Thread: The end of the Ayotollahs? - lets hope so - come on you ladies

Originally Posted by tomcat

...there may be some hesitation if that path leads to male circumcision: best to get the snip when too small to resist...

I would imagine it was originally a hygiene issue as it has a low prevalence outside of hot countries other than possibly the USA. Today it is not such an issue but many parents still prefer their son to have a crewe neck rather than a skivvy in the belief it is more hygienic rather than for religious reasons. I guess the debate gets down to what is the limit of parental control over what they perceive as best for their sons. Or does it get down to nature always gets it right and there should be no interference?

Originally Posted by DrWilly

And how did that work during COVID?

Medical issues are a separate realm, though.

Cracks appear among Iran elite as senior figure calls for hijab policing rethink

Prominent conservative politician Ali Larijani warns against ‘rigid response’ after month of unrest

The first cracks have started to appear among Iran’s political elite over the country’s month-long women-led protests, with a senior figure calling for a re-examination of the enforcement of compulsory hijab law and an acknowledgment that the protests have deep political roots, and are not simply the product of US or Israeli agitation.


The call for restraint came from Ali Larijani, a former speaker of the Iranian parliament and an impeccable establishment figure.


His tone contrasted with a continued uncompromising line on Wednesday from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, parliament and security forces, as well as concerted efforts to undermine the credibility of the family of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died after being arrested by morality police last month, sparking a wave of protests across the country.


Protesters had called for a mass rally in Tehran on Wednesday after violence overnight in the capital and in the Kurdish towns of Sanandaj, Saqez, Bukan and Dehgolan. Many shops remained shut in protest against the regime, while a demonstration led by the Tehran bar association was broken up by security forces.

more https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/12/iran-hijab-law-protest-ali-larijani

^Good news


Canada sanctions 17 more Iranian officials amid unrest over Mahsa Amini death

By Dylan Robertson The Canadian Press
October 13, 2022 5:07 pm


Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Thursday that Canada is adding more Iranian officials and entities to the sanctions list.
The measures will mean 17 individuals and three entities are barred from entering Canada or doing business with most Canadian firms.
These sanctions are targeted at Iranian officials who have committed or enabled human-rights violations against women, or perpetuated disinformation, Joly said.

The list includes Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s recent longtime foreign minister, whom Canadian groups had asked to be sanctioned.
It also includes Saeed Mortazavi, the prosecutor who ordered the torture of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian Canadian journalist who died in custody in 2003.

Read more... Canada sanctions 17 more Iranian officials amid unrest over Mahsa Amini death - National | Globalnews.ca
ober 13, 2022 5:07

Originally Posted by MarilynMonroe

Good news

...also misleading news...the Ayatollahs are as efficient as the Chinese at locking up/bumping off those who express even the slightest deviation from the official line...

Originally Posted by tomcat

...also misleading news...the Ayatollahs are as efficient as the Chinese at locking up/bumping off those who express even the slightest deviation from the official line...

Yes, and the West are not exactly that interested in reporting the mad mullahs gunning down yet another peaceful protest.

The ladies protest was hijacked by the Kurds and Baluchis who are now getting it in the neck so to speak.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

the Kurds and Baluchis who are now getting it in the neck so to speak.

...'twas ever thus...

Authorities in Iran forced to remove poster of women in hijabs after PR fiasco

The Iranian authorities suffered a PR fiasco after being forced to take down a giant billboard in a central square in Tehran when women in the poster, or their relatives, objected to being depicted as supporters of the government and the compulsory-wearing of the hijab.


The billboard controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was a montage of about 50 Iranian women wearing the hijab under the slogan “Women of my Land”. It was taken down within 24 hours after at least three of the women pictured said they objected to their image being misused.


Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, a multiaward-winning actor was the first to protest, releasing a video. Not wearing the hijab, she said: “I am not considered a woman in a land where young children, little girls and freedom-loving youths are killed in its fields.”


