Iran International
Iran's security forces on Thursday arrested dozens who gathered in central Tehran to protest the ongoing house arrest of the 2009 Green Movement leaders.
The protest was called to demand an end to the incarceration of former prime minister and presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, held in their home since February 2011.
It was the first such public demonstration since the couple were effectively jailed alongside the other 2009 leader, former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karroubi, who also rejected the results of Iran's election that year.
Marking the 14th anniversary of the day the house arrest began, several hundreds gathered in Tehran for a "silent rally" that had been called a couple of days earlier by dissident activist Rahim Ghomeishi, a 60-year-old former IRGC member and Iran-Iraq War veteran who had spent four years as a prisoner of war in Iraq.
Ghomeishi was detained on Wednesday along with two other activists who had backed his call to action, Akbar Danesh-Sararoudi and Naser Daneshfar.
Their social media campaign received backing from over 500 former IRGC members, war veterans, and their families, who joined a few thousand for the silent protest on Thursday, according to the organizers.
Shortly after, Iran's security forces who had been stationed in and around the announced location arrested dozens including known activists and ordinary citizens.
Crackdown, arrests, and intimidation
On Thursday, Ardshir Amir-Arjomand, a former Mousavi advisor and spokesman for the Iranian Green Movement’s Coordinating Council, claimed that security forces blocked several activists from leaving their homes to participate in the rally.
Ghomeishi had previously announced that he and other veterans planned to stage a peaceful, “silent” protest outside the main gate of Tehran University to oppose the continued house arrest of political figures and the imprisonment of activists.
He also insisted that the law allows citizens to protest peacefully whenever they wish, and authorities cannot deny this right to them under the pretext that the country is in “sensitive circumstances” or that the “enemy” may exploit their protests for its own propaganda purposes.
Ghomeishi also said the group had informed the Interior Ministry and “other official bodies” of the intention to hold a rally but had not heard back from them, assuming that there was no objection to the plan.
While Article 27 of Iran’s constitution technically allows peaceful assembly, authorities almost categorically deny permits for opposition protests, citing “sensitive circumstances” or the risk of “enemy propaganda” or ignore their permit requests. At the same time, pro-regime vigilante groups face no such restrictions.
Assembly permits are often denied to most political groups, effectively suppressing their protests. In contrast, hardliner vigilante groups are allowed to hold rallies freely, without authorization.
After Thursday's crackdown, Azar Mansouri, the head of the Reformist Front, protested in an X post.
He wrote: "Why do some people freely hold gatherings and meetings anywhere ... without permission, chant slogans against the president and his team, and have ironclad immunity, but another group, who happen to be veterans of the country, are arrested before holding a peaceful gathering?"
Information received from Iranians on the ground by Iran International TV on Thursday and eyewitness reports on social media, described a heavy security presence on Enghelab Avenue and around Tehran University hours before the planned demonstration. Videos showed police cars and vans lining the streets.
One witness told Iran International that around 1,000 uniformed officers—including both male and female forces—were stationed near the university, along with nearly as many plainclothes agents. Officers stopped and searched people, checking their phones for footage.
Iran International has learned that the government’s Information office instructed local media and journalists not to report on the crackdown.
In addition to the initial arrests, several university students and Saeed and Saeedeh Montazeri—children of the late dissident cleric Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri— and Hossein Loghmanian, a former lawmaker and also a war veteran, were detained when they attempted to join the rally.
The case has gained international attention. Back in 2017, the US State Department said of the pair's house arrest: "Their continued house arrest contradicts Iran’s international obligations including those under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a state party, to provide minimum fair trial guarantees and not to subject citizens to arbitrary arrest or detention.
"We join the international community in condemning the continued arbitrary detention of these three individuals without charges or fair trials and in calling for their immediate release."
On February 3, the Iranian Audio-Visual Media Regulatory Authority (SATRA) ordered the video-on-demand platform Filimo to stop airing Tasian, a historical romance drama set in the late 1970s. The decision came after backlash from religious hardliners who deemed the series indecent.
The ban on Tasian follows other instances of increasing censorship by SATRA. Last year the regulator ordered the removal of a scene from another series, The End of the Night, in which an elderly mother and her son briefly dance together at a care home.
Despite efforts to suppress it, Tasian has sparked intense debate about artistic freedom, censorship and the portrayal of Iran’s history—highlighting the growing divide between Iran’s conservative establishment and modern audiences.
A vague justification
SATRA, which is affiliated to the country's sole radio and television program provider the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), announced on Wednesday that the series was released without its approval, and an investigation is underway into the violations by the production team and the publishing platform.
According to SATRA, the series includes violations such as "lack of hijab, promotion of smoking, mixed-gender dancing, and promotion of alcohol consumption."
