53 days and 304 deaths later, Iran is still crying for Jin Jiyan Azadi
It's been 53 days now since the protests started against the Iranian regime. At least 304 people have died. It all began with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the infamous morality police of the country.
The agitations do not seem to stopping anytime soon as the death of one protester causes in eruption of more protests. For instance, death of Nasrin Ghaderi, a PhD candidate in philosophy who died on Saturday after being beaten by security forces with batons during protests in Tehran, lead to more people joining the protests.
What's happening now? Protests are erupting in all the cities of Iran, from the capital Tehran to small cities like Karaj. People have kept the protests going with whatever they can, be it chanting slogans from their roofs and windows, long honks from their cars and even singing the songs that have been spreading on social media since the beginning of the protests.
- Anger against the clerics is also rising and so are the acts of protests against them. Recently, a video was going viral where a young girl can be seen running up behind a cleric walking down a nearly empty street and knocking his turban off and running away. The video was captioned "Removing the turbans of clerics has turned into an act of protest after regime killed hundreds of innocent protesters".
- The most recent large-scale protest occurred on Sunday (November 6), when universities in the largely Kurdish northwest, started protesting against the regime in support of their arrested colleagues and students.
- Even on Saturday (November 5), Iranian students protested and shopkeepers went on strike.
Indians show their support Iranians: Kerala women burn their hijabs
In a first, activist women in Kerala burnt a hijab on Sunday, (November 6) in solidarity with the anti-hijab movement in Iran. This occurred during a seminar which was organised by the Kerala Yuktivadi Sangam.
The activists held placards and raised slogans.
How is the Iranian regime responding? The Iranian regime has not taken these protests lightly, and the security forces have done a serious crackdowns on the protesters. They have killed at least 300 protesters.
Former government spokesman Ali Rabiei, who has been a long-time member of the Islamic Republic's intelligence community, has warned that there might be "bloody confrontations".
Rabiei wrote in a commentary in the Iranian reformist Etemad newspaper that some officials and political groups have marginalized "moderates" to facilitate Iran's destruction by those who keep creating fault lines in the Iranian society.
Read More on Iran Protests:
Jin, Jiyan, Azadi: How a Kurdish slogan represents millions of Iranian women
Mahsa Amini death, Iran's anti-hijab protests and Death to the Dictator: A timeline