Iranian Kurds Gather At Protester's Funeral Defying Regime Threats
Kurdish-Iranians gathered for the burial of Hamed Baqeri (Bagheri) on Friday, in spite of threats from regime security.
Kurdish-Iranians gathered for the burial of Hamed Baqeri (Bagheri) on Friday, in spite of threats from regime security.
The young Iranian-Kurd was recently shot by regime forces while protesting in Karaj, with photos of the large attendance for his funeral appearing online as a mark of defiance to the authorities, which has been clamping down on all mass gatherings in the lead-up to Saturday's anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini.
Mourners traveled from regions such as Eslamshahr-e Gharb in western Kermanshah province to the village of Tajar-e-Akbar to participate in the burial rites for Baqeri, according to Hengaw Human Rights Organization.
Citing sources close to Baqeri's family, Hengaw claims that the young man had expressed protest slogans against the dictatorship of the Islamic Republic even before the tragic incident in which he is believed to have died from four bullet wounds from security forces.
After the incident, Hamid Hadavand, commander of the Alborz Law Enforcement, referred to the young man as a "hooligan with a machete" during an interview with the Islamic Republic government's news agency, IRNA. He claims Baqeri allegedly "savagely attacked both civilians and law enforcement agents in Karaj" and was subsequently detained at the scene after officers resorted to gunfire.
Hengaw denies the claims and has accused Iran's state media of engaging in an "organized" dissemination of news containing "misleading and false information."
Security forces and their plainclothes agents made their initial appearance in Ekbatan last week. They have already established checkpoints within the extensive middle-class apartment complex and have stationed special forces on motorcycles at various locations in and around the compound, including outside a mega mall and a hospital.
In preparation for the upcoming anniversary of Mahsa (Jina) Amini's death in custody of the morality police on September 16, 2022, residents have already begun nighttime chants from their windows. Slogans such as "Down with Khamenei," "Down with the child-killing regime," and "We will persist until the regime collapses, despite poverty, corruption, and high living costs," have echoed through the neighborhood in recent days.
“The sound of many people chanting echoed in the space between the apartment blocks and really scared the security forces. On several occasions they shot pellets and even live bullets indiscriminately at windows to stop people chanting,” Tara, a twenty-five-year-old resident told Iran International in an online chat. “It didn’t work. We returned and gave them more nightmares every night.”
“Ekbatan was more active than other neighborhoods in Tehran because its structure and architecture made it difficult for security forces to control. Additionally, the residents’ community was and is much more tightly knit than in other neighborhoods,” Ashkan, a young man who manages Ekbatan protesters very popular Twitter, Telegram, and Instagram accounts told Iran International. “However, they have been familiarizing themselves with the terrain and become more dangerous,” he added.
Eight young men from Ekbatan who were accused of killing a member of the Basij militia during last year’s protests are still in prison and under great psychological and physical pressure to confess to the allegations that they all deny. “Just recently, they were moved from Rajai-Shahr prison to Ghezel Hesar,” Ashkan said. “They are still awaiting trial and are in very bad shape psychologically.”
Protesters in Ekbatan often marched under the blocks at night and escaped into the vast green spaces when security forces raided them. They took refuge in one of the many entrances of the blocks, or hid in the apartments of the sympathetic residents who often left their doors open for them.
The five square-kilometer complex, with a population of 45,000 has over 15,500 apartments in 33 blocks built on wide columns. The columns under the blocks are a blank canvas for protesters to spray paint anti-regime graffiti. Ordered by security forces, the management of the blocks ensures that they quickly cover the graffiti with paint, but before long, more graffiti appears on the columns.
Complaining about the many disputes among expatriate groups over the leadership of the movement, Ashkan said protesters could have achieved much more if these disputes had not slowed down the movement. “This is a lengthy process, but anything can suddenly trigger massive protests again like Mahsa’s killing did last year,” he said but declined to comment on his own leadership preferences.
“I was personally very moved last year and became more determined when I saw the video showing Majidreza Rahnavard fighting so bravely for his rights in Mashhad, which is dominated by Basijis and corrupt hardliners. He was really fearless and fought like a hero," Ashkan said.
Rahnavard, 23, was the first of the seven young men executed in public for his involvement in the protests and the alleged stabbing of two Basijis in November 2022. He was hanged in public on December 12.
In a statement released on the occasion of the first death anniversary of Mahsa Amini that catalyzed a revolt later known as the Women, Life, Freedom movement, the human rights organization said the world must pursue pathways for justice at the international level to address systemic impunity for Iranian officials responsible for hundreds of unlawful killings of protesters and widespread torture.
Exacerbated by years of economic and social suffocation and subjugation under the rule of a corrupt autocratic regime, people took to streets across Iran last September. The uprising was dealt with by a bloody crackdown by police and Revolutionary Guard’s agents leaving about 600 protesters dead and tens of thousands detained.
Amnesty pointed out that Iranian authorities have committed a litany of crimes under international law to eradicate any challenge to their iron grip on power over the past year. “These include hundreds of unlawful killings; the arbitrary execution of seven protesters; tens of thousands of arbitrary arrests; widespread torture, including rape of detainees; widespread harassment of victims’ families who call for truth and justice; and reprisals against women and girls who defy discriminatory compulsory veiling laws.”
The group’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Diana Eltahawy, slammed the regime’s authorities for “inflicting unspeakable cruelty on people in Iran for courageously challenging decades of repression and inequality,” noting that “not one official has been criminally investigated, let alone prosecuted and punished for crimes committed during, and in the aftermath of, the uprising.”
She also described the anniversary of the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ protests as “a stark reminder for countries around the world of the need to initiate criminal investigations into the heinous crimes committed by the Iranian authorities under universal jurisdiction.”
Eltahawy also called on the world's leaders to issue statements explicitly calling on Tehran to halt the use of firearms against protesters, stop torturing detainees, and release all detained protesters. “These actions show victims they are not alone in their darkest hour.”
Amnesty decried the regime's raft of new measures against women and girls who defy compulsory hijab, including the confiscation of cars and denial of access to employment, education, healthcare, banking services and public transport as well as finesand degrading punishments, such as washing corpses.
“This assault on women’s rights is taking place amid a spate of hateful official statements referring to unveiling as a 'virus', 'social illness' or 'disorder' as well as equating the choice to appear without a headscarf to 'sexual depravity,’” the right group added.
Amnesty also raised alarm about the detention and summoning of human rights defenders and journalists, saying that “at least 90 journalists and other media workers and 60 lawyers, including those representing families of individuals unlawfully killed,” have been arrested. Scores of other lawyers were summoned for interrogations.
Describing it as “a tsunami of torture,” Amnesty said that to quash the protests security forces fired live ammunition and metal pellets, causing injuries amounting to torture or other ill-treatment to thousands, including blinding, loss of limbs and impaired mobility. “The authorities also oversaw the widespread commission of torture and other ill-treatment against thousands of detained protesters, including children.”
Amnesty International called the establishment of a Fact-Finding Mission on Iran by the UN Human Rights Council in November 2022 as a good measure but insisted that much more is needed “to deter further cycles of bloodshed.”
During the past several days, the international community has stepped up condemnation of Iran’s crackdown on dissent as Iranians are getting ready for more protests on the anniversary of the uprising, but none has so far resulted in tangible results for the people.
The US overwhelmingly passed the MAHSA Act on Tuesday to strengthen Washington’s sanctions on the regime over violation of human rights. Also on Tuesday, members of the European Parliament grilled EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell over the bloc’s Iran policy.
