Repression of Iranian Protesters' Families Continues

The report covers not only the lives of journalists and political activists but also those from other professions living abroad who feel unsafe.

Canada has a particularly serious problem with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of regime-connected officials on its soil, according to a lengthy Global News investigation. An infamous example is Mahmoud Khavari, ex-CEO of Iran’s national bank who has been wanted by Interpol and reportedly fled to Canada in 2011 after being accused of embezzling $2.6 billion.

As part of its efforts to address this issue, Canada has expanded targeted sanctions against certain members of the IRGC group and amended its Magnitsky legislation in order to allow the government to go after the assets of Iranians implicated in human rights abuses and corruption, but the dissidents say that these measures do not suffice.

Prime Minister Trudeau has refused to declare the IRGC a terror group because some Iranians are compelled to join the group as part of their mandatory military service.

Nonetheless, the diaspora contends that if the IRGC were on the terrorist list, members who have gained Canadian citizenship would be liable for crimes committed overseas and subject to much harsher penalties.

The deputy police chief of Semnan province, Ali Mirahmadi, said the arrest happened while the officers on patrol noticed an “unrestrained night party” in a hall located on the outskirts of Shahrood city.

Iran’s Sharia law forbids men and women who are not related from mingling together, and it is forbidden to dance with the opposite gender. Also, both sexes are prohibited from having out-of-wedlock relations. Mirahmadi added that the venue had been sealed due to trade violations.

There has been an increase in the number of reports about young people being detained for participating in "mixed parties" and "refusal to wear hijab" across Iran as morality police step up actions across the board.

Authorities have increased their surveillance of businesses and recreational venues, closing down cafes, restaurants and halls across the country for not complying with the government's mandatory hijab law. .

The hijab law has raised anger since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, arrested for not wearing her headscarf properly. Following the incident, a nationwide uprising was sparked, and demands went beyond the hijab and included protests over the regime's corruption, mismanagement, and oppression.

The foundation described Sotoudeh as the "Nelson Mandela of Iran" and emphasized her significant role as a human rights activist, Iran International’s correspondent Ahmad Samadi reported..

The Mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner praised Sotoudeh's efforts, stating, "Nasrin Sotoudeh is one of these women - and a hero. We in Berlin, as a city of freedom, show our solidarity with the courageous women in Iran who are fighting against the veil requirement and for women's rights."

Alice Schweitzer, director of the Schweitzer Foundation and an influential journalist and feminist, discussed her 1979 visit to Iran and highlighted how oppressive the hijab requirement was. In the Iranian theocracy, veils are more than just pieces of fabric, they symbolize political Islam, she asserted.

Women's rights activist Mansoureh Shojaei accepted the award on behalf of Sotoudeh and highlighted how Iranian women reject mandatory hijab and continue to fight against it.

Before her incarceration, Sotoudeh recorded a video message expressing her intention to dedicate the award to Armita Geravand.

Sixteen-year-old Armita died on October 28 after spending about a month in coma following a violent encounter with hijab enforcers at a Tehran subway station. Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested at her funeral on October 29th.

Besides being named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2021, Sotoudeh has received many awards including the Sakharov Prize, the Robert Badinter Award and the Right Livelihood Award widely known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”.

He added that the Islamic Republic does not accept "Eastern views" of women and girls, nor does it accept "feminism", which he deems "perverted”, in comments which come amidst tightening hijab and chastity laws in Iran.

His comments were criticized by a former cabinet member. Former deputy of Iran's Ministry of Education Ibrahim Saharkhiz said gender cannot be a factor in mathematics, science, and literature, highlighting there are greater challenges in the regime's education system like its mass teacher shortage "of 300,000 teachers [which] must be addressed first, then the gender issues of students."

He was not alone in his criticism which swelled on social media. In the wake of the Women, Life, Freedom protests, a growing number of men and women in Iran are speaking out against the Islamic Republic's crackdown on hijab and women's freedoms.

Iranian journalist Maryam Lotfi, wrote on her X account: "No matter how much some families try to reduce gender stereotypes in their children, the educational system undermines their efforts.”

Sahraei responded to the criticisms on Monday, stating: "The social needs of girls and boys are different from each other, and religious and educational books are different in some cases; as well as the needs of girls' and boys' schools."

The regime’s attempt to implement a gender-segregated curriculum follows the women-led uprising which began in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, which saw thousands of female students chanting slogans against the government and tearing photos of Iran’s current leader Ali Khamenei and Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

There were a number of protests over the weekend, including from Iran's Social Security Organization retirees, employees of the Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC), and retirees and employees of the National Iranian South Oil Fields Company.

According to the regime-run Statistics Center of Iran (SCI), the household inflation rate has reached 45.5%. About one-third of the country has inflation over 50%, based on the same report, which is likely to not reveal the full picture as the regime continues to shield the dire extent of the crisis. 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also estimates the current inflation in Iran to be 47% and food inflation in mid-summer reached 90.2% according to the Iranian Statistics Center.

Based on Volunteer Activists Institute’s (VA) data, a non-profit independent organization based in Amsterdam from April to June 2023, the number of labor protests in Iran rose fourfold compared with the same period in 2022.

Many Iranian National Oil Company operations have been transferred to quasi-private companies in recent years, and most work is done by temporary contract workers with little pay or benefits.

It is often the military or other state entities who control these so-called private companies, or well-connected regime insiders using government security forces to suppress labor demands.

This year's budget deficit may be $13.5 billion, or 30 percent, according to a report released by the parliament's research center. However, independent analysts believe it is closer to half. In addition, the report revealed a budget deficit of $10 billion in the first four months of the current year.

Experts believe it is almost a given that current and former employees in the country take to the streets to demand their livelihood, particularly given their dire economic situation and a lack of sufficient budget.

“Economic problems make it impossible for them to remain silent,” Sattar Rahmani, labor rights activist and former political prisoner, told Iran International.

“A strike in the oil and petrochemical sector is a warning to the regime, which depends heavily on these industries. They fear protests may spread in the south of Iran, and if so, the regime won't be able to handle more workers joining in,” he explained.

He believes that if the various sectors better coordinate their strikes and protests, harsh measures taken to silence them would be fatal for the regime.

A research done last year by Khalilollah Sardarnia, titled “Analysis of Social Guild Protests in Iran from Perspective of Street Politics Theory,” at Allameh Tabataba’i University, notes the lack of trust in civic-guild assemblies.

Researchers such as Sardania believe that since 2017, social and guild protests in Iran have taken a new direction. Some of the differences are attributed to "spontaneous, leaderless, innovative protest tactics." The 2019 November protests are considered to be the zenith of that wave which happened after an overnight increase in fuel prices showing the power of industrial action, not least in today's climate of unrest facing the regime.