“I am Mahsa’s mother, I am Sarina’s mother. I am the mother of all the children who were killed in this land. I am the mother of all the land of Iran, not a woman in the land of murderers,” she added, referring to Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman whose death in police custody sparked protests across Iran, and Sarina Esmaeilzadeh, 16, who Amnesty International has said was killed by security forces at a protest.


Soon after the video was released, the film director Marzieh Boroumand and the mountaineer Parvaneh Kazemi also denounced the use of their image on the billboard.

more Authorities in Iran forced to remove poster of women in hijabs after PR fiasco | Iran | The Guardian

and on it goes

Iran protests: Fury over Iran police sex assault video

A video of anti-riot forces sexually assaulting a female protester whilst trying to arrest her in broad daylight has provoked fury on social media.

Users voiced outrage, with many calling for "justice" and the resignation of the police chief. Some pro-government users also condemned the perpetrators.

Despite blocks on some social media tools, Iranians are still managing to share powerful images of the protests.

The country has been rocked by the most intense unrest in decades.

The protests erupted last month when anger over the death in police custody of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini boiled over. Officials say she died from an underlying health condition, but her family say she died after being beaten by morality police.

Numerous videos of the protest have gone viral both inside and outside of Iran. This latest video, which happened in Tehran's Argentina Square on Wednesday, shows a group of officers in protective gear and helmets surrounding a woman on a main road.

more + vid Iran protests: Fury over Iran police sex assault video - BBC News

Originally Posted by sabang

I doubt the Theocracy will last another generation.

Who knows? They have your good friend Putler on their side who is willing to help any scumbags.

Originally Posted by sabang

Places like Tehran are very different to the nonsense you are expected to believe.

No shit Sherlock. We don't follow these BS websites like you do.

"A bunch of muddleheads rule the country today," no one with ordinary intelligence is willing to work with them, and if they do, it's only for financial reasons. This is the result of a long policy that mobilizes "cheaters and slime creepers". The writer's criticism is notable because Amir-Khani is a devout Muslim and is close to the revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whom he accompanied on his travels.

Hey Sabang, can you relate to those slime creepers?

Originally Posted by sabang

Places like Tehran are very different to the nonsense you are expected to believe.

So, when's the last time you were there?

I think my last time in Iran was about eight years ago; Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz. Lovely places, good people and excellent food - all better than anywhere in the region.

Tell us how you'd love to live there along with China and Russia.

I've seen some incredibly brave women on the news footage.
Normally its putting on balaclavas when you go to protest - there its showing your face. I bet theres a few midnight knocks on the door.

And this isn't about the hijab - its far more than that.

Unfortunately Myanmar shows us that good intentions and public opinion doesn't end up with a good outcome.

Here's a view of how Russian media shows the Iran protests to their citizens. I found it interesting.



++++

About the vlogger: he's "Andrew from Russia". He fled to Kyrgyzstan recently to escape mobilization. He's a business reporter/ journalist and is now working remotely from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. He has a new YT channel (not monetized - not yet 1k subs) and shares an apartment with colleagues who also escaped the draft. His wife & other family members are still in Russia, so he's still careful re: his speech. He has some interesting interviews on his channel.

(RFE/RL) — As scattered anti-government and anti-hijab protests continue across Iran, members of one beleaguered ethnic and religious minority who joined in the demonstrations are still assessing the toll from “Bloody Friday.”

Zahedan, the capital of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, was the scene of the violent crackdown carried out by security forces on September 30 that observers say left more than 90 people dead — and possibly scores more.

The victims were overwhelmingly Baluchis — a mostly Sunni ethnic group that makes up the majority in the impoverished region, and who have long faced disproportionate discrimination at the hands of the Iranian authorities.

Iran’s Baluchistan Under Lockdown, Blackout In Wake Of ‘Bloody Friday’ – Eurasia Review

The anti-regime protests in Iran spread to the oil and gas sector this week as workers in critical facilities went on strike.


The move could affect the lifeblood of Iran's economy and marks a significant expansion of the protests as the bloody uprising against Iran's Islamic Republic enters its fourth week.

