Berliner Boersenzeitung - Iran steps up crackdown ahead of Amini anniversary: activists

EUR -
AED 4.26841
AFN 80.362394
ALL 97.542216
AMD 446.735356
ANG 2.080099
AOA 1065.794205
ARS 1481.767207
AUD 1.776887
AWG 2.092071
AZN 1.980459
BAM 1.954642
BBD 2.348809
BDT 141.226338
BGN 1.956132
BHD 0.43834
BIF 3466.946195
BMD 1.162261
BND 1.493215
BOB 8.038238
BRL 6.486005
BSD 1.163311
BTN 100.147673
BWP 15.618748
BYN 3.807045
BYR 22780.325028
BZD 2.336716
CAD 1.596076
CDF 3354.287055
CHF 0.932981
CLF 0.029194
CLP 1120.296341
CNY 8.342655
CNH 8.346165
COP 4674.330945
CRC 587.052233
CUC 1.162261
CUP 30.799929
CVE 110.199718
CZK 24.634179
DJF 206.947405
DKK 7.463699
DOP 70.258379
DZD 151.514244
EGP 57.439973
ERN 17.433922
ETB 161.636047
FJD 2.620788
FKP 0.864949
GBP 0.86668
GEL 3.150183
GGP 0.864949
GHS 12.127816
GIP 0.864949
GMD 83.106172
GNF 10094.020343
GTQ 8.931709
GYD 243.385819
HKD 9.121487
HNL 30.445964
HRK 7.532663
HTG 152.739518
HUF 398.923459
IDR 18977.696027
ILS 3.908598
IMP 0.864949
INR 100.127437
IQD 1523.897249
IRR 48945.741055
ISK 142.354235
JEP 0.864949
JMD 186.029797
JOD 0.824089
JPY 172.932309
KES 150.300962
KGS 101.640213
KHR 4662.238109
KMF 491.989694
KPW 1046.046309
KRW 1616.942576
KWD 0.355234
KYD 0.969426
KZT 620.152624
LAK 25087.138481
LBP 104232.653
LKR 350.972086
LRD 233.241828
LSL 20.596898
LTL 3.431856
LVL 0.703041
LYD 6.327252
MAD 10.519168
MDL 19.788278
MGA 5176.933206
MKD 61.523554
MMK 2439.678938
MNT 4168.013035
MOP 9.404829
MRU 46.275587
MUR 53.119698
MVR 17.903172
MWK 2017.205016
MXN 21.777182
MYR 4.935007
MZN 74.338683
NAD 20.596898
NGN 1779.387897
NIO 42.814637
NOK 11.838157
NPR 160.236077
NZD 1.94976
OMR 0.446995
PAB 1.163311
PEN 4.140847
PGK 4.817146
PHP 66.377189
PKR 331.310933
PLN 4.244785
PYG 9003.666265
QAR 4.229694
RON 5.072695
RSD 117.080642
RUB 91.375869
RWF 1681.00418
SAR 4.36165
SBD 9.64543
SCR 17.082281
SDG 697.942292
SEK 11.245095
SGD 1.492813
SHP 0.913355
SLE 26.62005
SLL 24372.046713
SOS 664.806172
SRD 43.245469
STD 24056.466061
STN 24.485495
SVC 10.17897
SYP 15112.803405
SZL 20.592801
THB 37.628259
TJS 11.196867
TMT 4.079538
TND 3.419874
TOP 2.722137
TRY 46.947496
TTD 7.897322
TWD 34.181766
TZS 3030.404801
UAH 48.58252
UGX 4168.530579
USD 1.162261
UYU 46.882227
UZS 14725.276806
VES 135.943958
VND 30404.760344
VUV 138.92149
WST 3.080055
XAF 655.568644
XAG 0.030448
XAU 0.000347
XCD 3.14107
XCG 2.096558
XDR 0.815317
XOF 655.568644
XPF 119.331742
YER 280.163552
ZAR 20.586499
ZMK 10461.752209
ZMW 26.785133
ZWL 374.247723
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Iran steps up crackdown ahead of Amini anniversary: activists
Iran steps up crackdown ahead of Amini anniversary: activists / Photo: Yasin AKGUL - AFP

Iran steps up crackdown ahead of Amini anniversary: activists

Iran is ratcheting up a crackdown ahead of the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, arresting prominent personalities, campaigners and relatives of those killed by security forces in protests last year, activists say.

