Iran Rises Against Oppression // FAI ONLINE

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Iran last week after a 22-year-old woman died as a result of physical abuse she endured in police custody. Jina Amini was an Iranian-Kurdish woman, popularly known by her Persian name, Masha Amini. She was taken into custody by the Basij, often referred to in English as Iran’s “Morality Police,” an axillary force established after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 as volunteer units that enforce various aspects of sharia law in Iran. Jina (Masha) was arrested on Sept 13 in Tehran for the “crime” of not wearing her head covering (hijab) properly while in public, a requirement for all women in Iran. Jina’s family was informed that she was required to attend a “briefing class” at the Moral Security Agency in Tehran that day. Shortly afterward, Jina’s brother received a call from authorities claiming that she had suffered a “heart attack” and “brain seizure” while in custody, and was subsequently transferred to a hospital. She fell into a coma and died 3 days later on September 16th. Pictures taken of Jina before her death showed obvious head injuries sustained during beatings while in custody, a fact corroborated by several doctors and leaked medical records, including “bleeding from the ears and bruises under the eyes” as well as “bone fracture, hemorrhage, and brain edema.” Yesterday, Sept 24, would have been Jina’s 23rd birthday.

As news of Jina’s death broke across Iran, thousands of Iranians took to the streets in dozens of cities across the country, including the Kurdish-majority areas of northwestern Iran, where Kurdish separatist rebels such as the KDPI have been active for decades. Momentum began to swell in the days that followed, as millions of Iranians march daily in over 100 cities across the country, chanting “death to dictators” and burning billboards displaying pictures of Iranian leaders. Dozens of videos published to social media show Iranian women of different ages removing their hijab in the streets and waving them or burning them in protest. Iranian expatriates in Europe, Canada and the United States have also staged public demonstrations, including massive protests outside of Iranian embassies in London and Paris. Unlike previous public outcry in response to food and fuel prices, the current wave of unrest in Iran is directed towards the repressive policies of the country’s ruling theocracy, especially towards women, gaining support from women’s rights movements across the Muslim world and in the West. Protests have been documented in both poorer and more affluent neighborhoods across the country, and the inter-generational and multi-ethnic character of the demonstrators has been noted by several commentators, proving that the movement has widespread appeal. In recent polls, almost 75% of Iranians disagree with the government’s mandate for women to wear a hijab in public.

Iranian authorities have attempted to impede demonstrators’ ability to organize, forcing Iran’s top three cellular providers to restrict their data services, and blocking a wide swath of social media services, including Whatsapp, Instagram, and even LinkedIn. Services like Facebook and Twitter were already unavailable inside Iran. Thousands of police and other security forces took to the streets, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in an attempt to intimidate and repress demonstrators. Dozens of amateur videos published to social media show uniformed personnel firing live rounds at protestors in different cities, beating them, and throwing them to the ground. In response, some protestors have attacked security forces with stones and set their vehicles on fire. Iranian state media claims that 41 demonstrators and security personnel have been killed during protests so far. Independent observers inside Iran put the number of dead civilians at 54, and possibly higher. Dozens of pictures of victims, many of them young women who were killed by security forces in the streets, have been shared on social media in recent days.

In addition to the popular uprising across Iran, Kurdish separatists who operate in the Kurdish-majority areas along the northern Iranian-Iraqi border have also intensified their insurgency against the Iranian regime. Local sources in the Kurdish town Shno claimed on Friday that Iranian authorities had left the area in what they described as a “complex situation,” and that the rebel Kurdish KDPI was in control of “large parts” of the city. In response, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps fired artillery shells across the Iranian border into Iraqi Kurdistan, shelling KDPI offices in Erbil province. The IRGC released a statement accusing the Kurdish party of deploying “armed teams and a large amount of weapons…to the border cities of [Iran] to cause chaos.”

The United States government responded to the protests last week, as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken held the Basij responsible for the death of Jina Amini in a public statement. The US Treasury Dept announced that it had designated the Basij and its leaders for sanctions, while President Biden signed an executive order to modify existing sanctions by allowing for technology infrastructure to flow into Iran, giving Iranians greater access to free information. Billionaire Elon Musk announced yesterday that his satellite Internet service Starlink is now active inside Iran. The hacktivist organization Anonymous has also shown their support for the protest movement, publicly releasing videos condemning the Iranian regime, and taking down multiple Iranian government websites, including Grand Ayatollah Khamenei’s official website.

We invite the Maranatha family to join us in continued intercession for the people of Iran during this season of upheaval and uncertainty. We pray for truth and justice to be vindicated in Iran, and for the the schemes and designs of the enemy to be brought to nothing. Regardless of whether the protests succeed in bringing the regime to its knees, or whether they are quelled once again in bloody repression, we pray that the Spirit of Jesus would be at work through the underground churches of Iran as they continue the work of making disciples.

Maranatha.