A Comprehensive Report of the First 82 days of Nationwide Protests in Iran

  HRANA – Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old young woman, was arrested by the morality police for the crime of improper hijab. Her arrest and death in detention fueled nationwide protests in Iran. Protesters came to the streets with the central slogan “Women, Life, Freedom” in protest against the performance, laws, and structure of the regime. The following 486-page report is dedicated to the statistical review, analysis, and summary of the first eighty-two days of the ongoing protests (September 17 to December 7, 2022). In this report, in addition to the geographic analysis and the presentation of maps and charts, the identity of 481 deceased, including 68 children and teenagers, an estimated of 18,242 arrested along with the identity of 3,670 arrested citizens, 605 students and 61 journalists or activists in the field of information is compiled. In addition, the report includes a complete collection of 1988 verified video reports by date and topic. The report examines protests across 1115 documented gatherings in all 31 provinces of the country, including 160 cities and 143 universities.

Summary

Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a young 22-year-old woman from Saqqez, Kurdistan was visiting Tehran, when she was taken into custody on Tuesday, September 13, 2022, by the Morality Police officers at the Haqqani metro station in Tehran. The reason for her arrest: not properly observing the strict Islamic dress code. Mahsa/Zhina was taken to the infamous detention center of Moral Security Police known as Vozara.
Shortly after Mahsa’s arrest, she went into a coma with level three concussion, and her partially alive body was transferred to the intensive care unit of Kasra Hospital. Given the track record of the police and Guidance Patrols in mistreating the arrestees and similar previous incidents, with the believe that Mahsa was beaten during the arrest people were outraged.

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Unpersuasive explanations given by the Central Command of the Islamic Republic Police Force (FARAJA) in defense of its actions regarding the death of Mahsa, the past performance of the police force, along with widespread dissatisfaction with the existence of a body called the Moral Security Police, fueled widespread protests in Iran.
The widespread protests sparked at the time Mahsa Amini was announced dead in front of Kasra Hospital on Argentina Street in Tehran, and then quickly spread to the streets despite the intimidating presence of Iran’s security forces. The protests intensified after Mahsa’s burial in a Saqqez cemetery. To the extent that after eighty-two days of nationwide protests between September 17, 2022, to December 7, 2022, they have spread to Iran’s all 31 provinces, 160 cities, and 143 major universities.
The protests did not stay limited to Mahsa’s death, it rather, quickly targeted the Iranian government’s political and ideological foundations. These protests were violently quashed by the anti-riot police and Iran’s militia force (Basij). teargas, pellets, and live ammunition were used in the repression of protestors. This widespread crackdown has led to the death of dozens of people and the wounding of hundreds of protestors.
Despite sever communication restrictions imposed by the Islamic Republic, this report attempts to give a clearer picture of the first 82 days of the protests between September 17, to December 7, 2022. It’s worth mentioning at the time of this report the protests are still ongoing in various forms.

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For further inquiries please contact Skylar Thompson, Senior Advocacy Coordinator Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA) at [email protected]

A Daily Overview of Human Rights Violations in Iran for December 18, 2018

The following is an overview of human rights violations in Iran on December 18th, 2018 based on the information compiled and verified by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

(1) On December 17th, 2018 in the National Steel Company workers protest, more than 42 workers have been arrested. The names of 10 more people are as the following: Hossein Asakereh, Meisam Al-Mahdi, Seyed Majid Mousavi, Amir Dehghan, Ahmad Bavi, Behzad Alikhani, Seyed Mostafa Mousavi, Majid Jalali, Arash Mohammadpour, and Behzad Shahbazi.

(2) Sepideh Gholian, a social rights’ activist, was released on bail. She looks very pale and weak after her release. She was arrested on November 18th while she was supporting the strike of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane workers.

(3) A fire broke out accidentally at “Osveh Hasaneh” kindergarten in Zahedan. The fire broke out in a faulty oil stove being used for heating a classroom. Students Mona Khosroparast, Saba Arabi, and Maryam Nokandi died and Yekta Mirshekar is severely burnt.

(4) A United Nation committee on human rights approved a resolution on December 17th, 2018 urging Iran to stop its widespread use of arbitrary detention and expressing serious concern about its use of death penalty. Iran was urged to end widespread and serious restrictions including on freedom of assembly of political opponents, human rights defenders, labor leaders, environmentalists, academics, filmmakers, journalists, bloggers, social media users and others. The resolution strongly urges Iran to eliminate discrimination against women in law and practice and expresses “serious concern about ongoing severe limitations and restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.”

(5) Nazanin Zaghari requested parole but has not yet received any response from the judiciary officials. She is a British-Iranian dual citizen who has been detained in Iran since 3 April 2016. She was sentenced to five years imprisonment and has served half of her sentence now. She is also inneed of acute medical care.

(6) Two activists, Ansar Advaei 27 years old and Fardin Advaei 24 years old, were released in Uraman District in Sarvabad County and the two others, Hamid Ahmadi and Zaniyar Moradi remain in prison there. The reasons for these four citizens’ arrest, are still unknown.

(7) Hamid Ahmadi Maledeh, a juvenile offender who is accused of murder in a street fight was sentenced to death. He has been serving 11 years in the Rasht prison and was transferred three times to solitary confinement for execution but still is waiting on the death row.

(8) One of Nasrin Sotoudeh ‘s criminal charges is putting a flower bouquet by the electricity junction box in Enghelab street. She is a predominant human rights lawyer who has security-related charges.

(9) Farokh Abdi, a social network activist who was sentenced to 15 months in prison earlier this year and faced another 15 months conviction from another court in Urmia, was sentenced to five years imprisonment in an appeal court.

(10) A construction worker died in Yasuj due to unsafe workplace.

(11) According to Reporters Without Borders’ 2018 round-up of deadly attacks and abuses against journalists published on December 18, 2018, Iran still holds its position as one of the five largest prisons for journalists in the world. In this year, Hengameh Shahidi, Tahereh Riahi, Zeinab Karimian, Saleh Deldam, Morad Saghafi, Ramin Karimian, Alieh Matlabzadeh, Asal Emailzadeh, Bakhtiar Khoshnam, Mehdi Khazali, Abdolreza Davari, Sasan Aghai, Yaghma Fashkhami, Mohammad Mohajer, Alireza Tavakoli, Mohammad Mehdi Zamanzadeh, Saeed Mojtaba Bagheri, Javad Jamshidi, Nima Keshvari, Saeed Naghdi, Ali Ahmadinia, and Soheil Arabi are some of journalists, reporters or citizen journalists who have been arrested in 2018.

(12) City service workers of Karun and Zanjan cities have at least six months of unpaid wages.

(13) Another labor activist, Aram Mohammadi who was accused of “propaganda against the state” for participating in international Labor Day protest, began serving his sentence today.

(14) Mohammad-Reza Khatami was prosecuted because of his claims in an interview with Aparat (a video sharing service) that a voter Fraud was observed during 2009 presidential election.

(15) Retired personnel of various governmental organizations held protests in Tehran and other cities for their financial hardship.