Iran

Gunshots reported as huge fire breaks out at Iran’s notorious Evin prison

A huge fire has broken out at Iran’s notorious Evin prison – where political prisoners and anti-government activists are held.

Gunshots are reported to have been fired as the blaze took hold at the jail in the capital Tehran on Saturday.

h/t DM

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran

‘It Was a Massacre’: How Security Forces Cracked Down in Southeastern Iran

Some of the wounded tried to crawl away to escape the gunfire. Others bled to death on prayer mats as people tried to drag them to safety.

But the snipers and officers kept pulling their triggers, firing bullet after bullet into men and young boys at a worship area where Friday Prayer had been underway.

The horrific scene unfolded on Sept. 30 in Zahedan, a city in southeastern Iran that is home to the ethnic Baluch minority, after a small group of worshipers emerged from the Great Mosalla prayer complex to confront security forces posted at a police station across the street.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran

Authorities in Iran forced to remove poster of women in hijabs after PR fiasco

The Iranian authorities suffered a PR fiasco after being forced to take down a giant billboard in a central square in Tehran when women in the poster, or their relatives, objected to being depicted as supporters of the government and the compulsory-wearing of the hijab.

The billboard controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was a montage of about 50 Iranian women wearing the hijab under the slogan “Women of my Land”. It was taken down within 24 hours after at least three of the women pictured said they objected to their image being misused.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Iran, Islam, Islam and violence

Iran privately menaces EU capitals against sanctions

In a letter to EU diplomats, Tehran claims ‘bilateral relations may not survive’ as the EU moves to penalize Iran for killing protesters.

VIENNA/BRUSSELS/BERLIN/PARIS — Iran this week privately pressured EU diplomats to abandon sanctions against Tehran over its lethal crackdown on protesters, warning diplomats the move may rupture Europe’s ties to the country.

“If Europe misses taking the nuances of the current situation into consideration, the ramification will be grave and the bilateral relations may not survive it,” warned one letter — sent to a group of EU ambassadors and seen by POLITICO — which details an alternate, Tehran-friendly narrative disconnected from numerous reports coming out of Iran.

A nation that sends threatening letters is not likely to care much about Justin’s windbaggery.

Canada to designate Iranian regime as serial human rights violator: ministers

The government of Canada is using a “powerful and sparingly” used provision to designate the entirety of the Iranian regime as an entity that is a “serial violator of human rights” and one that commits acts of terror, federal cabinet ministers announced Thursday.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Iran, Islam, Islam and violence

Who Is Leading the Crackdown on Iran’s Protests?

They show up at the first signs of protest in Iran — men in black, riding motorcycles, often wielding guns, or batons.

They are members of what’s known as the Basij, paramilitary volunteers who are fiercely loyal to the Islamic Republic. The shock troops of the ayatollahs have taken on a leading role in quashing dissent for more than two decades.

During the latest protests, which erupted after a young woman died in the custody of the country’s morality police last month, the Basij (ba-SEEJ’) have deployed in major cities, attacking and detaining protesters, who in many cases have fought back.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Iran, Islam, Islam and violence

Is the Second Iranian Revolution Here?

The brutal murder of a twenty-two-year-old Iranian woman, Zhina (Mahsa) Amini, at the hands of the Islamic Republic’s “morality police” for wearing her hijab “improperly” has sparked an unforeseen uprising across Iran calling for an end to the theocratic regime. The current demonstrations are the latest chapter in the Iranian people’s courageous movement against the Islamic Republic’s forty-three-year reign of oppression and terror against its citizens—and by extension the region. The brave women and men of Iran have started what could become the second Iranian Revolution.

It’s a lovely thought.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran

Protests in Iran Spread, Including to Oil Sector, Despite Violent Crackdown

Defying a lethal crackdown in cities across Iran, protesters demanding the ouster of Iran’s Islamic Republic have driven their uprising into a fourth week, with workers from the country’s vital oil sector going on strike this week and activists calling for further work stoppages and protests on Wednesday.

