Editors’ Note: As this update from our volunteer correspondent notes, hundreds of thousands of Iranians, especially women, students and youth, continue to demonstrate remarkable courage, creativity, and growing determination in the face of the Islamic regime’s murderous repression, whole sections calling for an end to the regime.
In this context, the orientation of the statement by the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), People of the World: Take up the Cry of Revolution from Iran as Your Own! is of continuing and decisive importance, and we draw our readers’ attention to it. This was issued for the occasion of the worldwide protests in support of the uprising in Iran on October 22. As the CPI (MLM) has written:
To finally put an end to the seemingly endless suffering of Iran’s people requires a real revolution, made by millions of people and led by a revolutionary vanguard with the aim of overthrowing the Islamic theocratic fascist regime and liberating Iran out of the murderous fabric of the capitalist-imperialist system. This requires a communist revolution and establishing a “New Socialist Republic.”1
While supporting the righteous uprising in Iran, it is also critical to oppose imperialist efforts to take advantage of the situation to advance their reactionary agendas, especially that of the U.S., which has caused so much suffering and death in Iran and the Middle East. The U.S. imperialists are not and will never be a force for good in the world! And all calls for U.S.-backed intervention need to be opposed, along with the lackeys of the U.S. like the monarchists and so-called “liberal-democrats.”
Thousands of people walked along the road to Saqqez, Iran to attend the 40th day memorial of Mahsa Amini's death. Credit: screenshot of Ashok Swain video
Wednesday, October 26, marked the 40th day since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was murdered by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) morality police.
Her alleged offense? According to the regime, “improper hijab,” in other words violating its medieval dress code by not fully covering her hair.
Her death cut so very deeply because it concentrated the everyday and life-long abuse and degradation heaped on Iran’s 40 plus million women, a cruel fate that also tears into the hearts of many husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, lovers, friends. This is a key reason why Mahsa’s murder has sparked a massive nationwide uprising that has raged for the 40 days since, with hundreds of thousands increasingly calling for “Death to the Dictator!” and an end to the whole regime.
The centrality of the patriarchal enslavement of women to the whole Islamic fundamentalist project (and religious fundamentalist program more broadly) is also why the religious fascists ruling Iran have struck back with such depraved violence and fury. The activist HRANA news agency has reported that 272 protesters have been killed so far, including 39 minors, and that some 14,000 have been arrested in protests in 129 towns and cities and some 115 universities. And now the regime is threatening even greater bloodshed.2
40th Day: Tens of Thousands Commemorate Mahsa with Protest
The 40th day following a death is in Iran, according to Islamic tradition, a time to again remember the deceased, and Mahsa’s 40th day brought tens of thousands into the streets across Iran—in at least 20 cities and 22 universities in Iran—to mourn her death and again express their fury and launch new rounds of protest against Iran’s ruling theocrats who killed her.3
The people’s heroism and the regime’s reaction were particularly intense in Saqqez, where Mahsa was from, and across the whole oppressed Kurdish region, long a center of discontent and resistance to the central government.
The Islamic Republic went to great, ugly lengths in attempts to prevent any public commemoration of Mahsa’s murder. They threatened her family that her brother and perhaps other relatives would be arrested if they didn’t issue a statement cancelling the ceremony. Schools and universities were closed in the area, and doctors were threatened with persecution if they participated.4 Security forces attacked protesters Tuesday night and on Wednesday regime forces blocked the main roads leading to the cemetery in Saqqez, trying prevent the remembrance from taking place.
The repression failed. The turnout was massive. “They came by car and motorbike or on foot, despite a heavy security presence in the city and threats of imprisonment and death from the authorities,” the New York Times reported. Video showed thousands of people walking along the road to Saqqez and others crossing hilly fields to get to the cemetery and flock to Mahsa’s grave. “We shall avenge Mahsa! We shall topple the dictator!” some shouted.5
Fierce battles raged in different parts of Kurdistan. Security forces armed with shotguns fired directly into rebellious crowds in Qazvin. At Kurdistan University in Sanandaj, they fired at protesting students.6
“By evening, demonstrations had spread across the country to many cities and university campuses,” the New York Times reported, “with large crowds in the streets clapping and defiantly chanting the mantras of the protests: ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ and ‘We will fight and take Iran back,’ according to videos on social media. In the capital, Tehran, women tossed their head scarves onto bonfires in the street, shouting ‘Freedom! Freedom!’ videos showed. In many places, the protesters condemned the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and chanted for his death and removal.”7
Remember Nika Shakarami! Remember Ismail Mowloudi!
The very next day, Thursday, October 27, tens of thousands again took to the streets. Some did so to honor Nika Shakarami, a 16-year-old who was murdered in a protest in Tehran 40 days before, as women burned their hijabs. She became a national symbol of courage and defiance. On Thursday, anti-riot police fired on her memorial service near the northwestern town of Visian. “We are all Nika, fight and we will fight back,” people chanted, while throwing rocks at their assailants. Video showed her grave covered in flowers, with women around it cutting their hair and burning head scarves. “My dear Nika, I am grief stricken by your loss and heartbroken for your dreams,” her mother, Nassrin Shakarami, said.
