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Raha Bahreini: "Security forces are firing metal pellets at civilians"

Iranians revolt and put Iran's theocracy in check

Protests in Iran and their possible repercussions

Iran: at least 76 killed during protests over Mahsa Amini's death

Iran attacks Iraqi Kurdistan to distract attention from Mahsa Amini protests

PHOTO/FILE - Iranians are rising up against government oppression and a theocracy that is obsolete in time and space
Beatriz Yubero
Updated: 29/09/22

It is not the first time, nor will it be the last. Iranians are rising up against government oppression and a theocracy that is obsolete in time and space. The Islamic Republic of Iran is experiencing an internal revolution. Hundreds of thousands of civilians, especially young people - some 88% of the population is below the age of 54 - are protesting in the streets of major cities following the beating to death by the Iranian authorities of ethnic Kurdish student Mahsa Amini, who was arrested on 13 September for "wearing the hijab incorrectly", according to police sources. 

On that day, Amini, who had gone to visit her family, was stopped outside a Tehran metro station by Iran's Islamic religious police, officially called the Gasht-e Ershad (Guidance Patrols) or 'Morality Police'. Amini was accused of breaking the law requiring women to cover their hair with a headscarf and their arms and legs with loose-fitting clothing. The 22-year-old died in a Tehran hospital after spending three days in a coma following her arrest. 

Since then, tens of thousands of citizens have spread their demands across the country. However, the clash with police forces, who use brutality to suppress the protests, is so severe that almost 80 people have died so far, all of them demonstrators, according to non-governmental organisations active in the country. Of all the dead, the case of Hadas Najafi, another 22-year-old woman who was killed by the 'Morality Police' on 21 September, the day she was demonstrating, and was hit by a metal pellet, according to sources close to the victim, stands out. 

Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International's Iran researcher, confirmed that dozens were killed and hundreds injured: "Evidence we have gathered on the ground shows that security forces are firing metal pellets - like the one that allegedly hit Hadas Najafi - used for hunting, at demonstrators and bystanders. Hundreds of women, children and men have been injured. We have seen horrific images of protesters with wounds to the head, chest and stomach. The security forces are firing metal pellets at close range and this shows the intention to cause maximum damage".

However, despite the civilian casualties and the terror sown by the authorities, protests have intensified in recent weeks across the country, due to increased oppression by the 'Morality Police'. According to a former member of the Revolutionary Guard, whose identity will not be revealed for his security, he tells ATALAYAR: "We are already fucked. They are killing us". The source who recounts the atrocities taking place on the streets of Iran is currently away from his home country temporarily, away from the streets of Tehran, fearing for his own life. 

On the other hand, the influencer Majo Clutet, who was in Iran at the beginning of the barbarism, says on her social network Instagram: "For the first time I missed being in my country where the feminist struggle has made great achievements. I missed the freedom to express myself through social media. I missed going out on the streets to demonstrate without being afraid of being killed. In Iran they are killing brave people who take to the streets because they can't take it anymore. Some areas are already being militarised. Their people are being censored. It's important that we raise our voices". 

But it will have to be behind the borders of a country where, once again, the internet blackout has arrived, allowing security forces to intensify an already bloody crackdown.

Social media as a weapon

Iran is once again disconnecting access to the internet, limiting its citizens' freedom of information and expression. Access to social networks has been restricted, yet protesters are not bending and have warned that the government has begun to use Telegram as a deterrent 'weapon' to identify and harm protesters marching in the streets. In fact, the channel Setade114, which has been linked by activists to the Iranian government, has gained up to 20,000 subscribers. The aim: to defame the name of the victim and the cause of the protests. According to Mahsa Alimardani, a researcher and activist based at Oxford University: "Telegram is the third most used and second most important social networking app in Iran". 

Meanwhile, the Basij, a paramilitary force of volunteer militiamen, have been at the forefront of cracking down on the ongoing protests, along with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, without achieving the expected success.  According to the Iranian government, more than 65 per cent of the population over the age of 15 has a Telegram account, or more than 55 million people out of the country's 85 million inhabitants. 

However, despite the restrictions, the hastahg #mahsa_amini has been used these days by more than 40 million users on the social network Twitter and many young people inside the country already use VPN systems to escape the tentacles of the lack of freedom of expression. 

For its part, the app Signal has issued an international appeal for help to Iranians to set up proxy servers after its service was banned in Iran, in an apparent attempt to deal with the ongoing protests over the death of Mahsa Amini. According to the app's statement: "If you set up a Signal proxy and want to let the world know, you can use the hashtag #IRanASignalProxy," it explained in a statement offering details on how to set up the proxy server.

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