Iran Intelligence Says Seven People Detained For Shiraz Shrine Attack

A very clear indication of the impossible situation took place Saturday night when the state television in Iran placed ‘reformist’ journalist Mohammad Ghoochani, in front of ultraconservative cleric Qasem Ravanbakhsh for a dialogue about the situation that has brought millions of angry Iranians face to face with a heavily armed hardliner government.

Reformist daily Etemad on Monday wrote in a commentary on the program that Ravanbakhsh clearly "damned those who refuse to accept ruling clerics' violent behavior!" The daily concluded that "belief in dialogue in the ruling political faction is either too weak or non-existent."

Trying to convince the cleric to have sympathy with young Iranian protesters, Ghoochani asked Ravanbakhsh whether he feels sad for the death of Mahsa Amini, the young woman who was murdered in police custody in mid-September and her death triggered the current wave of nationwide uprising. The ultraconservative cleric who happens to have four daughters, responded: "No. I do not feel any sadness. Many girls die every day and Mahsa was one of them." Etemad slammed Ravanbakhsh's annoying rhetoric calling it "a behavior against religious principles."

Ravanbakhsh, the editor of Qom's hardliner weekly newspaper Parto, who has for two decades levelled all sorts of accusations against reform-minded politicians and activists in Iran, said this in cold blood while looking deep into the TV camera. His attitude defied the idea of bringing if not the people, at least the leading members of opposing political factions in Iran closer to each other.

Ghoochani, who has been the editor of several reformist newspapers and magazines during the past two decades, was speechless before this man although he acknowledged that reformist parties in Iran act like a safety valve to release the explosive pressures in society. Iran's hardliners have banned nearly every publication Ghoochani used to publish. He is currently a political bureau member of the Centrist Executives of Construction Party and the editor of Agahi-ye No magazine, which has a pro-reform slant.

In another indication of Tehran's unpreparedness for holding dialogue with relatively open-minded activists took place last week when a debate between a reform-minded sociologist and another ultraconservative figure was turned into a monologue by the latter as the former was kicked out of the studio as soon as he went off-camera at the beginning of the debate.

Many, including Etemad's commentator believe that it is too late to begin a dialogue with angry protesters in the streets, and that dialogue should have started long ago, before the Iranian society became extremely polarized.

Some Iranian politicians including lawmaker Mohammad-Hassan Asafari have claimed they have already "received" protesters in their offices and held dialogues with them, but in the absence of convincing evidence, and in view of the deep distrust between the people and government officials, it is doubtful if they have really held such meetings.

Meanwhile, as the article in Etemad pointed out, some Iranian officials who talk about the need to hold dialogue with protesters, put forward funny conditions such as "those taking part in the dialogue must not have been influenced by foreign media." This is obviously based on the assumption that "any protest, even by workers who demand their unpaid wages is planned by foreigners."

State and hardline media have claimed that Toomaj was arrested in western border areas while attempting to flee the country.

Toomaj used his social media influence to encourage protesters not to give up the streets and join strikes to topple the regime, although he had already been arrested once before. He also taught them ways to circumvent internet censorship. He was never allowed to release his music in Iran or hold concerts and connected with his fans only through online platforms such as YouTube.

Official Toomaj , the Twitter account which is now run by an administrator based outside Iran, refuted the claim saying he was arrested in his home province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province which is not anywhere near the border areas.

“We will come to the streets, every day and night, until Iran is freed. The streets are ours, we will take them back from you,” Official Toomaj defiantly quoted one of his songs in a tweet after his arrest.

Toomaj’s London-based cousin Azadeh Babadi told Iran International Monday that the family have found out he is being severely tortured to denounce the youth movement against the clerical rule.

“He knew he would be arrested but refused to leave the country,” Babadi said via video link, adding that she had warned him about his safety in Iran and offered to help him get a visa to join her in London. The family want all Iranians to know that Toomaj believes they can only succeed in restoring the rights denied to them by remaining on the streets and continuing the protests to bring the regime down, she said.

"We will rise from the bottom and target the top of the pyramid,” Toomaj’s latest song released last week says and promises protesters’ victory over the Islamic Republic.

In his politically charged songs such as “Buy a Rat Hole”(2021), Toomaj, a 32-year-old metalworker in Esfahan, spoke out against repression, injustice, poverty, and authorities’ own corruption and impunity from prosecution.

