At Least 43 Lawyers Arrested During Iran Protests: Activists

Steinmeier announced Wednesday that he had met Iranian football legend and former FC Bayern Munich player saying that “We must not stop calling out this inhumane violence of the Iranian regime.”

Karimi has been steadfast in his support for the protests and is admired by most Iranians.

Steinmeier published a video of his meeting on Instagram, saying that he was shocked by the report of the “brutal” actions of the Iranian regime against its people.

“It is important that the recent violations of human rights in Iran be investigated by independent experts so that the perpetrators are held accountable one day, and it is important that the European Union imposes sanctions against those responsible in Iran,” added Steinmeier.

This is not the first time that an Iranian opposition figure meets high-ranking Western officials. Earlier, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Hamed Esmaeilion who is the spokesman of The Association of Victims' Families of Flight PS752.

His wife and nine-year-old daughter were killed when Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by two IRGC missiles over Tehran in January 2020, killing all 176 passengers and crew onboard.

French President Emmanuel Macron met with Iranian female activist Masih Alinejad in November, hailing the protests in Iran against the Islamic Republic as a “revolution”.

Iranian sociologist Taghi Azad Armaki told Etemad Online on December 18 that Iranians want the Islamic Republic to change its views and rhetoric. At the same time, the regime's official project is all about its survival.

Armaki added that regime insiders' exit strategy from the current crisis is merely eliminating all of its critics and those who protest against its performance. They call the critics "traitors" and label protesters as "rioters".

The political system is too old and outdated, the sociologist argued. It is clear that a new society has emerged which is pluralist, has many different demands and criticizes the outdated system. But the Islamic Republic wishes to change this new society and force it to become compatible with the old system. This is what has created the current political crisis.

Armaki believes that the new society does not accept this and naturally, the government's policy is likely to lead to an impasse. "The new generation of Iranians wants a civil society, civil rights, government accountability, as well as economic progress and welfare, but all government policies are only meant to ensure its survival.

Meanwhile, former Roads Minister Ahmad Khorram, a reformist figure, believes that the current crisis is the outcome of concentrating all political and economic powers in the hands of one political faction (hardliners). Khorram told Rouydad24 that concentration of power leads to misery and Iranians do not deserve all the problems they are facing.

Khorram added that even officials have said that the public's trust in the government has been declining. This, he said, plunges the society into despair and will lead to violence, which is certainly not a cure for the Iranian society's problems.

Based on some research, trust in the government has dropped from 98 percent to around 20 percent since the inception of the Islamic Republic, he said. This is mainly because the government is against civil society and civil institutions such as NGOs, political parties and so on.

In another development, the former chief of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh in an interview criticized the government for trying to solve its problems with protesters unilaterally, in an extremist way and by shedding blood. He added that some of the individuals who pour gasoline on the fire of protests are the members of the extremist group Hojjatiyeh. He reiterated that this group's policies can never solve the country's problems. They easily talk about execution and promote it as a remedy for Iran's current problems. He was probably referring to individuals such as hardliner lawmaker Mostafa Mirsalim who has said detained protesters should be executed within five to ten days.

Falahatpisheh said the members of the extremist group have crept into the government. The group has always been a hardliner proponent of compulsory hijab and confiscation of assets belonging to religious minorities such as the Baha’is since the 1970s. Falahatpisheh said that opposition to blue jeans is part of the group's teachings. He explained that after the 1979 revolution, the Islamic government has been trying to isolate this group but currently they have become powerful again.

Falahatpisheh added that this group has been taking the lead in nearly all the attacks on foreign embassies in Iran.

A current member of parliament’s national security and foreign policy, Jalil Rahimabadi has also criticized the government for not listening to the people. He reiterated that no political system will be weakened by accepting people's demands. Rahimabadi pointed out that some elements in the government wrongly believe that if they accept some of the demands of the protesters, this will lead to further unrest. "I think it is wrong to believe that listening to protesters means a retreat on the part of the government."

In one of the latest reactions, the President of Italy said the Islamic Republic has “surpassed all limits” in its bloody and brutal crackdown on protests.

Sergio Mattarella said, “what is happening in recent weeks in Iran exceeds all limits and cannot, in any way, be set aside.”

Meanwhile, Golriz Ghahraman, an Iranian member of the New Zealand Parliament, told Iran International that the protest movement is led by a generation that has never experienced freedom and democracy.

US Senator Mike Rounds told Iran International that the extent of the crackdown on peaceful protests in Iran is "unfortunate, but when you have this type of regime which clearly doesn't respect life and who wants to maintain power at any cost you have this type of an outcome. It's unfortunate, and the people of Iran deserve better."

Senator Mitt Romney also told our correspondent that what is happening in Iran is barbaric conduct by the leaders of a country, and it distinguishes them in a very negative way in the world's eyes.

Senator John Cornyn said the extent of the crackdown “is sadly not surprising. It's not a free country, it's a theocracy. We have been doing as much as we can to support Iranian people against this sort of intolerable backlash.”

Senator Tim Kaine also told Iran International’s Arash Aalaei that “We need to figure out new strategies. After Iran's removal from the UN's Commission (on Status of Women), we need to look at other things that we can do to highlight how bad this behavior is, and hopefully put some pressure on them to stop doing it.”

