Iranians Keep Up Antigovernment Protests For The 28th Day

Antigovernment protests continued across Iran on Thursday with clashes reported mainly in provinces with Kurdish majority populations and western parts of the country. 

Thursday marked the 28th consecutive night of protests in Iran with videos on social media showing people blocking roads to stop the movement of riot police in the city of Mahabad, in West Azarbaijan province, and gunshots and teargas reported in Ahvaz in the southwestern Khuzestan province, while several neighborhoods in capital Tehran are scenes of violent skirmishes between people and government forces. 

The protest rallies in Tehran were not limited to a specific area as people from the northern or southern neighborhoods were participating in the demonstrations with slogans against the regime and the Supreme Leader while many people were chanting slogans from rooftops. 

The Youth of Tehran Neighborhoods, an anonymous group that helped organize rallies in the capital in the past four weeks, called for another nationwide protests on Saturday, October 15.

Sporadic clashes were also reported from Karaj, a city near Tehran known for its youths’ resistance against the security forces. 

Security forces were present in huge numbers in the streets of Kermanshah and Sanandaj, which were witnessing violent clashes in the past few days, with reports of several casualties from both sides. 

According to videos, protests have also been held in the cities of Arak, Ilam and Bukan in West Azarbaijan province. Baneh and Saqqez – the hometown of Mahsa Amini -- in Kordestan province were also hotbeds of protests on Thursday night with people having built up big fires on main streets, although little footage is available from due to internet disruption by the government. 

While Internet access was shut off or significantly slowed down in many cities, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk – who had earlier promised to activate satellite internet system Starlink for Iranians – said “there are some active terminals” in Iran.

As the uprising -- sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, is entering its second month -- the movement, which many now refer to as a revolution, has not yet found a leader the majority would recognize. Since the early days of the Islamic Republic, the clerical leadership has consistently eliminated political parties, free media, and anyone who could possibly be in a position to lead the opposition. This has manifested itself in the biggest characteristic of the current movement which is spontaneous and has no leader.

Some pundits warn that without a leadership the movement which has chosen “Women, Life, Liberty” as its motto may fail to achieve its goal of overthrowing the Islamic Republic, and to sustain its achievement if it succeeds. Others say lacking a known leader makes it much harder for the establishment to suppress the movement.

In addition to protests in Iran, there are large rallies outside the Islamic Republic’s missions around the world, with people in some cities trying to enter the consulates and embassies to remove the flag of the Islamic regime and in some cases, police were forced to intervene. 

Despite reports that Tehran is sending out letters to EU diplomats, claiming that "bilateral relations may not survive" as the EU moves to penalize Iran for killing protesters, the uprising is garnering more and more support among Western government officials and politicians.

“If Europe misses taking the nuances of the current situation into consideration, the ramification will be grave and the bilateral relations may not survive it,” warned one letter — sent to a group of EU ambassadors and seen by POLITICO. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Wednesday received a similar letter from Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, the arrests and interrogations of school children accused of joining nationwide protests in Iran and their detention in so-called “psychological centers” has raised fears of more child killings while at least 28 children were reported to be killed by the Islamic Republic’s repression machine since the protests began in mid-September.