The demonstrations, largely led by women, began last month after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was taken into custody by Iran's morality police after they accused her of failing to cover her hair properly. Iranian security forces maintain that Amini died of a heart attack, but her family say blows to the head killed her. The killings of two other teenage girls during the unrest have added fuel to the fire.

On Tuesday, widely circulated social media videos showed energy workers staging demonstrations outside oil refineries and a petrochemical plant in Abadan and Assaluyeh, vital energy hubs. The strikes have not curtailed production so far, but they carry some notable historical echoes.

During Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, strikes in the energy and merchant sectors played a critical role in overthrowing the shah.

No strikes even approaching that scale are happening now, but any significant growth of work stoppages in oil and gas could hamper prospects for Iran to become a more prominent player on the global energy stage, as Europe scrambles to shore up its natural gas reserves before winter.

Russia's energy war has destabilized the continent's supplies, and the Biden administration failed to persuade Saudi Arabia to boost oil production.

The administration is now considering alternative ways to cushion the energy fallout of Russia's invasion of Ukraine — for example, the politically risky possibility of allowing Venezuela to resume oil exports in exchange for a restoration of democracy. The administration has not spoken publicly about whether it's considering such a step.

Iranian officials last month said they hoped the United States would ease its sanctions to allow Iran to boost natural gas exports, but a workforce on strike could hinder the country's prospects.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters...ector-00061399

Violent clashes broke out between security forces and student protesters at university campuses across Iran on Sunday, according to activist and human rights groups in the country.

Students continued to protest in large numbers at some of the country’s main universities despite a warning from the head of the country’s Revolutionary Guard Hossein Salami that Saturday was to be the last day of protest.

In a video obtained by CNN via the pro-reform activist outlet Iran Wire, two uniformed officers can be seen in what appears to be an attempt to arrest a protester. The video is said to be recorded at Sanandaj Technical College in northwestern Iran.

In the capital Tehran, activist groups claimed clashes broke out between protesters, members of the Basij militia and police officers in plain clothes at Azad University but CNN cannot independently verify whether those in the clashes are security forces.

Protests have swept through the Islamic Republic for weeks following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died on September 16 after being detained by “morality police” and taken to a “re-education center,” allegedly for not abiding by the country’s conservative dress code.

In a video posted by activist group 1500 tasvir, a large crowd of protesters can be seen, with some holding sticks. Tear gas appears to be thrown across the crowd but it’s unclear who it is thrown by.

In another video obtained by CNN via the pro-reform activist outlet IranWire, students at another university in the capital, the University of Tehran can be seen marching and chanting: “It’s not the time for mourning. It’s time for anger.”

Official state news agency IRNA reported a “large gathering” of students and professors at the University of Tehran “in response to the recent events and terrorist attack on the shrine of “Shahcheragh,” which took place in the southern city of Shiraz on Wednesday.

Also, in Sanandaj, gunshots can be heard in a video posted by Kurdish rights group Hengaw, said to be recorded near the University of Kurdistan.

Activist group 1500 Tasvir also posted a video showing security forces outside another educational facility in the province, the Sanandaj Technical College for Girls on Sunday.

Iran Human Right (IHRNGO), an NGO based in Norway, condemned “the encroachment of university campuses by armed plainclothes forces and the violent crackdown on peaceful student protests,” in a statement Sunday.

“With the continuation of nationwide protests, Islamic Republic armed plainclothes forces have entered university campuses to violently crush and arrest protesting students,” IHRNGO said.

IHRNGO Director and University of Oslo Professor, Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam, called on “universities and academic institutions around the world to support student demands and condemn the outrageous violation of university campuses by Islamic Republic forces.”

On Saturday the head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Hossein Salami called on Iranian young people specifically to desist from protesting.

“Today is the last day of the riots. Do not come to the streets again. What do you want from this nation?” Salami said.

