Iranian Activist Alinejad Calls On Dutch PM To List IRGC As Terrorist Group

Shirzad Ahmadinejad, 41, was arrested on February 15 by intelligence forces, and died following brutal mistreatment in Revolutionary Guard’s detention center in Orumiyeh (Urmia).

The Kurdistan Press Agency claims the family were told by phone that Ahmadinejad had died of a heart attack, painfully reminiscent of the lies used to cover up the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, whose death triggered a wave of revolutionary fervor since September.

Ahmadinejad, believed to have been arrested for participating in protests, suffered from kidney disease and was denied access to medical services during his detention, according to the report.

It sparked mass protests in Bukan, West Azarbaijan Province, an area heavily populated by Kurds, where people lit fires in the streets and chanted slogans like “Death to Khamenei”.

Security has been stepped up in Bukan amid funeral preparations with checkpoints set up at the entrances of the city on Thursday. Violence reminiscent of that seen around the funeral of Amini and other similar figures, is expected.

The area is often the target of brutal crackdowns as the regime continues its suppression of the Kurdish minority. Also this week, two Kurdish citizens from Bukan were kidnapped by regime forces and taken to an unknown location, according to Kurdish rights group Hengaw.

On a tour of the border between Israel and Lebanon on Thursday, Yoav Gallant said whoever carried out the attack “will regret” its actions. “We will find the right timing and appropriate manner to hit back,” he said.

An explosive device was detonated next to the Megiddo Junction on Monday, severely injuring an Israeli civilian. Soon after, following an extensive search and road blockades, the suspect was found and killed by Israel’s Yamam forces.

“The terrorist was found in possession of weapons, including an explosive belt ready to be activated and additional means. The assumption is that due to the neutralization, an additional terror attack was prevented,” the IDF spokesman’s office announced this week.

The spokesman’s unit said an initial inquiry suggests that the terrorist is presumed to have crossed into Israel from southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, earlier this week.“The possibility of the involvement of the Hezbollah terrorist army is also under review,” it added.

According to Reuters, Hezbollah — Iran’s most powerful proxy which has frequently called for the end of the State of Israel — declined to comment on the allegations.

Israel and Lebanon do not have diplomatic relations and have relied on UN peacekeeping troops, The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, to act as a buffer between the two nations since 1978.

A video published on social media shows Sepideh Qolian leaving prison without the mandatory hijab and shouting defiantly: "Khamenei, cruel ruler, we will topple you."

Reports say the fearless activist was arrested by security forces while returning home to Khuzestan. It is said that the citizens who filmed her arrest have also been detained.

Qolian was sentenced to five years in prison for “disrupting public order” and “assembly and collusion against national security” after her arrest in 2018 for her role in publicizing labor protests in Khuzestan. She has also gone on hunger strike several times.

Qolian’s forced confession was aired by the state television in January 2019, a stark warning to others of the consequences of speaking out against the regime.

In the program she was described as an agent provocateur with ties to Marxist groups abroad who had encouraged a strike at the Haft Tappeh Agro-Industrial Complex in Khuzestan.

Gholian later alleged that Ameneh-Sadat Zabihpour, an IRIB journalist involved in filming the confession, had been involved as an interrogator and had tortured her to confess before the camera.

It is all too common for activists to be falsely accused of such charges of espionage and colluding with foreign groups, for which the regime justifies they pay a heavy price in its brutal jails.

Bijan Nobaveh, Tehran's representative and a deputy at the cultural committee, admitted that as protests show no signs of abating, more repressive measures are ahead, with the approval of the administration and judiciary.

Increased state-wide surveillance will add further oppression to the country’s suffering population. “Identification of women without hijab in public spaces will be done through surveillance cameras, and punishment will be done according to the prepared tables [guidelines],” he said, though this is widely done already.

Women seen in public without their Islamic headscarf, required under regime law, have been seen multiple times being beaten by brutal security forces.

Further crackdowns to communications are set to come too, after months of internet shutdowns have blighted the country, including millions of women working from home who are now forced back into poverty. New punishments tabled include blocking mobile phones and internet of women who appear in public without hijab.

The announcement this week also reiterated threats against owners and operators of shops, malls and tourist attractions who do not confront women without headscarves. The Islamic Republic has closed down several businesses in the heavily touristic cities of Esfahan (Isfahan) and Kashan as well as in the capital Tehran in recent days, demanding management not allow access for uncovered women.

It is not yet clear how much money the regime, which is already bankrupt, is going to spend on the necessary technologies for such measures.

