Ayatollah Khamenei. Image Credit: Tasnim News, CC BY 4.0.
Iranians have continued staging new protests denouncing their country’s theocratic regime in defiance of a brutal crackdown that has seen those arrested put on trial and facing the death penalty.
For the past six weeks, the regime has been rocked by protests on a scale unseen since the 1979 revolution which ushered in the Islamic Republic.
The protests were sparked by the death in September of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the Tehran morality police for allegedly breaching hijab requirements.
Regime authorities have warned protestors that demonstrations should now cease, though they show no sign of stopping as they continue in residential areas, major avenues and universities nationwide.
One challenge for the regime is the Iranian custom of a 40-day mourning period, transforming every “chehelom” 40-day mourning ceremony for those killed in the crackdown into a potential flashpoint for further unrest.
In footage posted on news outlets, residents in the Tehran district of Ekbatan chanted protest slogans including “Death to the dictator” on Monday, in response to which security forces used stun grenades against protestors.
In another instance, the funeral in Sanandaj of Sarina Saedi, a 16-year-old girl reportedly killed in the crackdown, on Monday turned into a protest, with anti-regime slogans shouted and women removing their headscarves.