In a video message, a group of Swedish parliamentarians called on all political, social, cultural, and academic activists to unite and organize their efforts to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

Iranians living in Belgium held a rally in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to show anger at the regime’s brutality.

A group of Iranians living in Stockholm also gathered outside the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and performed protest art, demanding the expulsion of the diplomats of the Islamic Republic from this country.

The gatherings are held in a situation that many political and military officials of the Islamic Republic have been sanctioned by countries European, the United States, Canada, Australia, etc.

In Europe not only governments but lawmakers and many public figures have raised their voice to demand an end to Tehran's violation of human rights.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has condemned the government and ordered an investigation by independent experts into the conduct of government officials in Iran.

State Department Spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday in a statement that the Winter Solstice, or Shab-e Yalda as it is known in Iran, is normally a festive time for many Iranians, but the regime has killed hundreds of protesters since September.

“Yalda is a time for celebrating at home with loved ones as the longest night of the year gives way to light – a symbolic triumph of good over evil. Instead, many families face empty chairs tonight,” stressed Ned Price.

“Iran’s leadership has used executions, arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, and sexual violence to stifle peaceful protests by the Iranian people. It appears no act is beneath the Islamic Republic’s leadership in their attempts to silence dissent,” reads another part of the statement.

The State Department went on to say that on Shab-e Yalda, the United States mourns with the people of Iran, reiterating its commitment to the Iranian people that Washington will continue to confront Iranian authorities’ human rights abuses.

Iran's religious establishment and hardliners often say Yalda festival is a "pagan" event. They call on people not to celebrate such festivals and sometimes even try to ban it. But ancient traditions appear to have gained more popularity since the 1979 Islamic Revolution despite non-stop religious propaganda.

For over three decades Ekbatanis, as they like to call themselves, have hosted one of Tehran’s biggest Charshanbe Suri bonfirenight festivals in late March. The police and the Basij militia of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), who consider the festival a pagan tradition, always cracked down on the merry-making boys and girls, who often flauted the hijab rules too, playing loud music and dancing in the leafy spaces between the buildings.

These days it is slogans against the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the clerical regime that resound every night in the large spaces between the tall blocks instead of the sound of music and handmade firecrackers. They often light bonfires now and chant around it.

Every night Basij militiamen and officers of various intelligence and security forces in plainclothes often attack groups of around 100 chanting young people who march around the apartment blocks.

People chanting and government forces firing in Ekbatan on Dec. 20, 2020

Regime forces use tear gas, shoot pellets at protesters and the windows of the apartments from where people chant “Death to Khamenei” and “Down with the Dictator” every night, and make arrests both outside and inside the buildings.

A few weeks ago, they shot at people’s windows indiscriminately, rampaged the entrance lobbies in several blocks, broke the windows, and destroyed the lobby furniture and intercoms to give the residents a lesson.

The ever-present Basij have four bases within the five square kilometer complex which has 15,500 apartments and a population of around 45,000. The neighborhood is very popular with professionals, artists and other educated groups with a sense of community unmatched elsewhere in the city.

The residents of Ekbatan began chanting from their windows at nine pm Tuesday night, the second day of a three-day protest and strike action while Basijis, plainclothesmen, and vigilantes roamed between the 23 massive blocks and fired rounds into the air.

“Tonight, they arrested many, especially women. Then plainclothesmen began shouting obscenities and threats against people chanting from windows. We are now hiding in one of the neighbors’ apartments waiting for them to go,” the addmin of Shahrak-e Ekbatan Twitter and other social media accounts said in a direct message Tuesday night.

The youth of Ekbatan use Twitter, Instagram, and Telegram to regularly update each other with footage of the window chanting and protests, report clashes with Basij militia and arrests, and share detailed descriptions of plainclothes agents patroling to gather intelligence on protesters and residents who offer them shelter when they need to hide. When the internet is down, they drop fliers in houses or put them up on notice boards and under wind shields of cars.

Tuesday, Basiji’s shouting threats and firing their guns in Ekbatan

The admin wanted to be quoted by the name Aida, in honor of Dr Aida Rostami whose battered body was handed over to her family with broken arms and stitched eyelids to cover an emptied eye socket. This was less than twenty hours after she last contacted her family from Ekbtan where she was apparently arrested.

Wounded protesters often avoid going to hospitals for treatment for the fear of being reported to the security forces and ending up in prison. “Dr. Rostami was a member of a group of volunteers who treated injured protesters at their homes in various areas,” Aida said, adding that so far over 200 have been arrested in Ekbatan and around 50 are still in custody.

Last week, police and security forces took nine people accused of killing a young Basiji named Arman Aliverdi in Ekbatan from prison to the neighborhood to reconstruct the crime scene.

A video circulating on social media at the time showed Aliverdi bleeding from the face and head while a protester kicked him. He later died in hospital. Authorities claim protesters also stabbed him.

“The crime scene reconstruction happened last week but the judiciary said that the reconstruction had happened yesterday [Monday] to cast a shadow on this week’s protests and strikes,” Aida says.

Aida also says Aliverdi was not killed by the Ekbatani protesters who, she admits, stripped his top and beat him with their fists and kicked him. “But he was not stabbed by our guys,” she says. “Before him a few other Basijis who attacked us were also stripped and kicked to give them a lesson. They were sent back to their friends [without too many injuries]. We are not brutes, we never attempted to kill anyone,” she insists.