Concern about state violence during mass protests in Iran

Wave of protests

Concern about state violence during mass protests in Iran

The leadership in Tehran is promising a tough course against the nationwide demonstrations – and is cutting off the population from the outside world. This brings back dark memories.

Amid massive protests against the authoritarian government, Iran is almost completely cut off from the outside world. Very little information leaks out. The population is cut off from the internet. This is the government’s response to the most violent demonstrations since the unrest began at the end of December.

As with previous waves of protests, concerns about brutal state repression are growing. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised a tough course against the demonstrators. According to human rights organizations, dozens of people have already been killed by security forces. There are also said to be fatalities on the part of the state forces.

The protests in Iran escalated on Thursday. After demonstrations had taken place in the previous days, mainly in rural regions in the west of the country, the unrest now also spread to major cities. In Tehran and Mashhad, crowds of people flocked to squares and main arteries. The latest protest was called by Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah who was overthrown in 1979, and who claims a leading role in the opposition from exile.

Because of the internet shutdown, it was initially unclear on Friday how the protests in the country would develop. Airlines temporarily canceled flights to the country. Videos of activists circulating on social media appeared to show injured and bloodied demonstrators. The recordings could not initially be independently verified. Images from the metropolises showed crowds of people on the streets – on a scale that had not been seen for years.

Only the state broadcaster still publishes official news from the country on its Telegram channel. Other media had to stop working. Data from IT company Cloudflare showed a 99.9 percent drop in web traffic. A small part of the military and power apparatus should continue to be able to use the Internet freely. Contacts in Iran were initially no longer reachable by telephone.

The complete internet blockage brings back memories of the government’s actions around six years ago: At that time, people were primarily protesting because of sharply increased gasoline prices. The state imposed a nearly week-long internet shutdown, during which human rights activists estimate hundreds of protesters were killed. On social media, many Iranians expressed concern about a repeat of the violence.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei condemned the protests. In a speech published on Friday, the 86-year-old spoke of “troublemakers” and people “damaging the country.” “There are also people whose work is destruction,” he said. They caused destruction “just to make the President of the United States happy,” said the head of state, referring to Donald Trump. The US President has repeatedly threatened the Iranian leadership with intervention if the state authorities kill demonstrators.