{"id":223961,"date":"2020-08-15T14:00:55","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=223961"},"modified":"2023-01-25T08:16:33","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T07:16:33","slug":"iranian-regime-media-fearing-new-looming-uprisings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/iranian-regime-media-fearing-new-looming-uprisings\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran regime Media: Fearing\u00a0New\u00a0Looming\u00a0Uprisings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Iran_Uprising_15082020\"
November 2019 uprising in Iran<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On August 1, the\u00a0<\/span>Iranian\u00a0<\/span>regime\u00a0<\/span>state-run news website\u00a0<\/span>Sotareh<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Sohb<\/span>\u00a0published an article that looked back on the country\u2019s two recent uprisings and commented upon the conditions that had contributed to such widespread unrest. The article unequivocally declared that nationwide demonstrations \u201cwill happen again,\u201d on account of the protesters\u2019 grievances having not\u00a0<\/span>been addressed in the roughly nine months since the second uprising was suppressed by regime authorities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The details of that repression make the article\u2019s prediction of renewed unrest\u00a0<\/span>all the more<\/span>\u00a0remarkable, especially coming from a state-run\u00a0<\/span>outlet<\/span>\u200c<\/span>. This<\/span>\u00a0article\u00a0<\/span>reflects the regime\u2019s utmost fear of another uprising and how it is inevitable<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>Sotareh<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Sohb<\/span>\u00a0implied that the Iranian people\u2019s frustration with the\u00a0<\/span>mullahs\u2019 regime<\/span>\u00a0is severe enough to overcome the deterrent effects of violent crackdowns on dissent.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This was already clear to many observers after the January 2018 uprising gave rise to numerous localized protests even after dozens of people had been killed for their participation in the nationwide protests. But this led\u00a0<\/span>the regime\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0authorities to react with much greater aggression in November 2019<\/a>, when disparate protest movements once again came together on a grand scale, spanning an estimated 200 cities and towns.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\/<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/a>MEK)<\/a> announced\u00a0<\/span>back\u00a0<\/span>then that i<\/span>n a matter of days, the Revolutionary Guard<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(IRGC)<\/a> forces killed over<\/span>\u00a01,500 protesters<\/a>. Human rights organizations like Amnesty International confirmed that the paramilitary had opened fire with the definite intent of killing peaceful activists. And this aim persisted long afterward, as the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>regime\u2019s judiciary<\/span>\u00a0moved to pass deaths sentences for several individuals who had\u00a0<\/span>participated<\/span>\u00a0in the\u00a0<\/span>uprising.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of these protesters are now facing execution<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>In the midst of<\/span>\u00a0the 2018 uprising,\u00a0<\/span>regime\u00a0<\/span>Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei identified the movement\u2019s leadership as being mostly comprised of the\u00a0<\/span>Iranian opposition<\/span>, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI \/ MEK). In so doing, he effectively signaled to his subordinates that anyone associated with the movement could be subject to the death penalty.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is because a fatwa from Khamenei\u2019s predecessor and the founder of the\u00a0<\/span>regime<\/span>, Ruhollah Khomeini, technically remains in effect more than three decades after it was declared. The 1988 edict declared that opposition to Iran\u2019s theocratic system made a person inherently antagonistic toward God himself, and that the suitable punishment for this situation is death. In practice, the charge of \u201cenmity against God\u201d has\u00a0<\/span>been used to justify<\/span>\u00a0killing democratic activists on the flimsiest of pretexts, such as donating money to\u00a0<\/span>the Resistance<\/span>\u00a0media outlets or handing out the organization\u2019s literature.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The year that it was issued, the fatwa was used to establish \u201cdeath commissions\u201d throughout the country for the purpose of interrogating political prisoners and determining who among them still harbored resentments against the theocratic system. Those who\u00a0<\/span>refused to succumb to the regime\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>demands were<\/span>\u00a0summarily executed, and the resulting death toll reached 30,000<\/a> in a matter of only months. Last year\u2019s mass shootings by the IRGC, along with the subsequent death sentences, raise concerns over the regime\u2019s likely willingness to again adopt repressive measures on the scale of the 1988 massacre.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But given the current situation of\u00a0<\/span>the Iranian society and\u00a0<\/span>its<\/span>\u00a0restiveness, the regime knows that oppression can no longer thwart an uprising<\/span>. The regime is neither capable of hiding its crimes<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0After all, details of the\u00a0<\/span>1988\u00a0<\/span>massacre received unusual publicity beginning in 2016, when the son of the ayatollah who was Khomeini\u2019s designated successor in 1988 released an audio recording of him condemning the \u201cworst crime of the Islamic Republic.\u201d Hussein-Ali Montazeri<\/span>\u00a0was driven out of the regime\u2019s leadership as a result of his dissent over the massacre, and the perpetrators of that massacre were elevated to positions of even greater influence, from which they have defended their actions in recent years, thus underlining the regime\u2019s commitment to domestic terrorism as a form of state craft.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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VIDEO: The untold story of the 1988 Massacre in Iran<\/div><\/div>
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