Iran’s protests continued into Thursday, with protesters remembering a brutal crackdown in the southeast of the country, even as the army chief and minister of intelligence of the country reissued warnings against local dissent and the international community.
The protests in Iran, which began when a 22-year-old woman died on September 16 after being detained by the nation’s morality police, have developed into one of the most significant persistent threats to theocracy since the disorderly months following the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
According to Human Rights Activists in Iran, an organisation that has been keeping track of the protests for their 54 days, at least 328 people have died and 14,825 more have been detained in the turmoil. While official media falsely reports that security forces have not killed anyone, Iran’s leadership has been mum for weeks over casualty totals.
As protesters take to the streets to observe the 40th day of remembrance for those who were killed earlier — commemorations that are customary in Iran and the wider Middle East — the demonstrations risk devolving into cyclical clashes between an increasingly disenchanted populace and security forces that resort to greater violence to put them down.
Despite government efforts to censor the internet, Iranian online footage appeared to show protests in Tehran, the country’s capital, as well as other cities. Tear gas clouds were visible on video close to Isfahan. Death to the Dictator cries could be heard, which were a constant refrain throughout the demonstrations against Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
