of their executions.

Meanwhile, in Chabahar prison, located in Sistan and Baluchestan province, two inmates, Saeed Jadgal and Mohammad Anjomrooz, both in their thirties and married with children, were executed. They were arrested approximately six years ago on drug-related charges and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court of Kerman, according to sources cited by Haalvsh.

In the northwest of Tehran, in Karaj at Ghezel Hesar Prison, the largest state prison in Iran, two inmates, Alireza Shahbaz, 38, from Tehran, and Abdolbari Pashto from Afghanistan, were executed. According to Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRNA) both inmates were executed for drug-related offenses and both individuals were married with children. They were transferred to solitary confinement on Saturday prior to their executions in the early hours of Sunday.

Notably, the Iranian authorities have not officially announced the execution of these nine prisoners, and state-affiliated media have remained silent on the matter.

In April, over 80 human rights organizations called for joint action to end drug-related executions in Iran and urged the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to demand a cessation of drug-related executions from the Iranian authorities as a condition of UNODC’s cooperation with the Iranian government. In their statement, the coalition highlighted that prisoners charged with drug offenses are sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Courts in Iran based on “torture-tainted confessions, without due process and fair trial rights and often without access to a lawyer.”.

The attack against US forces is the first since early February when Iranian-backed groups in Iraq stopped their attacks against US troops.

The attack comes one day after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani returned from a visit to the United States and met with President Joe Biden at the White House.

Two security sources and a senior army officer said a rocket launcher fixed on the back of a small truck had been parked in Zummar border town with Syria.

The military official said the truck caught fire with an explosion from unfired rockets at the same time as warplanes were in the sky.

"We can't confirm that the truck was bombed by US warplanes unless we investigate it," said a military official on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the incident.

Iraqi security forces were deployed in the area and launched a hunt for the perpetrators who fled the area using another vehicle, said a security official who is based in the town of Zummar.

The Iraqi Security Medica Cell, an official body responsible for disseminating security information, said in a statement that Iraqi forces had launched "a wide-ranging search and inspection operation" targeting the perpetrators near the Syrian border, pledging to bring them to justice.

An army officer said the truck was seized for further investigation and initial investigation shows that it was destroyed by an air strike.

"We are communicating with the coalition forces in Iraq to share information on this attack," the officer added.

A day earlier an apparent air strike hit a base of the pro-Iran Hashd al-Shaabi armed militia group causing major explosion.

In a meeting with high-ranking military commanders on Sunday, he discussed the recent military clashes between Iran and Israel, making his first public remarks since the escalation of hostilities.

During his speech, Khamenei referred to the large-scale attack by the Revolutionary Guards, in which the Guards fired 185 drones, 36 cruise missiles, and 110 ground-to-ground basilic missiles at a military base in southern Israel. Despite the extensive assault, Israeli officials have reported only limited damage, claiming that 99 percent of the projectiles were intercepted.

"The issue of the number of missiles fired or that hit the target, which the other side is focused on, is a secondary matter. The main issue is the demonstration of the will of the Iranian nation and the armed forces on the international stage," Khamenei stated. His remarks can be seen as an implicit admission of the limited effectiveness of the strikes.

According to the Iranian regime, the April 13 assault was in retaliation for an attack on Iran's consulate in Damascus, an act for which Israel has not claimed responsibility. After Iran’s attack, Israel targeted the radar system and the S-300 air defense system at the Eighth Shekari Air Base in Isfahan on Friday, as confirmed by satellite images.

In his address, Khamenei also highlighted the need for innovation in military tactics and weaponry, urging the generals to understand enemy strategies. His comments come as the US and the UK have imposed new sanctions against Iran's drone program and military figures, reflecting ongoing international concerns.

Moreover, during a recent summit in Capri, Italy, the G7 foreign ministers expressed their readiness to further sanction Tehran to mitigate its destabilizing activities in the region.

“Foreign meddling” seeks to bring about a change of the political system in Iran by using “women as a tool within the framework of a so-called opposition,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Islamist regime’s foreign minister said in an interview with CNN in response to a question about increasing pressure on Iranian women to impose the hijab.

Iran's ruler, Ali Khamenei has repeatedly denounced women opposing the imposition of Islamic practices on their chosen way of life, even branding them as enemies: "Removing the hijab is by sharia and politically forbidden... however... the enemy entered this business with a roadmap and a plan; we must also enter with a roadmap and a plan."

Do Iranian women possess the potential to be a viable opposition? How does Khamenei perceive “the enemy's” strategy? What strategy do women employ when confronting a government that views them as adversaries?

The potential for women to become an opposition force

Iranian women have a high capacity to spearhead the opposition to the Islamist regime. Although more than half of the university student population are women, their share in the Iranian labor market is about 14%. The share of Iranian women in the country's top management is less than 6%.