The underground rapper’s song harshly criticized the regime and decried its agents and supporters telling them it was time "to buy rat holes" to hide in because the time of retribution for their actions had arrived. "You are a murderer if you cover up murder. To cover up murder you must step in blood,” he sang.

In September 2021 Toomaj’s home in Esfahan was raided by twelve intelligence ministry agents and he was arrested. Thousands of Iranians on social media condemned his arrest and Amnesty International demanded his immediate release in a statement on September 17.

This time his fans are vowing to continue his path and stay on the streets as he wanted. “We swear on the blood on Toomaj’s blindfold that we will take revenge for all the blood that you have shed,” one of the rapper’s fans tweeted Monday referring to a blood stain on the blindfold put over his eyes in a photo released by the state media.

“Please be his voice, as he has been the voice of his people suffering under the Islamic Republic's rule,” exiled rapper Soroush Lashkari (Hichkas) who is known as the “father of Persian rap music” tweeted to his fans after Toomaj’s arrest.

Iranian musicians of every genre must acquire permits to release their music or to hold concerts. Getting a permit largely depends on the lyrics and the overall activities of the artist rather than the genre itself but rap and rock music are generally frowned upon as Western influences and are not deemed fit for the Iranian public.

Even recording and releasing the types of music that political and religious authorities categorize as belonging to “degenerate Western culture” and “vulgar” on the internet is considered illegal.

In the past four decades top religious authorities have prevented musical instruments from being shown in action on state television although very reluctantly they have withheld objection to music being broadcast. Female singers are totally banned from publishing their work and concerts are allowed only for all female audiences or if they sing in a chorus.

Intensifying efforts to quash the seven-week-old protests, ignited by Mahsa Amini's death in police custody, the hardline judiciary announced on Monday that it will hold public trials for about a thousand of the detainees. However, public trials do not necessarily mean fair trials, as the Islamic Republic routinely denies people the right to choose their own defense attorney and withholds case information from them.

According to Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, Tehran's chief justice has said these people “have carried out acts of sabotage in recent events, including assaulting or killing security guards, (and) setting fire to public property." The report added that the trials would take place in a Revolutionary Court and are scheduled for this week. 

It was not immediately clear if the 1,000 indictments announced on Monday included 315 protesters that the state news agency IRNA reported charged in Tehran on Saturday. At least five of them are accused of capital offences.

In a video shared on social media on Monday, the mother of 22-year-old Mohammad Ghobadlou said her son had been handed a death sentence two days ago in an initial court hearing, describing the verdict as unfair and appealing for help. She said that he was tried and "sentenced to death" in a session without the presence of his family and lawyer, adding that the authorities want to execute him as quickly as possible. 

The judiciary claims that Ghobadlou "killed an officer and injured several others" by running over the officers with his car during protests. 

The judiciary has recently charged several arrested protesters with "corruption on earth," which is tantamount to a death sentence in the Islamic Republic. 

The public trials are meant as a threatening message to people, whose antigovernment protests are growing as they have started holding 40th-day mourning ceremonies for those who were killed in the protests, a culturally important tradition. 

On Saturday, Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Hossein Salami threatened people not to take to streets anymore saying that Saturday was the last day of protests.

Protests Continue On Monday

Despite a deadly crackdown – which has claimed the lives of nearly 300 protesters so far – and the regime’s psychological operation to intimidate the people, the protests are raging on a daily basis, with morning gatherings at university campuses and evening rallies in streets and neighborhoods. 

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said on Saturday at least 283 protesters have been killed in the unrest, including 44 minors. Some 34 members of the security forces were also killed.

Videos posted on social media on Monday showed several rallies at universities in Tehran, Tabriz, Sanandaj and other cities, with slogans against the regime as well as the security forces. 

In Tabriz University of medical sciences, students chanted an increasingly popular protest slogan directed at the Iranian ‘morality police,’ calling them perverts. “I am a free woman!” they chanted. 

Among the most retweeted reports Monday was the open letter of resignation by the vice-chancellor of Bushehr Dental School in southern Iran. He said that he can no longer protect students “whose lives have been entrusted to us.” Students also held a sit-in in support of their classmates who have been arrested in the past few weeks. 