It had earlier said that authorities had yet not been able to establish the eligibility of the series’ director Tina Pakravan to produce films.
The regulatory body also announced that advertisements for Tasian which had appeared on billboards in several cities must be removed and that no further review of the series would take place until Pakravan’s qualifications were officially assessed.
Pakravan is a well-known filmmaker in Iran, recognized for her historical drama Once Upon a Time in Iran (2021) and films such as It Happened at Midnight (2016) and Lady (2014).
In 2022, she won the Best Home Video Director award at the 1st Iranian Cinema Directors’ Great Celebration.
Hijab dilemma for pre-revolutionary period pieces
Tasian follows the story of a young woman arrested for political activism a few months before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
However, a romance develops between her and her interrogator, making the series an unusual love story set against Iran’s turbulent history.
Portraying pre-revolutionary Iranian women realistically has long been a challenge for filmmakers, as strict hijab regulations have been enforced for films since 1979.
Tasian's costume designers attempted to navigate these rules by using wigs and hats to cover actresses’ hair, reflecting styles of the era. But social media users noted that the show exaggerated the prevalence of hats among Iranian women of the time.
Another major reason cited for the ban is the depiction of mixed-gender gatherings with music and dancing—acts strictly prohibited under the Islamic Republic. Women dancing and singing solo in public are also banned, making such portrayals particularly sensitive.
Navigating censorship
Iranian filmmakers often try clear the hurdles of censorship by avoiding scenes where women normally go without the hijab, such as among family members, in intimate moments between couples or amid women dancing or singing.
As streaming platforms grow in popularity, they pose a significant challenge to Iran’s heavily censored state television, which has suffered a major decline in viewership. IRIB employs around 40,000 people and its head is directly appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In a sign of growing internal debate, Massih Mohajeri of the Jomhouri Eslami newspaper sharply criticized officials and media figures who brand supporters of negotiations as “infiltrators” and “dishonored elements”, describing this stance as “utterly against freedom of expression.”
Despite Khamenei’s strong opposition to talks with the United States, some Iranian officials and media have continued to discuss the possibility of negotiations.
Though Mohajeri—personally appointed by Khamenei as the paper’s editor—did not name specific targets, his remarks were widely interpreted as aimed at ultraconservative lawmakers and Kayhan, another newspaper funded by Khamenei.
Mohajeri argued that such individuals and media outlets oppose the principles and teachings of Islam and cannot persuade public opinion to reject negotiations.
Meanwhile, Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref reinforced Khamenei’s stance against talks with the Trump administration.
"Both sides should benefit from transactions, but I believe there is no profit in dealing with the United States. Trump has shown that he is not trustworthy," he said, adding that "Trump may be trusted only if he is reformed, and that is unlikely to happen."
Kourosh Ahmadi, a former Iranian diplomat who served at Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York, highlighted what he called a disinformation campaign by Iranian officials aiming to distort Trump’s message to Tehran. He also dismissed as “meaningless” the claim that negotiations are tantamount to surrender, arguing instead that maintaining a tough stance can compel the other side to retreat or modify its position.
Ahmadi added that as it has been stated in a White House document issued last week, "the fact that negotiation has become a taboo in Iran is not understandable."
He said that the National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) signed by Trump is aimed at "restoring maximum pressure on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, denying Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon, and countering Iran’s malign influence abroad."
He further characterized Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf's statement, that alleged Trump wishes to disarm Iran, as disinformation and fake news and added that only the text that has been signed by Trump should be considered as his and the White House's official view.
However, he noted, "During the first two weeks after his inauguration, Trump created some hope for the start of negotiations with Iran. I have no idea what led to the unexpected shift in his position." Ahmadi suggested that Trump's approach might have been a negotiation tactic, similar to his dealings with Mexico and Panama, where he initially took an aggressive stance but softened his tone once he saw signs of agreement from the other side.
Despite perceptions in Tehran that Trump has taken a harsher stance toward the Islamic Republic, his position remains unchanged from his first term. This time, however, he has balanced his renewed “maximum pressure” strategy with a stronger emphasis on seeking peace through diplomacy.
The former Iranian diplomat urged officials to consider Trump's memorandum and the White House statement within a broader context to avoid being misled. He also cautioned those influenced by the disinformation campaign, emphasizing that "proper decision-making requires accurate information."
In his editorial, Mohajeri emphasized that the Iranian constitution grants everyone the right to express their views, including on negotiations with the United States. However, he reiterated that "Khamenei is the one who has the final say about relations with the United States" and criticized Trump’s approach, stating, "The US president spoke arrogantly and put forward irrational expectations."
"If the US president gives up his arrogant rhetoric and speaks modestly with Iran, then the roads to negotiation are open," he concluded.