In terms of rights violations, women face the most structural and legal infringements after the Baha'i religious community. These violations span from family and education to employment and public service, encompassing human rights abuses and denying equal opportunities. Hence, there's no necessity for "foreign enemies" to provoke women into opposition; their circumstances and oppressions necessitate it.

The women's movement against the violation of their fundamental rights stands as the most active anti-government social movement today. In contrast, other movements like labor, retirees, and teachers’ movements, while significant, are less directly targeted at the government, Shia Islamism, and Shia clergy.

“Enemy’s plan”

When Ali Khamenei talks about the enemy's plan, he means any action that challenges the regime, including not observing the hijab. He believes any challenge is organized and directed by foreign enemies. This attitude also has a practical aspect: when the opposition is rooted abroad, its suppression with coercive forces becomes legitimate, and women who commit civil disobedience should be treated as foreign agents.

In April 2024, the government launched a new hybrid war against women. The following methods are used in this war:

1. Deploying shockers to incapacitate women who protest verbally and behaviorally or resist arrest;

2. Throwing blankets over women’s heads during their arrest for hijab violation;

3. Deploying plainclothes agents next to the special police units to prevent the protest of passers-by;

4. Insulting and verbally humiliating women and sexually harassing them during detention;

5. Deploying formidable agents with obscured faces to enhance intimidation; and

6. Displaying street banners that equate hijab with morality and religiosity.

In this operation, women are arrested with minimal resistance. The latest crackdown on women is no longer carried out by regular morality police or patrols; it involves a special police unit.

Protesting women's plan

Today, the Iranian women's movement against Islamist totalitarianism, which has persisted through fluctuations over the past 45 years, exhibits three key characteristics:

A. Nationwide networking. Iranian women activists are connected in a nationwide network. This network includes three social groups: 1) Former and current women prisoners who have been persecuted simply because of their beliefs or expressing their opinions. Their number has risen to thousands in the last decade, 2) Bereaved wives, mothers, and sisters whose children, brothers and husbands were killed or executed by the government and who themselves spent a period in prison for demanding justice; and 3) women who have been active in labor, student, teacher, environmental and retirees’ movements. They gather outside prisons and cemeteries to protest. The nodes of these networks are constantly under pressure from the intelligence agencies; those who have the power to organize and mobilize have been kept in prison for years, such as Sepideh Qolian, Bahareh Hedayat, and Fatemeh Sepehri.

B. Social Networks. Politically active Iranian women have a relatively loud voice on social. Many bereaved mothers such as Camelia Sajjadian, Leily Mahdavi, Gohar Eshqi, Mojgan Eftekhari (Masa Amini’s mother), and Nasrin Shahkarami, and others are active on Instagram and call others to protest. Leily Mahdavi, Gohar Eshqi, Nasrin Shahkarami, and Camelia Sajjadian's Instagram pages have about 83k, 36k, 171k, and 89k followers respectively.

C. Protest meetings. The mothers of those killed in the 1988 prison massacre, who congregated at the unofficial Khavaran cemetery, and the mothers of victims from the Green Movement, who assembled in Tehran's Laleh Park, gradually gained recognition as prominent groups. Following movements such as those in December 2017, November 2019, and the Mahsa Movement, bereaved mothers, sisters, and wives continued to convene at cemeteries, overwhelming the government's capacity to station security forces at every gravesite to prevent their gatherings. These ongoing meetings have fostered networks and actions that unsettle the government.

While the issues of hijab and the killing of protesters serve as rallying points for women and the mothers of victims, worsening economic conditions in Iran provide further motivation for women's protests.

The event occurred on April 12, in a match between Esteghlal FC and Aluminium Arak when a young female fan evaded security by running onto the field and embracing Hosseini as a means of escaping guards chasing her for not wearing the compulsory hijab. The act led to a scuffle involving Hosseini and special unit forces.

The disciplinary committee responded to the incident by suspending Hosseini for one session and imposing a fine of three billion rials (approximately $4,500).. It was deemed "unprofessional and beyond the legal duties of a player".

In a public reaction, the goalkeeper's captain made a sarcastic remark about the committee's decision, stating, "I will pay the fine, for the sake of that lady." Further complicating matters, IRNA, Iran's official news agency, reported that Hosseini might face additional penalties due to his recent public comments, suggesting that his previous suspension could now be enforced.

Legal analysts have noted that the disciplinary committee's actions appear to be in violation of existing regulations as Hosseini did not breach any specific laws during the incident, other than breaking Islamic rules about opposite sexes being in physical contact. The case has brought to light the broader issue of women's access to stadiums in Iran—a topic of significant debate and international concern for several years.

Since five years ago, FIFA has been urging Iran to allow women into football stadiums. However, the Football Federation and other governmental bodies have resisted the changes, often citing “inadequate infrastructure” as a reason for non-compliance. Despite occasional allowances for controlled entry of women into stadiums, the ongoing restrictions predominantly limit their presence, leading to sporadic participation in matches.