Protesters also began to gather in the streets of different cities, angered by the deaths of several teenage girls reportedly killed while demonstrating. 

Monday marked the 40th day after the death of 16-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh, a victim of the protests that authorities claim she jumped from a neighbor’s rooftop and killed herself and her death was unrelated to protests. 

The 16-year-old YouTuber died on the way to hospital after being severely beaten in the head with batons while protesting the killing of Mahsa Amini. She had joined a protest in Karaj, a large city half an hour from the capital Tehran, on September 21. Her injury and death were verified by Amnesty International.

Her friends and classmates held a vigil for her in the classroom and wrote some of her statements from her videos on social media on the board. 

Tehran residents held a protest at one of the most crowded subway stations, chanting “Death to Dictator,” referring to the Islamic Republic’s ruler Ali Khamenei.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a tweet, "We condemn the excessive violence of the security forces and stand by the people in Iran. Our EU sanctions are important. We are reviewing further steps."

"I am shocked that people who are peacefully demonstrating at protests in Iran are dying," he added.

Earlier in the day, the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry spokesman Naser Kanaani described the condemnations over Tehran’s handling of popular protests as “intervention” in the country’s “internal affairs” and slammed Germany’s plans to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity.

Kanaani added that the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) is an official military organization of the Islamic Republic and sanctioning it would be “a totally illegal act.”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Sunday that her country and the European Union were examining whether to classify Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization for its use of violence in the protests.

Also on Monday, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly announced that Ottawa is imposing additional sanctions under the Special Economic Measures (Iran) Regulations. This is the fourth package of sanctions imposed by Canada against the Iranian regime in response to its ongoing gross and systematic human rights violations and continued actions to destabilize peace and security.

In an interview with former State Department advisor Aaron David Miller Monday, Malley said media had failed to reflect the approach of the Biden administration, which had been “much broader” than its 18-month efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Malley repeated his previous apology for a tweet October 23, which he noted had been attacked by some Iranians in the US as “diminishing the demands of the protestors.” The special envoy also referred to “some attacks against Iranian Americans…particularly against women…[that had been] been borderline threats, harassment, sometimes in a very sexualized way.”

Malley who has many opponents in the American Iranian community for his perceived weakness toward the clerical regime, praised the protesters and condemned the “gut-wrenching violence” violence against women and girls by the government.

An online petition launched by activist Masih Alinejad last week asking President Joe Biden to replace him has received more than 117,000 signatures.

Malley said that he understands the community’s emotions at this sensitive moment, seeing the struggle by the people in Iran and government’s violent response.

Defending the Biden administration’s handling of JCPOA talks,on hold since September, Malley said there was “no long-term sustainable solution other than a diplomatic one” to block Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, an aim Tehran denies.

But the White House envoy insisted that while engaged in the nuclear talks, the US had also been “pushing back” against Iran’s “proliferation of drones, missiles, its interference in other countries, its attacks against some of its neighbors…” This had been both through US sanctions, Malley said, and through other actions including military strikes “on at least two occasions against Iranian-affiliated militia in Syria.”

In one attack in August, the US reportedly killed six militants from a militia group it said had launched drones targeting the al-Tanf American garrison in the south-east of the country. Such actions had taken place “regardless of whether the nuclear negotiations are succeeding or not,” Malley said, “…regardless of whether there is a JCPOA or not…”

Malley insisted that US policy towards Iran was within a worldwide dimension: “The president made this clear, not just about Iran, but about our global policy, which is to put human rights and the defense of human rights back at the center of our foreign policy.”

Malley was pressed by the interviewer Miller over the limits to “transformative uses of American power.” Miller cited as lacking “much success” the US role in the ‘Arab Spring,’ the largely failed Middle East uprisings of 2010-12, Washington’s military interventions including Iraq, and its support to the “Sunni opposition” – against President Bashar al-Assad – in Syria.

“Our policy [with Iran] is not one of intervening to try to foment regime change,” Malley replied, arguing the US role had to be “very realistic” as well as “very ambitious.” He cited Washington’ removal of the threat of punitive action under US sanctions against technology and Internet companies dealing with Iran. He said there would be “more sanctions” against Iran and that the US would initiate “more steps in international forums.”