Iran protests: Clashes break out between students and security forces across Iran, rights groups say | CNN

Originally Posted by MarilynMonroe

That makes perfect sense.
I work with muslims all the time. I teach many Arab kids, and I don't even think twice when I see women staff wearing hijabs. That is their religion and choice. They don't push their religion or culture on me, and I don't question them or speak to them about religion.

You forgot to mention which Islamic country you were working in that gave you your frredom to choose. Afghanistan? Saudi Arabia? Iran?

Saudi Arabia has shared intelligence with the U.S. warning of an imminent attack from Iran on targets in the kingdom, putting the American military and others in the Middle East on an elevated alert level, said Saudi and U.S. officials
In response to the warning, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and several other neighboring states have raised the level of alert for their military forces, the officials said. They didn’t provide more details on the Saudi intelligence.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-arabia-u-s-on-high-alert-after-warning-of-imminent-iranian-attack-11667319274

Didn't the US recently ask SA to increase oil production and they refused?

Originally Posted by panama hat

Didn't the US recently ask SA to increase oil production and they refused?

Yes. I can imagine the response.

Iran to hold public trials for up to 2,000 detained in protests

The country’s judiciary says those marching against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini will be tried

Patrick Wintour, Diplomatic editor
Mon 31 Oct 2022 19.58 GMT

Iran’s judiciary has announced that it will hold public trials for as many as 1,000 people detained during recent protests in Tehran alone – and more than a thousand others outside the capital – as international concern grew over Iran’s response to the protests that began with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest.
.
Security services have unleashed a fierce crackdown on the mainly peaceful protests, in which at least 253 people have been killed, including 34 Iranians under 18, according to one human rights organisation.

Several thousand people have been arrested, many of whom were taken to special IRGC detention centres.

Hopefully more will follow.

DUBAI, Nov 3 (Reuters) - A cleric at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in the restive, mostly Sunni Muslim Iranian city of Zahedan has been shot dead, the official news agency IRNA said, threatening a spike in sectarian tensions complicating government efforts to contain widespread unrest.
IRNA named the dead cleric as Sajjad Shahraki.

Cleric killed in restive Iranian city, protests rage on | Reuters

Protests in Iran have now entered their eighth week. There are no signs as yet that the determination of the demonstrators is flagging. The situation appears to directly refute claims by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi over the weekend that Iran’s cities were “safe and sound.”

From their beginnings in Iran’s Kurdistan province, the demonstrations have now spread throughout the country. The US-based Institute for the Study of War, which has been closely monitoring developments, counted at least 30 protests taking place in 15 cities across 11 of Iran’s provinces in the first days of November.

These included a commercial strike in Saqqez, hometown of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, whose death at the hands of the authorities triggered the current unrest. Students demonstrated at a variety of locations across Tehran. Mashhad, Sanandaj, Mariwan and many other cities witnessed unrest.

The chants of the protesters are no longer limited to calls for ending the compulsory wearing of the hijab, or indeed to the generic call of “Women, Life, Freedom” – originally a Kurdish revolutionary slogan the Iranian demonstrators made their own.

Rather, the demonstrators now are openly calling for the overthrow of the Islamic regime, which has ruled Iran for the last 40 years. Frequently, now, according to multiple reports, slogans such as “death to the dictator” and “death to the system” may be heard.

The usual methods employed by the regime for the rapid dispersal of protests, meanwhile, do not appear to be working. In the past, the shutting down of the Internet across large swaths of the country, and then the employment of extreme force, served to bring periods of protest to a close. In this way, in 2009 and then again in 2019, the regime managed to quell widespread demonstrations.

This time, too, the regime’s approach has been very far from restrained, and is including the use of live ammunition against unarmed protesters. Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based human rights organization, estimates that by November 6, 186 people had been killed by the Iranian authorities in its efforts to put down the protests.

The organization, notably, also records an additional 118 deaths of protesters in Sistan and Baluchestan. In this remote, majority Sunni province, far from the eyes of the world, the Iranian authorities appear to be adopting harsher tactics.

