Protests rock multiple cities in Iran for first time in weeks

Protests rocked multiple cities in Iran overnight in the most widespread demonstration in weeks, after an apparent slowdown of the months-long unrest that has gripped the Islamic Republic, online videos purportedly showed Friday.

Calling for the overthrow of the Mullah regime, demonstrators marked 40 days since Iran executed two protestors last month, who were hanged shortly after two others were delivered the same fate for their involvement in the unrest.

The protests – which began in September 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by Tehran’s morality police for flouting the hijab policy – have morphed into one of the boldest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Videos showed overnight demonstrations in several neighborhoods of the capital city Tehran as well as in the cities of Karaj, Isfahan, Arak, and Izeh in the Khuzestan province. The footage could not be immediately verified.

In Iran’s western Kurdish regions, voices were heard in videos shouting, “death to the dictator,” a call repeatedly heard in the protests targeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Other videos in the holy Shiite city of Mashhad showed protestors chanting: “My martyred brother, we shall avenge your blood.”

Since they began, more than 500 protestors have been killed in the demonstrations, according to rights activists, and nearly 20,000 have been detained amid a violent crackdown by Iranian security forces trying to suppress dissent.

Protests had appeared to taper off in recent weeks, likely due to the executions and brutal crackdown, yet acts of civil disobedience have continued unabated. Nightly anti-regime chants reverberate across Tehran and other cities. Youths spray graffiti denouncing the republic, or burn pro-government billboards and signs on main highways. Unveiled women appear in public despite dire warnings from officials.