Regime Refuses To Release Young Protester’s Body, Summons Relative
The regime has refused to release the body of a young man security forces killed last week unless his cousin, the mother of another dead protester, turns herself in.
The regime has refused to release the body of a young man security forces killed last week unless his cousin, the mother of another dead protester, turns herself in.
According to exclusive information obtained by Iran International, Mahmonir (Zaynab) Molaei-Rad, the mother of Kian Pirfalak, a nine-year-old boy murdered during protests in November, has been summoned by the intelligence organization of her hometown Izeh, in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, for Sunday morning.
It is not clear what fate awaits her at the intelligence agency’s office but it is likely the regime hopes to silence her in exchange for the body of her dead cousin. Authorities have told the bereaved family that they would release the body on Saturday but instead they arrested more members of the family.
Pirfalak died when security forces fired at his family car for no apparent reason. Almost overnight, the child became a symbol of regime brutality on social media and during street protests.
His mother’s cousin, Pouya Molaei-Rad, was killed as security forces opened fire at his car last Sunday as people of Izeh tried to gather at the cemetery to commemorate him on his 10th birthday.
Regime’s hardliners have been blaming Kian’s mother for the incident. Vocally against authorities since her son was killed, as Perfalak was laid to rest on November 18, his mother made a fiery speech at the graveside, conveying a strong message of protest against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who she held directly responsible for her son’s killing.
Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi and football legend Ali Karimi published a tweet on Friday urging people to hold anti-regime protests and strikes to commemorate the killing anniversary of Mahsa Amini who was murdered by the Islamic Republic in September last year.
“Today is the birthday of the proud champion of the nation, Majidreza Rahnavard. Freedom-loving and patriotic Iranians across the world are honoring his memory. Let us turn Majidreza's birthday into the beginning of a three-month campaign and— with further planning, organization, and solidarity— prepare for protests and strikes on the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s passing,” read their message.
The twenty-three-year-old Majidreza Rahnavard was executed in December after the Iranian regime charged him with killing two members of security forces during ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ protests. All protesters who were hanged or received long prison sentences were tried without due process of law, often even without their own defense attorney.
Activists on social media criticized the execution of the 23-year-old Rahnavard as "a criminal act" by the clerical establishment to deter dissent. He was apparently a constitutional monarchist.
Several other protesters were also executed by the Iranian regime after protests erupted following the killing of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini on September 16 in the custody of morality police enforcing strict mandatory dress code laws.
The government has used thousands of well-armed regular and irregular forces to repress the protests, using severe beating, firing shotguns that have killed and blinded hundreds of people and even military weapons.
Meanwhile, tens of Iranians gathered in front of the UK’s Foreign Office in London on Friday to mark the birth anniversary of Majidreza Rahnavard and Abolfazl Adinezadeh.
Iranian security forces killed Abolfazl Adinezadeh by firing dozens of shotgun birdshots at him at point-blank range in the city of Mashhad on October 8. He died as a result of liver and kidney damage, according to the BBC.
The security forces arrested the sister, father and uncle of Abulfazl at his grave on Friday.
In the evening of the same day, Abolfazl’s mother, and all their relatives were arrested in Faruj in North Khorasan Province.
The security and judicial authorities of the Islamic Republic forced his family to bury the body of the teenager in the cemetery of Najafabad village near Faruj. In the past months, his family was under pressure to keep silent regarding the murder of their son.
After their arrest, a number of families, whose beloved ones were killed during the protests, called for support for Adinehzadeh’s family, asking people to celebrate his birthday on Saturday.
Despite the government’s use of iron fist, it seems a new chapter of anti-regime protests would be opened across Iran on the eve of Maha Amini’s death anniversary.
Iran's Student Union Council reported that the students were detained while the police special guards were deployed around the campus. One eyewitness tweeted that around 40 male and female agents showed up in cars and vans before the abduction.
According to the council, there is no information about the whereabouts of the detained students.
They had begun a sit-in protest on Wednesday against new, stricter hijab rules with several of them seriously injured in the early hours of Thursday by the head of security at the college.
According to the popular Telegram channel of the National Student Unions Council, Hamzeh Borzouei attacked a group of students and seriously injured several.
Students said on social media that Borzouei and other university officials made various threats against them including the threat of calling in the military to deal with them.
The new rules require women to wear a pullover headscarf with stitched front (called Maghna’e in Iran) which is like a nun’s coif, completely covering the head and the neck. Failing to comply, the university has announced, would result in suspension.
In the early 1980s wearing Maghna’e became compulsory in all universities, government offices and even banks but its use gradually became obsolete in some more lenient establishments including the College of Arts.
Angered by the detention of their colleagues, the students of the universities of Art and Tehran expressed solidarity with their colleagues.
“The policy of maximum repression, which has intensified in universities at the end of the academic year, will eventually fail like the other forms of repression,” read their statement published on Friday.
“Until the last moment, we stand against all these repressive measures,” stressed the students.
Meanwhile, the students of Soore University in Tehran also expressed solidarity with the protests at Tehran’s College of Arts in a separate statement.
On Friday, at least 80 students from Madani University in Tabriz, northwest of Iran, were also summoned for supporting the protests.
Iran's Student Union Council reported that the students were summoned to the disciplinary committee and campus security issued restraining orders to several students in the last days of the academic year.
“The Disciplinary Committee of Azarbaijan Madani University has issued final verdicts for 20 students, 25 students are waiting for the meeting of the committee and the issuance of the verdict, and 35 students have been summoned for the hearing,” adds the report.
The Council says 20 students have received sentences of "suspension for half a year" and "temporary suspension".
The students of Madani University announced in a statement that they will remain united and resist the mounting pressure.
In recent months, authorities have increased pressure on students for hijab, presumably to stop the growth of the anti-compulsory hijab movement in universities across the country.
The National Student Unions Council said in April that 435 students had been suspended or expelled in universities nationwide, where they had staged many protests and sit-ins since the beginning of the Mahsa movement last year.