The new crackdowns come as no surprise. Before the unrest which began in September, triggered by the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Amini, there has long been talk of using cameras to identify women flouting the mandatory hijab rules, part of efforts by President Ebrahim Raisi’s hardliner administration to intensify pressures on women in society throughout the year.

In December, another member of parliament’s cultural committee, Hossein Jalali, said that hijab enforcement will never be abolished, ensuring that “veils will be back on women’s heads within two weeks.” Confirming that the regime is making some changes in enforcing hijab rules, he added that “it is possible that women who do not observe hijab would be informed via SMS, asking them to respect the law. After notifying them, we enter the warning stage... and in the third stage, the bank account of the person who unveiled may be blocked."

Iranian women appearing in public without headscarves has become a common sight across the country. Celebrities keep publishing photos and videos of themselves defying the regime and scuffles with security forces are still seen across social media on a daily basis.

While some politicians have demanded an end to compulsory hijab and laws that legalize discrimination against women, there are many others who have been talking about new methods and punishments to enforce hijab.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivered an ambivalent speech about hijab in January, saying hijab is an inevitable duty for all Muslim women, but no Iranian woman should be labeled as non-religious if she fails to fully honor the Islamic dress code.

The Islamic Republic faces a dilemma. Allowing people to wear whatever they desire in public means the utmost failure of the regime's ideology, while enforcing hijab with strict punitive measures can only lead to further resentment in society.

Protests seems to have resulted in police being unable to confront the large number of women unveiling in public with its usual ferocity and the regime’s hardliners are worried that warmer weather in spring and summer would lead to more women defying the country’s strict hijab rules.

Firebrand Cleric Ahmad Alamolhoda -- who is President Ebrahim Raisi's father-in-law -- said earlier in the month that “the regime is no longer powerful enough to stand against women who defy compulsory hijab,”. Imam Mohammad-Nabi Mousavifard also said in February that the authorities should approve new laws to deal with women who do not observe hijab “otherwise women will come to the street naked this summer”.

On Tuesday evening, hours after the parliament session on enforcing the hijab, thousands of young Iranians took to the streets in several cities, dancing with their hair flowing freely and burning headscarves and photos of Khamenei. They came out to mark the ancient Iranian annual fire festival and used the occasion to vent their anger at security forces.

The international human rights organization has conducted research into the repressive measures Iranian intelligence and security forces have used against children in the six months since protests erupted in Iran.

“The research exposes the torture methods that the Revolutionary Guards, the paramilitary Basij, the Public Security Police and other security and intelligence forces used against boys and girls in custody to punish and humiliate them” and to extract forced “confessions,” Amnesty said.

At the height of the protests in from October to December last year, almost daily reports and videos from Iran revealed many cases of children being arrested, tortured, and dozens who were killed or blinded by gunfire. But the report released Thursday is based on a systematic collection of evidence and testimonies from victims and families, implicating the Iranian government in violence against children.

“Iranian state agents have torn children away from their families and subjected them to unfathomable cruelties. It is abhorrent that officials have wielded such power in a criminal manner over vulnerable and frightened children, inflicting severe pain and anguish upon them and their families…This violence against children exposes a deliberate strategy to crush the vibrant spirit of the country’s youth and stop them from demanding freedom and human rights,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

The report also said that although the government has not released a breakdown of the 22,000 protesters it says it arrested, a significant portion of demonstrators were children. Many have been held alongside adults, Amnesty said, which is a violation of international standards. They were “subjected to the same patterns of torture and other ill-treatment.”

Amnesty International also said that its investigation revealed “that state agents used rape and other sexual violence, including electric shocks to genitals, touching genitals, and rape threats as a weapon against child detainees to break their spirits, humiliate and punish them, and/or extract ‘confessions.’ This pattern is also widely reported by adult women and men detainees.”

Cruel treatment of children also included detention in inhumane conditions, including extreme overcrowding, poor access to toilets, insufficient food and water, exposure to extreme cold and solitary confinement, Amnesty said.

The United Nations launched an investigative and fact-finding mission in November tasked with looking into all the reports and evidence of severe rights violation by the Islamic Republic. The members of the team were appointed in December.

The UN Human Rights Council announced that President Federico Villegas has appointed Sara Hossain of Bangladesh as the chair of the mission. Shaheen Sardar Ali of Pakistan and Viviana Krsticevic of Argentina are the two other members of the mission.

“The authorities must immediately release all children detained solely for peacefully protesting. With no prospect of effective impartial investigations into the torture of children domestically, we call on all states to exercise universal jurisdiction over Iranian officials, including those with command or superior responsibility, reasonably suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes under international law, including the torture of child protesters,” Amnesty demanded.