Text size:

The death in custody on September 16, 2022 of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rules for women, sparked months of protests that included calls for an end to Iran's Islamic system.

The protests have now largely subsided, despite some sporadic outbursts, after a crackdown which saw thousands detained, according to the UN, and hundreds shot dead by security forces, according to activists.

But campaigners outside Iran say the authorities are acutely aware of the risk that the anniversary could spark more protests and say security forces have stepped up repression to prevent a repeat of the events of last autumn.

Those arrested this month have included the prominent singer Mehdi Yarrahi after he released a song urging women to remove their headscarves in defiance of the law.

Eleven women's rights activists were detained in Gilan province, one of the flashpoint areas for protests last year, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has said families of those killed in the crackdown on the movement have been subjected to "arbitrary arrest and detention" in a bid to enforce "silence and impunity" over the fate of their loved ones.

"These arrests are a blatant attempt by Iranian authorities to instil fear within the population ahead of the upcoming anniversary (and) to deter more protests," Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New-York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), told AFP.

- 'Knows no bounds' -

In a report, Amnesty said families of victims killed in the crackdown across the country have been subjected to abusive interrogations, arbitrary arrest and detention and or unjust prosecution and sentencing in recent months.

"The cruelty of the Iranian authorities knows no bounds," said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty's deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, accusing the Iranian authorities of a "sinister attempt to cover up their crimes".

In a new example, security forces on Sunday arrested three close family members, including the mother, of Hananeh Kia, a woman in her early 20s shot dead by security forces in September 2022 during the initial phase of the protests, HRANA and the Hengaw rights group said.

The CHRI said in just eight days this month, 21 family members of victims were either summoned to court or detained in Iran.

Roya Boroumand, executive director of the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, said "victims' family members have been targeted pretty systematically".

"They have been arrested, summoned repeatedly and interrogated, or their houses are raided," she said, adding pressure was being put on them not to post anything on social media, gather for commemorations or speak out.

The protests broke taboos that have prevailed in the Islamic republic since the fall of the shah in 1979, with women taking off their headscarves and slogans chanted against Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in street protests.

Amnesty has in a separate report said Iran has renewed its crackdown against unveiled women, with stepped-up patrols backed by surveillance cameras that can even identify women inside their cars. Images shared on social media indicate some women are however continuing to show defiance.

- 'Killing machine' -

Meanwhile, Norway-based Iran Human Rights says 486 people have been executed in Iran this year, with the use of capital punishment aimed at "creating fear in society and to prevent more protests".

While seven men have been executed in cases related to the protests, causing an international outcry, most of those hanged are convicted on drug and murder charges and are "low-cost victims of the Islamic republic's killing machine", it added.

According to the CHRI, Mashallah Karami, the father of executed protester Mohammad Mehdi Karami, who was hanged in January, was detained by security agents in Tehran on August 22.

There have also been reports of arrests in the Kurdish-populated area of western Iran from where Amini originated and which were the scene of the earliest protests.

Kurdish-focused Hengaw, based outside Iran, said Saro Mostajer -- the brother of one of its board members, Jila Mostajer -- had been arrested in Amini's hometown of Saqez and taken to an unknown location.

Boroumand said the "coordinated" repression "aims at preventing the dissemination of news, videos and images of victims, commemorations, and other gatherings and avoid a renewed public mobilisation inside and outside Iran".

Ghaemi warned the "silence of the international community" in the face of the crackdown risked giving a "green light to the state security apparatus to continue muzzling civil society."

(K.Müller--BBZ)