Thousands of others in Kurdistan attended the funeral of Ismail Mowloudi, a young man killed by security forces the day before during protests in the city of Mahabad. “Kurdistan will bury fascists,” protesters clapped, sang and chanted.8 Protesters also attacked and set fire to government buildings in Mahabad, this in the face of what residents described as a “military-style” occupation over the last six weeks. “Mowludi’s death on a day of mourning appears to have emboldened the protesters, encouraging them to take out their anger on state institutions,” one human rights activist said. “The people were furious.”9
IRI Response: Indiscriminate Force, Violent Arrests, Throttling the Internet
This outpouring is all the more remarkable given the level of violence that’s been unleashed by the regime for the last month. A September 21 memo from the general headquarters of Iran’s armed forces, leaked to Amnesty International, calls on security forces “to severely confront protesters.” Another went further, ordering them to “confront mercilessly, and while going as far as causing deaths, any unrest by rioters and anti-Revolutionaries,” as the thoroughly reactionary, non-revolutionary Islamic Republic refers to righteous protesters.
One group tracking the protests reported that in the first days of the uprising it received more than 3,000 videos per day, but the number had now dropped to about 100 to 200 videos per day because the regime was cutting off internet service. This has made it much more difficult to track the true scope of the uprising and the true horror of the regime’s crackdown.10
Other human rights groups have condemned Iran for abuses including “arbitrary arrests and detentions, gender-based and sexual violence, excessive use of force, torture, and enforced disappearances.”
The crackdown has only made many protesters even more determined. One told reporters of a recent protest where he and others put trash cans in the street and set them on fire. When security forces advanced, they began to chant: “We didn’t have our people killed in order to compromise.”11
Merciless Assaults on Students and Youth Shocks Many Iranians—Draws Broader Segments of Society into Protest
The vicious assaults on protests—especially on students and youth—have sent shock waves across Iran and in many cases drawn wider segments of the population into the struggle.
There are widespread reports of teachers, office employees, and factory workers going on strike against the violent clampdown on protesters. Oil workers in a number of key refineries remain on strike, and 200 have reportedly been arrested.
Teachers have refused to teach in their classrooms in solidarity with the uprising and to condemn the killing of school students. “I sacrifice my life for my students,” one of their signs read. Others said “Don’t turn school into a garrison” and “Prison is not a place for students.”12
Teachers’ unions across Kurdistan have announced strikes in solidarity with protesters. This and other expressions of support—even Instagram posts—have been met with threats, arrests, expulsion and forced early retirement by the regime’s security forces and education officials. “In some cases, this has included murder,” according to Iranwire.com.13
Doctors and medical officials have also spoken out against the regime’s treatment of protesters and been attacked for it. According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, “The Tehran Medical Council’s president Moayed Alavian, and deputy president Mohammad Razi meanwhile resigned, one day after doctors who were members of the council had called for a gathering in Tehran today to protest security forces policing medical buildings in search of protesters. The gathering in Tehran, with doctors and dentists in attendance, was violently attacked by state security forces.”
Among the Medical Council’s demands were a halt to military, police, and security forces from entering medical universities and hospitals and interfering with medical care, patients’ privacy of medical information, and that detainees’ and their families’ physical, mental and spiritual health be protected, not violated. “The vigilant but distraught medical community, while committed to the Hippocratic Oath, feels it has a duty not to rest until all demands are achieved.”14
Students—A Dynamic and Driving Force in the Uprising
Over the past 40 some days, students at hundreds of universities as well as high school and younger students have increasingly taken part in protests. This past week was no exception. Iranwire.com reported on October 26:
Students in dozens of Iran cities and towns gathered at universities on Tuesday, 25 October, to stage rallies as anti-government protests continued for the 39th straight day… More university students across Iran defied orders to return to class on Sunday… Young men and women, including university students, have been at the forefront of the movement, and intelligence agencies have tightened the security situation at campuses across the country. At Tarbiat Modares University, video clips showed students chanting "Khamenei is a murderer, his rule is invalid,” in reference to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.15
AI Monitor reports, “The slogans have become more determined as well, with chants such as ‘This is the year of blood, Seyyed Ali will be overthrown,’ in reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei….”
Students at Azad University in Karaj west of Tehran were filmed chanting, “This is no longer protests, It’s the beginning of a revolution.” At Yazd University in central Iran they shouted, “If you’re neutral, You have no honor,” and “When the university’s filled with blood, It’s forbidden to attend classes.”16
Students are increasingly targeting, defying and breaking down the gender separation the Islamic Republic has enforced for 40 plus years:
Yesterday [at Sharif University in Tehran], there was a clash after student members of the Basij [a volunteer paramilitary militia the regime uses to attack protest and dissent] tried to barricade the student eating hall by flipping tables and blocking the entrances. The event took place after female students tried to enter the segregated eating hall in protest against the segregation rules. Pictures of the spectacle, of Basij members trying to block the entrances with tables as if trying to stop a flood, went viral. Eventually, the protestors entered the building and began celebrating and chanting. Iran’s state media accused the protestors of chanting “foul slogans and breaking norms.” Today after the eating hall was closed, students sat outside and set up picnics in protest against the university’s decision to close the eating hall and keep it segregated.17
Similar protests have been reported at other universities across Iran. This civil disobedience movement of men and women eating together is gaining so much momentum that most universities reportedly closed their cafeterias to prevent mixed-gender dining.18
Students have also faced vicious and growing repression. On October 24, a Tehran court found 315 guilty of taking part in anti-government actions. Four of those convicted could face the death penalty or having a limb amputated.19
At one girls’ high school in Tehran, school officials and security forces conducted a brutal “inspection”—reportedly beating up and searching girls with cellphones, then breaking their phones and not allowing their parents into the school.20