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Iran News in Brief – March 16, 2023

iran protests strikes march 2023

THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS

UPDATE: 8:30 PM CET

Iran Uprising at a Glance – Day 182

Based partially on reporting by PMOI (MEK) Network in Iran

Thursday, March 16, 2023 – 8 PM GMT + 1

  • Days: 182
  • Protests: 282 cities
  • Fatalities: 750+ estimated deaths, 664 identified by MEK
  • Detentions: 30,000

Iran’s nationwide uprising witnessed its 182nd day on Thursday as people across the country are preparing to welcome Nowruz, the Iranian calendar new year, and vowing to continue their anti-regime protests against the mullahs’ dictatorship.

According to reports from the network associated with Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK inside the country, on Tuesday night MEK Resistance Units launched 2,468 acts of protests in 73 cities across the country and 38 districts of Tehran.

This has been in spite of extreme security measures by the regime ahead of the Fire Festivals. State Security Forces and other intelligence and security bodies were on a state of alert across the country to prevent protests. According to regime officials, 45,000 troops were deployed in Tehran alone, and the IRGC and Basij had resorted to pre-emptive mass arrests and intimidation campaigns.

Locals in the city of Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province in western Iran, paid their respects to protesters killed by the mullahs’ regime in the ongoing Iranian revolution.

Similar gatherings were also held in the cities of MahabadDehgolan, Bukan, Kermanshah, Divandarreh, IsfahanShahin ShahrArakIzeh, and others.

In the city of Bukan in northwest Iran regime authorities ordered a large number of security units to the city streets on Thursday morning and established numerous checkpoints to inspect the locals’ vehicles. These measures follow last night’s protests across the city.

Nevertheless, until the early hours of today, protesters in Bukan took to the streets to continue their anti-regime rallies by marching in their streets and chanting slogans against the mullahs’ dictatorship. People were protesting the killing under torture of a local by the regime’s IRGC intelligence in the city of Urmia in northwest Iran.

Reports from the country’s capital Tehran indicate that locals in the Ekbatan and Tehransar districts began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
“Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!” referring to the current dictator and his predecessor, regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini.
“Protests will continue!”
“Death to the mullahs’ regime principle!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“Death to the IRGC—Basij!”
“Poverty-Corruption-High prices! We’re going to overthrow the regime!”
“This is the year [Khamenei] is overthrown!”
“Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!”

In Tehran, today regime authorities deployed many security units into the streets and launched numerous checkpoints following last night’s anti-regime protests.


UPDATE: 2:30 PM CET

Iran: Child Detainees Subjected To Flogging, Electric Shocks and Sexual Violence in Brutal Protest Crackdown

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Iran’s intelligence and security forces have been committing horrific acts of torture, including beatings, flogging, electric shocks, rape and other sexual violence against child protesters as young as 12 to quell their involvement in nationwide protests, said Amnesty International today. Marking six months of the unprecedented popular uprising in Iran, sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, Amnesty International reveals the violence meted out to children arrested during and in the aftermath of protests. The research exposes the torture methods that the Revolutionary Guards, the paramilitary Basij, the Public Security Police and other security and intelligence forces used against boys and girls in custody to punish and humiliate them and to extract forced “confessions.”

Read more


EU Parliament Calls for Sanctioning Khamenei, Raisi and Montazeri

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The European Parliament’s resolution on Iran, particularly condemning the poisoning of hundreds of schoolgirls, was approved on Thursday, March 16, with 516 votes in favor. In this resolution, the Council of Europe is asked to proscribe the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization and to include the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi, and Attorney General Mohammad Jaafar Montazeri in the EU sanctions list.

