Iran’s president says state must admit mistakes after protests

Farah Pahlavi, Iran’s exiled former queen, said recent protests against the country’s clerical leadership marked a point of no return, adding that she believed Iranians would ultimately prevail.

“There is no turning back. This path is one-way – it leads to freedom,” Pahlavi, 87, told Agence France-Presse in written comments from Paris.

Her remarks came after weeks of unrest that were met with a violent security response, which rights groups say has killed thousands.

Addressing young Iranians, she said: “Today you are writing, with immense courage, a new chapter of history… for Iran and for the world.”

She urged them to stay the course. “Maintain hope and determination. You will be the victors,” she said.

Pahlavi said the deaths of protesters meant the movement could not fail. “Such a sacrifice demands victory,” she said, adding that it would not only be Iran’s triumph but one that would bring broader peace and stability.

She also said she wanted to return to her homeland after more than four decades in exile.

“My desire and my need today are to return to Iran,” she said.

Pahlavi and her husband were forced to flee Iran in 1979 after a revolution that led to the creation of the Islamic Republic.

An Iranian man calling from Tehran told Iran International that anger and resolve have replaced fear, as rooftop chants continue despite killings and mass arrests.

Amir said the dominant emotion he sees around him is not despair. “We are more angry than sad, and more determined than afraid,” he said.

He described the process families face when identifying the dead as particularly harrowing.

“They had to examine dozens of bodies before finding their own,” Amir said.

An Iranian man calling from Kerman told Iran International that protesters continued to return to the streets despite injuries during protests earlier this month, and described what he said were unusually harsh chemical agents used by security forces.

Kambiz said that during the protests, he met a 16-year-old girl who had been wounded the night before but still returned to the streets.

“She said she had been hit with pellets from the waist down and came back again the next night,” he said.

He also described symptoms he experienced after exposure to tear gas.

“It smelled different, and my skin felt burned,” Kambiz said.

An Iranian man who recently left Tehran told Iran International that protests during two nights of demonstrations on January 8 and 9 spread block by block, with crowds repeatedly regrouping after security forces withdrew.

Parsa said he saw major streets briefly fall under protester control, followed by rapid crackdowns and visible signs of violence left behind.

“The next morning the vehicles were gone, but their burned marks were still on the asphalt,” he said.

He said protests later shifted into highly localized cycles, with residents returning to streets as soon as forces moved on.

Hundreds of alleged human rights violations were recorded across Iran in a monthly report that said at least 313 prisoners were executed by hanging during a period of nationwide protests, US-based rights group HRANA reported on Wednesday.

The group said the executions took place during the Iranian month of Dey, roughly Dec. 22 to Jan. 20, in prisons across the country on various charges.

It said the period also saw a sharp rise in mass arrests, heavy sentences and what it described as the use of excessive force by security services.

HRANA said it recorded abuses ranging from curbs on free expression to labor violations, violence against women and children, and pressure on detainees.

It added that at least 52 people were executed during a 10-day period in January alone, as protests spread and internet access was widely restricted.