On The Streets And On Rooftops, Anti-Government Protests Continue Across Iran

Dec 28, 2022 - 01:16
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On The Streets And On Rooftops, Anti-Government Protests Continue Across Iran
Protests in the city of Dashti in Hormozgan Province on December 26.

Iranian protesters took to the streets in various Iranian cities on December 26, continuing their anti-government protests triggered by the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Videos published on social media purportedly showed that in Dashti, a city in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan, people took to the streets after marking 40 days since the death of 35-year-old protester Hamed Mollaei, chanting anti-government slogans such as, "We don't want a child-murdering government."

Mollaei, the father of two young daughters, was shot dead on November 17 in Dashti by security forces.

He was one of an estimated 500 people, including at least 62 children, killed by Iranian security forces since start of nationwide protests following Amini's death after she was detained by the country's morality police for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women.

In the northwestern Iranian city of Mahabad, people on the evening of December 26 blocked some of the city's streets by lighting fires and shouting anti-regime slogans.

In Bomehan, near Tehran, people in the streets put up a banner reading, "Dad, have you finally found out that they killed me?" The message was referring to the killing of 10-year-old Kian Pirfalak in Izeh last month.

It took authorities 40 days to inform Kian's father, Maysam Pirfalak, who had also been gravely wounded when security forces opened fire at their car, about his son's death.

There were protests in Tehran and in the northeastern city of Mashhad, with people chanting slogans against the government mainly from windows and rooftops.

Officials, who have blamed the West for the protests, have vowed to crack down even harder on protesters, with the judiciary leading the way as the unrest entered a fourth month.

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

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