The statement reads in part: “The European Parliament 3. Urges the UN Human Rights Council to task the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (IIFFM) with an independent investigation into the schoolgirl poisonings and calls for those responsible to be held to account; urges the Iranian authorities to grant full access to the UN IIFFM and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran;

5. Condemns the regime’s months-long failure to act on, and deliberate suppression of,
credible reports of systematic toxic attacks against schoolgirls;

7. Reiterates its call on the Council to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as
a terrorist organisation and to expand the EU sanctions list, including under the EU Global Human Rights sanctions mechanisms, to all those responsible for human rights violations in Iran, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi and Prosecutor-General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri;

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Risch Meets with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today met with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi:

“I was glad to once again welcome IAEA Director General Grossi to the Capitol today to discuss the most prominent issues facing IAEA and the globe. At the top of the list is Iran’s uranium enrichment to 84% despite its safeguards agreement with IAEA. The IAEA Board of Governors should unequivocally censure Iran for this breach, or risk emboldening the regime.

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UPDATE: 9:00 AM CET

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Iran marked this year’s Fire Festival against the backdrop of six months of anti-regime protests, which have continued across the country despite a brutal wave of crackdown. Security forces have killed more than 750 people and arrested tens of thousands to suppress the protests. But people continue to take to the streets every day, calling for regime change and countering the regime’s repressive measures.

Traditionally, the Fire Festival celebrated on the last Tuesday of the Persian calendar year, has been an occasion for protesting the regime. With the current explosive state of society, the regime had taken extra security measures to prevent any type of rally from taking place.

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Iran’s Cities Witness New Outburst of Major Anti-regime Protests

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Iranians across the country have been taking to the streets at nights recently, with an outburst of major anti-regime protests reported on Tuesday as the nation marked its annual Fire Festivities. Despite heavy measures imposed by regime authorities to prevent the evolving of these celebrations into protests against the mullahs’ dictatorship, people in Tehran and dozens of other cities and towns took advantage of the occasion to voice their protests and chant slogans against the ruling theocracy that is controlling the country with an iron fist.

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Iranian Women’s Revolution; Past, Present & Future

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By invitation from the University of Wyoming’s Gender & Women’s Studies School of Culture, Gender & Social Justice, Dr. Sofey Saidi delivered her talk on March 9, 2023, on the Iranian women’s leadership of the current uprisings. Below is a summary of her remarks: Iranian Women’s Revolution; Past, Present & Future

The uprising has entered its 7th month and is moving forward toward dismantling the theocratic clerical regime. The spark that was ignited after the brutal death of Mahsa Amini spread to 284 cities & all 31 provinces of the country. Students from 204 universities, 1700 high schools, and more than 100 elementary joined the uprising.

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Zeinab Hamrang, a Former Political Prisoner, Is Rearrested in Tehran

Political prisoner Zeinab Hamrang min

Former political prisoner Zeinab Hamrang Seyyed Beglu was arrested by security forces on Sunday, March 12, 2023, as she was leaving home. The agents took her to an unknown location. Ms. Hamrang was released in October before the completion of her sentence.

Zeinab Hamrang Seyyed Beglu, 46, is a retired teacher from Ardabil who resides in Tehran. She was arrested in Khoy in September 2020 while traveling to West Azerbaijan. On September 6, 2020, she was transferred to the women’s ward of Evin Prison.

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Geneva: Freedom-Loving Iranians and MEK Supporters Held a Rally and Exhibition to Support the Iran Revolution

Geneva, Switzerland-March 14, 2023: MEK Supporters Held a Rally in Support of the Iran Revolution

Geneva, Switzerland—March 14, 2023: To coincide with the UN Human Rights Council Session, freedom-loving Iranians and supporters of the Iranian Resistance (NCRI and MEK) held a rally and photo exhibition of the Iran Revolution‘s martyrs in front of the Headquarters of the UN in Europe.

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Heidelberg, Germany—March 11, 2023: MEK Supporters Rally to Support the Iran Revolution

Heidelberg, Germany—March 11, 2023: MEK Supporters Rally to Support the Iran Revolution.

Heidelberg, Germany—March 11, 2023: Freedom-loving Iranians and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) held a rally in solidarity with the Iranian people’s uprising. Members of the Iranian community in Heidelberg expressed their utter support of their risen compatriots and vowed to continue echoing their voices, calling for freedom and democracy in Iran.

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Also, read Iran News in Brief – March 15, 2023