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Protests In Western Iran Met With Force Despite New Year Holiday

By RFE/RL's Radio Farda March 21, 2023

Fresh anti-government protests in several Kurdish cities in western Iran, held as the country celebrates the Persian New Year holiday, have been met with violence from security forces.

Reports published on social media show that in the western cities of Iran, including Mahabad, Oshnavieh, Bukan, Piranshahr, Saqez, Sanandaj, and Dehgolan, people took to the streets on March 20 with several of the gatherings encountering attacks by government forces.

According to local sources, including the website of the Hengaw human rights group, people in the western Iranian city of Saqez gathered at the grave of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in police custody last September -- an event that sparked months of protests across the country.

Those who gathered to protest chanted anti-government slogans, as well as "The martyr will never die."

بر اساس تصاویر منتشر شده از سوی سازمان حقوق بشری هه‌نگاو، در آستانۀ سال نو، با حمله نیروهای حکومتی به جوانان در شهر سقز گردهمایی آن‌ها به خشونت کشیده شد.در ویدئوی منتشر شده از سوی هه‌نگاو شعار «مرگ بر دیکتاتور» شنیده می‌شود. pic.twitter.com/v2UZcX0jXC
— RadioFarda‌|‌راديو فردا (@RadioFarda_) March 20, 2023

Meanwhile, protesters in Tehran's Ekbatan neighborhood and elsewhere in the capital chanted "Death to the dictator," a reference to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, from windows and rooftops as the Persian New Year began.

طنین شعار های اهالی شهرک اکباتان با تحویل سال نونوروزتان پیروز۱.۱.۱۴۰۱#بچه_های_اکباتان #مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/iBrdraXLoN
— شهرک اکباتان (@shahrak_ekbatan) March 20, 2023

Amini's death, which officials blamed on a heart attack, touched off a wave of anti-government protests that authorities have met with a harsh crackdown that rights groups say has killed more than 500 people, including 71 children.

Officials, who have blamed -- without providing evidence -- the West for the demonstrations, have vowed to crack down even harder on protesters, with the judiciary leading the way after the unrest entered a fourth month.

The protests pose the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.

Several thousand people have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-new-year-protests- police-violence/32328125.html

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Protests In Western Iran Met With Force Despite New Year Holiday