Iranian Diaspora Marks Birthday Of Child Murdered By Regime Forces

Since protests started nine months ago following the death of Mahsa Amini in custody of hijab police, the regime forces have repeatedly arrested Baluch citizens in large numbers as they kept their street protests alive.

Haalvsh website, which covers the events in Sistan-Baluchestan province, reported that only the identities of a small number of those arrested on Friday, June 9,have been revealed so far, but most of them were under 18.

The campaign of Baluch activists quoted an informed source as saying that plainclothes agents raided and detained these young men as they were returning home after the Friday prayers.

According to Haalvsh, the reason behind their arrests and their whereabouts are not known yet.

The people of Zahedan have been protesting every Friday since September 30, when security forces opened fire on civilians, killing about 90 protesters.

As Sunni Muslims, Baluch citizens are both an ethnic and religious minority. Estimates of the Iranian Baluch population range from 1.5 to 2 million people. The Baluch community – along with the Kurds -- has always been among the most persecuted minorities and has the largest number of people executed in the country.

Most Baluchis are executed over drug-related charges, but activists say their trials lack due process and poverty-stricken drug mules are often executed without having proper legal representation.

According to Babak Negahdari, women in the Islamic Republic can preside in family court and draft the verdict, but the final ruling has to be signed by a male judge.

After the 1979 revolution, in addition to the hijab, the Islamic republic forced all female employees of the court system out of their jobs.

Women were only given supportive roles and no leadership positions in the governmental institutions after the revolution.

“During the following years, parliamentarians made amendments to the law on the conditions for the selection of judges and passed the family protection bill, making it possible to attract and employ women as advisory judges in family courts, but they did not give women the right to sign verdicts,” added Negahdari.

There are no definitive figures on the number of women working anywhere in the Iranian judiciary today.

On the other hand, it was estimated that eight out of every 100 judges are women. In the past few years, fewer than 30 percent of participants in the judges' exams have been women, for what little roles remain available to them. Putting these scattered statistics together, it is evident that women have no place in the top echelons of Iran’s judiciary.

Morteza Delf-Zargani’s father says the police started shooting at their car in the city of Shushtar without even a single warning and based on a false report of car theft.

According to the victim’s uncle, “when they saw the police car behind them, they intended to stop, but without any warning the police opened fire and Morteza died on the spot.”

The police claim they received reports about a car theft that fit the description of the family’s vehicle, and the officers ordered the suspect to pull over, but the driver did not pay attention to the warning and sped away.

In March, a two-year-old child was killed after Iranian special forces opened fire at the car carrying him and his family in the central city of Esfahan (Isfahan).

Morteza's case is also reminiscent of Kian Pirfalak, a 10-year-old boy who was killed by the Islamic Republic's security forces when they started shooting at his father's car during the 2022 protests.

Ironically, Morteza's death coincided with Kian's birthday anniversary.

Many innocent bystanders were killed by security forces during months of protests in 2022 and 2023. More than 500 people were shot or killed by security forces using deadly force.

Kian and his family were targeted by plainclothesmen during a night of protests in Izeh. Kian’s father was also paralyzed because of serious injuries he sustained during the attack. The government claimed “terrorists” had fired at the car, but Kian has become a public symbol of the regime’s brutality.

The families were from the cities of Dehgolan, Sanandaj, Divandareh and Saqqez, who had traveled on Friday to visit the graves of those killed during the nationwide protests in Bukan and Saqqez.

The petitioning families chanted, "We Will Stand Until the End" and "Woman Life Freedom".

In Aichi cemetery in Saqqez, where Mahsa Amini’s body is laid to rest, dozens held the pictures of their loved ones.

However, regime agents arrested and transferred about 40 of them to an unknown location, including six mothers of young victims.

During the recent protests in Iran, ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Amini in September 2022, security forces killed hundreds of people and many more received permanent injuries. More than 20,000 people, including university students, actors and journalists were also detained.

The authorities not only failed to accept any responsibility but they put pressure on some of the victims' families who made statements against regime officials during funerals or on social networks. Relatives of many victims killed by the government have been summoned for questioning and arrested.

According to human rights groups, the Islamic Republic has killed over 500 people, including at least 70 children, during its crackdown on the ongoing protests.

He said the government fails to create jobs which forces many to engage in small criminal activities only to survive, and then hanged when they are caught.

In his sermon the outspoken Mowlavi (title for Sunni cleric) told his congregation in Zahedan, capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan Province, that lack of jobs in his province and some other impoverished areas is the prime reason people are driven to smuggling fuel, minor drug-related offences, or drug trafficking.

In Iran gasoline and especially diesel are extremely cheap (around 10 US cents per gallon) due to heavy government subsidization. This leads to smuggling fuel to neighboring countries such as Pakistan which has long borders with Sistan-Baluchestan.

Many of these individuals, the cleric said, end up in prison or are even executed for committing crimes that involve profiting as little as 5 million rials ($10).

“People have to do all sorts of things just to earn their bread,” he told his congregation who took to the streets after the prayers for the 36th consecutive week to chant anti-government slogans.

Haal Vsh, a website dedicated to human rights and events in Iran’s Baluchestan, reported Friday that security forces cracked down on young Baluchis in various areas of Zahedan after the protests and arrested many.

The Sunni cleric who has proven to be the unofficial voice of the country’s Sunni population has become popular even among Shiites for standing up to the regime and delivering fiery speeches every week since September when the Women, Life, Freedom protests spread across the country.

In his sermon Abdolhamid also brought up the issue of justice for the victims of what has come to be known as the Bloody Friday of Zahedan. On September 30, 2022, security forces opened fire on civilian anti-government protesters killing more than 93 protesters including children and onlookers in Zahedan after Friday prayers.

“Carrying out justice would have brought tranquility and peace [to the locals],” he said. The government has not taken action against those security forces who opened fire on September 30.

“You never remedied our troubles or asked us about what gave us pain,” Abdolhamid said, adding that calm will not be established unless the complaints of workers, teachers, civil servants and pensioners are addressed and remedied.

As Sunni Muslims, Baluch citizens are both an ethnic and religious minority. Estimates of the Iranian Baluch population range from 1.5 to 2 million people. The Baluch community – along with the Kurds -- has always been among the most persecuted minorities and has the largest number of people executed in the country.

Most Baluchis are executed over drug-related charges, but activists say their trials lack due process and poverty-stricken drug mules are often executed without having had proper legal representation.

According to Haal Vsh, the execution of Baluch citizens has increased significantly since last year’s nation-wide protests. It said in a recent report that 182 people were executed in 23 prisons across Iran in the past year of which81% were drug-related.