Iran’s Three-Day Protest Action Continues With Strikes And Rallies

Tuesday was the second day of a three-day strikes call for protest against the Iran’s regime, an action meant to cripple the government and strengthen the protest movement. 

People in many cities across Iran kept their shops closed for the second day on Tuesday before they poured out on streets to hold protest rallies. Numerous shops and small businesses did not open their doors to express solidarity with the ongoing protests. 

During the day, rallies and sit-ins were held at numerous university campuses across the country with the students at Tehran’s Sharif University booing the capital’s mayor Alireza Zakani over his remarks during a talk where he blamed foreign countries for the uprising in Iran. 

Security forces went door by door in market streets and bazaars and sprayed pro-regime slogans on the doors of stores that were on strike. Some people on social media said their marking of shops was similar to the actions by Nazi Germany, in which security agents marked the stores of Jewish citizens. 

Despite threats by security forces, shop owners kept their doors shut on Tuesday in many provinces including Tehran, South and West Azarbaijan, Ardebil, Kerman, Zanjan, Esfahan, Kordestan, Kermanshah and several others to play their role in toppling the clerical rulers

When the sun set on Tuesday, people in several neighborhoods of the capital Tehran set fire to trash cans and blocked streets, and chanted antigovernment slogans. Several other cities such as Kerman, Rasht, Shiraz, Mashhad, and Esfahan were also scenes of protests with people chanting slogans against the regime.

People in many cities held mourning ceremonies for the 40th day of the deaths of their loved ones who were killed during the protests. People in Kurdish-majority cities such as Mahabad, Baneh, and northern cities of Amol and BandarAnzali held gatherings chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic. Mourning ceremonies that turned into protests were held for at least six protesters killed by government forces. 

There were also mourning ceremonies held for 27-year-old Mehran Samak, who was hit in the head with a bullet and died at the hospital when he was celebrating the US soccer team against Iran on December 30, in his hometown of BandarAnzali in the northern Gilan province. There are unconfirmed reports that the head of the police department in the city has been arrested over the death of Mehran Samak. 

The Youth of Iran, a united coalition of grassroot groups, has called for a demonstration in the capital Tehran on roads leading to the city’s Azadi (Freedom) square on Wednesday. 

Iran has been rocked by nationwide protests following the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16 in police custody, posing one of the toughest challenges to the Islamic regime since the 1979 revolution.