You Have Outdone All Dictators, Former Revolutionary Guard Says

Critics see a hasty plan to sell off government properties and companies as a way of "plundering Iran’s resources in the course of liquidating the country’s national assets."

Conservative news website Alef has quoted Ahmad Tavakkoli, the head of the Iranian NGO, Transparency and Justice Monitor, as saying in a letter to lawmakers, the heads of the three powers of the government and the privatization board that the plan "should be totally rejected."

The media reported in January that Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, Economy Minister Ehsan Khandouzi, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, Roads Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash, and four other officials will form the Privatization Board. Reports at the time said that an order issued by the heads of the three powers of the government bars critics of disclosing details of transactions and suspends for two years all legislations that might prevent these transactions. 

The members of the Privatization Board have asked for immunity against all criticism and possible legal prosecution. 

The scheme is reminiscent of previous privatization efforts that led to huge corruption cases, when people bought public assets at a fraction of their market value often simply to sell valuable lands or borrow large sums from banks against the assets.

Tavakkoli, who is also a member of Iran's Expediency Council, a non-elected body whose members are appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, also said that Khamenei has revoked his endorsement of the privatization plan. Tavakkoli is an established conservative politician, who belongs to the ‘principlist’ camp, which has lately been overshadowed by ultraconservatives who control the parliament and President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration.

While the plan is presented as an effort to make the economy more efficient and raise money for the cash-strapped government, critics believe there are powerful people involved whose only interest is to buy valuable lands at low pieces.

Criticizing Raisi’s privatization and other economic plans administration, Tavakkoli said the economic situation is so bad that "If an average Iranian worker saves one third of his monthly income to buy a house, it will take him 135 years to be able to afford buying one." He further warned that if the government undertakes to implement the shady privatization plan, this will be an end to many Iranians' hope to own a house."

Stressing that this is the third letter he is writing about privatization, Tavakkoli further warned that this plan will entail heavy losses and other consequences for the Islamic Republic as it extensively violates the rights of the nation. 

Echoing previous warnings by other politicians and commentators, Tavakkoli argued that the plan will create new opportunities for corrupt individuals. He further accused the seven high-ranking members of the privatization board of planning to take advantage of their immunity before the law to spread financial corruption. 

Meanwhile, former deputy culture minister Hossein Entezami in a tweet on Friday called Tavakkoli's letter "shocking." He added that "the seven members of the Privatization Board and their colleagues who enjoy permanent immunity from prosecution, have [so far] received 54 trillion rials ($108 million) for working on the board." He added: "I wish Vice President Mohammad Mokhber and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will cease to insist on implementing the privatization plan."

Since Saturday morning, social media was brimming with footage of security forces stationed at strategic spots in different cities as the regime had prepared its security forces in anticipation of protests.

Pockets of protests were reported throughout the day despite a heavy presence of regime agents, who were quick to act against any gathering that resembled the beginning of a demonstration, but as the night progressed, people started to build up confidence and pour into the streets chanting slogans against the regime. 

Mahsa Amini's death anniversary, which started with the regime putting her parents under house arrest and diverting water from a nearby dam to block access to her resting place, ended with reports about a fire purportedly started by female inmates in a prison near the capital Tehran.

State media said female convicts on death row set fire to the women's ward at the Qarchak jail by burning their clothes, claiming that it was unclear if the incident was linked to the protests. 

Earlier in the day, a Kurdish human rights group had reported that female inmates held protests at the prison to commemorate the anniversary. It also said special forces entered the ward, beat up the women and fired pellet bullets at some of the protesters. Moreover, detainees in the women's ward of Tehran's Evin Prison gathered in protest to mark the occasion, chanting slogans against the regime, refusing to enter their cells, and setting fire to their headscarves in the prison courtyard.

There are numerous reports of arrests of protesters and clashes between security forces and people during the day. In addition to the capital Tehran, cities of Rasht and Mashhad, which hosted President Ebrahim Raisi during the day were scenes of protests, in which people renewed their calls against the regime. 

The presence of security forces was intense and access to the internet was disrupted during the day to prevent the flow of information about any unrest. However, by midnight local time people were reported to be clashing with security forces in several neighborhoods of the capital and several other cities across the country. 

In Tehran and several predominantly Kurdish cities such as Kermanshah and Sanandaj, there were reports of gunshots fired at protesters. There is no immediate confirmation of possible casualties or information about the clashes. 

The regime tried to portray the clashes as not related to the popular uprising, with state media claiming that the security forces foiled numerous sabotage plots. To justify the house arrest of Mahsa Amini’s father, the regime said it foiled an assassination attempt on Mahsa's father Amjad Amini. 

The official IRNA news agency said the attempt on his life took place as he was on his way to visit his daughter's grave at the Aichi cemetery in the western town of Saqqez. "Security forces arrested several members of a terrorist group who wanted to assassinate Amjad Amini," IRNA said, citing the deputy governor of Kordestan province, Mehdi Ramezani.

The report, published in commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, documented instances of press freedom violations and attacks on media professionals operating within the country.

Many of these journalists have received long sentences or were even forced to leave their jobs. Additionally, at least eight media outlets have faced restrictions due to pressure from security institutions or government and more than 20 journalists have been sentenced to prison on charges such as propaganda against the regime and acting against the country's security.

The issue of summoning whereby journalists are being ordered by judicial authorities or security forces to come for interrogations has increased dramatically in the last year, with over 110 journalists being summoned, the report claims.

At least 20 journalists have been exiled due to arrests, summons, and long-term prison sentences. To date, six journalists are still being held unfairly in prison, including Niloofar Hamedi, a journalist at Shargh newspaper, who was arrested at her home in Tehran after reporting the death of Mahsa Amini, whose death sparked the last year of protests rocking the regime.