Despite efforts by Iran’s security forces, including the feared plainclothes Basij militias, to crush the protests, they have only widened. Some have turned into chaotic street battles, with the security forces opening fire and protesters fighting back and refusing to give ground, according to witnesses, rights groups and videos of the clashes on social media.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran

Cory Morgan: While Ottawa Says IRGC Terrorist Listing Isn’t Up to Politicians, Past Listing of Proud Boys Suggests Otherwise

Designating a group as being a terrorist organization and adding it to the list of terrorist groups in the Criminal Code is serious business. Once a group is on that list, every aspect of its organization becomes criminalized in Canada, from fundraising to organizing efforts.

The process for adding groups to the terrorist list in the Criminal Code should not be rushed, taken lightly, or politicized. Unfortunately, Canada already has a record of rushing groups onto the list, and the process has become hopelessly politicized.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Iran, Islam and violence

Nika Shakarami: Videos show Iran teenager protesting before death

Videos posted online show an Iranian teenager protesting hours before her death, her mother has told BBC Persian.

Nika Shakarami, 16, is seen standing on a dumpster and burning her headscarf in Tehran on 20 September, as others chant slogans against the Islamic Republic.

She later disappeared after telling a friend she was being chased by police.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Iran, Islam, Islam and violence

Protests grip Iran as rights group says 19 children killed

DUBAI, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Protests ignited by the death of a young woman in police custody continued across Iran on Sunday in defiance of a crackdown by the authorities, as a human rights group said at least 185 people, including children, had been killed in demonstrations.

Anti-government protests that began on Sept. 17 at the funeral of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in her Kurdish town of Saqez, have turned into the biggest challenge to Iran’s clerical leaders in years, with protesters calling for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Iran, Islam, Islam and violence

Why didn’t Canada designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization?

When the Trudeau government imposed sanctions earlier this month against a handful of Iranian individuals and entities for gross human rights violations such as the killing of Mahsa Amini, there was great concern that this represented the summation of the federal response to Iran’s egregious behaviour.

… Was this to deprive Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who has been championing this measure in recent days in the House of Commons, of a win? Why not truly use all the tools at the government’s disposal?

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Iran

Thanks to the Biden Administration, Russia and Iran Are Closer than Ever

Thanks to the Biden administration’s weak, or absent, leadership, Russia and the regime of Iran’s mullahs have become closer, more emboldened and more empowered than ever.

The two bedfellows, the authoritarian regimes of Russia and Iran, are, thanks to the Biden administration, running the Iran nuclear talks, while the US waits out in the hall. Russia’s chief negotiator, Mikhail Ulyanov, earlier this year praised his Iranian “colleagues”:

“I am absolutely sincere in this regard when I say that Iran got much more than it could expect [from the Biden administration]. Our Chinese friends were also very efficient and useful as co-negotiators.”

Ulyanov also said that the Iranian leaders “are fighting for [their] national interest like lions. They fight for every comma, every word, and as a rule, quite successfully.”

The US, certainly it’s State Dept., wants a strong Iran as a counterpoint to Israel. This will ease their exit from the ME. Or so they believe.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inIran

Trudeau government makes cynical change of mind on Iran’s Mullahcracy after Poilievre’s embrace of women’s revolt

Justin Trudeau – Islam’s whore.

My headline is more accurate than the CBC’s – “Stung by criticism, Trudeau government changes course on Iran”

This week saw a turnaround in the Trudeau government’s approach to Iran as an unprecedented revolt against clerical rule that began three weeks ago showed no sign of slowing down.

The change began in Dartmouth, N.S., on Tuesday, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government would be taking stronger actions against members of the Iranian regime, “including ensuring that we go after them for any assets or homes that they have in Canada.”

Back in Ottawa, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra attended a rally marking a thousand days since the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot down Flight PS752, killing 55 Canadians and another 30 permanent residents.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Iran, Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West