Sistan and Baluchestan also appears to be witnessing incidents of armed resistance. In the latest of these, four policemen were shot dead at a checkpoint on the Iranshahr-Bampur road in the province.

Some observers have suggested that the high representation of women in the protests in many parts of the country is serving to prevent the application of more harsh and brutal tactics by the authorities.

Whether or not this is the case, it is a fact that the situation in Iran appears to be approaching a turning point. The authorities have failed to halt the protests. The regime is unable to tolerate indefinitely a situation of widespread and ongoing disruption and disorder, which by its very nature undermines its authority.

But the protesters, too, have not yet succeeded in truly posing the question of power in Iran. That is, the level of pressure currently employed against the regime is nowhere near the amount that would be necessary to threaten its continued existence.

No revolutionary leadership, able to direct the ongoing demonstrations and focus them as part of a plan for the seizure of power, currently exists in Iran. This inchoate, decentralized nature of the protests has been much remarked upon by observers. Many have seen this as part of the “Generation Z,” “TikTok” character of this uprising, which represents the entry of a new, unafraid generation of activists onto the Iranian stage. While such a characterization may well be accurate, it should be noted that ultimately, to take power, an organized movement, with political and probably also military aspects, is a necessity.

Also, there are no visible signs yet of serious cracks and fissures in the Iranian security forces, a necessary requirement for any chance of toppling the regime.

So Iran today is characterized by ongoing and widespread unrest, at a level intolerable to the authorities. But it is not yet in what might be called a pre-revolutionary situation.

The Iranian protests have not become a revolution yet

This means that both the authorities and the demonstrators face hard choices in the phase now opening up. The authorities need to find a way to delegitimize the protesters as a prelude to the use of greater force.

A recent report in the Wall Street Journal revealed indications that the regime may be planning to achieve this by artificially heightening regional tensions, to distract attention and portray the protesters as unpatriotic and separatist. According to the report, the regime may be planning an imminent military strike, either on Saudi Arabia or on targets in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Any attack on Saudi Arabia would likely be carried out by a proxy organization, probably either Yemeni or Iraqi. In Iraqi Kurdistan, by contrast, the regime’s track record suggests that it would be more likely to employ its own declared forces. This is in keeping with Tehran’s general approach of using the greatest and most direct force on its weakest enemies, while disguising or avoiding the employment of force against stronger foes.

There is already a precedent for action against Kurdish targets in Iraq. On September 28, Tehran launched missile attacks on facilities of two Iraq-based Iranian Kurdish militant groups – the KDPI and Komala parties. The intention was to portray the protests in Iran as directed by external militant organizations.

Once the protests could be “framed” in this way as representing an externally directed security threat, the way would be clear for the use of greater force against them. This may well be the direction the regime chooses in the period ahead. It is not without risk, though, in general, the Iranian Kurdish groups are isolated and without powerful friends.

For the protesters, the dilemma is no less stark. In the event of the application of harsher tactics by the regime, or even in their absence, the protesters now need to find a way to increase the pressure.

Many Iranians supportive of the protests nevertheless fear what they refer to as a “Syrian” scenario in Iran. By this, they mean a situation in which an attempt to crush the protests using maximum force then leads to an armed response by elements of the opposition. This would then open the door to armed civil strife in Iran, with a potentially terrible cost in human lives.

The opposition, particularly in Kurdistan and Sistan and Baluchestan, has some access to weaponry. There have already been instances where protesters have taken temporary control of neighborhoods, only to disperse after the authorities moved forces towards the area.

But many observers caution against the premature introduction of weapons into the fight, since this may provide the authorities with precisely the excuse they are looking for.

On the other hand, ongoing passivity amid a rising death toll is also not an attractive option.

There are no easy solutions.

Iranian protesters are likely to confront the fact in the period ahead that revolutions are by their very nature a leap in the dark. Whether you get victory – or Syria - on the other side of the jump cannot be known in advance.

In any case, the revolutionary dynamic in Iran appears to be approaching an inflexion point, beyond which it must either escalate or dissipate.

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/ir...article-722074