The 20th World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) put Iran at the rock bottom of the list earlier this year, only better than Eritrea and North Korea.

Iran ranked 178th out of 180 countries in the table, which is four places worse compared with the previous report published in 2021. In the 2022 index, even Turkmenistan, Myanmar and China rank better than the Islamic Republic.

Speaking to Iran International, a representative of the United Youth of Iran (UYI) revealed that despite the government's repressive tactics, including widespread arrests and significant communication challenges, they have successfully broadened their efforts. Extending their outreach, they have gone beyond the alliance's initial scope, to connect with a diverse range of groups that were active during the protests. This includes workers' associations, activists, women's and student groups, as well as civil society organizations.

“This was one of our most important achievements,” the representative who requested anonymity said about UYI.

The alliance of youth groups says it fights alongside other Iranians to free the country from its repressive regime.

UYI was formed when several so-called ‘neighborhood youth groups’ found each other on social media and published a manifesto in early December, less than three months after the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police sparked several-month-long protests across Iran.

The manifesto circulated on social media said it was meant to “pave the grounds for dialogue and cooperation” among various trade organizations, unions, political groups and activists inside Iran and abroad. It has been revised several times since then.

The document said getting rid of the Islamic Republic, separation of religion and state, and the “formation of an inclusive, democratic government” formed the cornerstone of the manifesto.

“Obviously, the regime makes every effort to identify and arrest members of youth groups and clamps down on these groups to prevent them from growing. They also use tactics such as spreading rumors about our connection with dubious political groups,” the representative of UYI told Iran International.

According to her, youth groups from twenty-three cities out of the thirty-five that initially joined the alliance have persevered and remain actively engaged on the ground, consistently prepared for protests. Meanwhile, some have been forced to operate covertly due to security concerns, while others have been compromised following the arrest of their members.

“We contact each other through safe online applications such as Session and Signal but many underground activists are very weary of any contact. Some of them also have difficulty accessing the internet,” one of the leaders of the alliance who also requested anonymity told Iran International.

“The Revolutionary Guard has gained access to social media accounts of some of the original neighborhood youth groups and is controlling their accounts,” he said.

“Last year, even before Mahsa was killed, you could easily feel people’s anger on the streets, the anger coming from loss of hope in the improvement of their lives, … There was an air of darkness and misery,” Behzad, a twenty-one-year-old student of philosophy from Karaj and a member of UYI told Iran International.

According to Behzad and several other members of youth groups, Mahsa’s death sparked the protests, but it was not only vengeance that drove them to the streets to protest. People were fed up with the regime and wanted it gone, they said.

“The Islamic Republic has been dead for a long time. It has lost its legitimacy amongst the people. I’m certain that its annihilation is going to be expedited by the constant attrition among its loyal forces … People will return to the streets again, when the time comes, because we really don’t have anything to lose,” Behzad said.

“Mahsa’s killing, another example of the clerical regime’s suppression, increased people’s anger to the extent that it became explosive,” Haleh, 29, who studies arts in Esfahan (Isfahan) said.

"I joined protesters on the streets for the first time in January 2017 when the recent protest movement emerged. It was at that moment that protests in Iran transformed into a revolutionary movement due to the economic and political despair among the people," she added.

Sina, a 25-year-old studying for a master's degree in accounting in Tehran, expressed that the only conceivable future for himself and individuals in a similar situation is emigration or a transformation in the country's governance, as the current circumstances are unsustainable.

“There was this shared pain, the pain that most of the population felt … The drop in the election turnout [in 2020 and 2021] was indicative of the loss of hope in any improvement through the ballot box,” Sina said.

Arezou (27) from Nowshahr in northern Iran who holds a degree in literature also said the future looked dark and miserable to her before last year’s protests. “My country would still be sitting on the verge of an abyss even if I found a way to a bright future for myself … From economy to the environment, from politics to the society’s ethics, everything was quickly falling into decay.”

Last year’s protests spread to many large and small cities across the country, and even to some very conservative towns and villages, despite heavy-handed government crackdowns and recurring internet blackouts but gradually subsided by early 2023, when the regime took even a harsher approach and hanged two young protesters, Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard, in public and five others in the following months.

Around 500 were killed by security forces, tens of thousands of protesters were arrested, thousands were wounded, and hundreds lost their eyes to pellets fired directly at them by security forces during the Mahsa protests.

Chanting slogans of dissent against the regime, the inmates took a stand by refusing to enter their cells and set fire to their headscarves in the prison courtyard.

Seven political prisoners, namely Azadeh Abedini, Sepideh Gholian, Shakila Manafzadeh, Golrokh Iraee, Narges Mohammadi, Mahboubeh Rezaei, and Vida Rabbani, jointly declared their intent to hold a sit-in within the prison courtyard.

Their motivation, they proclaimed, was to "support the people and protest against the regime." This symbolic gesture served as a poignant denunciation of what they termed the "tyranny of the religious authoritarian regime," with the protest occurring on the day when Mahsa Amini lost her life under the pretext of compulsory hijab.

In a statement conveyed via Narges Mohammadi's Instagram page on Friday, the group called upon the people of Iran and the global community to amplify the voices of dissent and opposition, emphasizing the importance of standing united against injustice.

In a demonstration of solidarity with the ongoing protests, a number of other political detainees embarked on a hunger strike. Ali Younesi, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Saeed Madani, Hossein Razzagh, Mehdi Mahmoudian, and Mohammad Najafi issued a letter from Evin Prison, announcing their decision to initiate a hunger strike on Saturday.

In the days preceding the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death, numerous calls for a nationwide strike and demonstrations, both within Iran and across international cities, have gained momentum.