Price protests turn political in Iran as rallies spread - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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Reuters wrote:Price protests turn political in Iran as rallies spread

Demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans in several cities across Iran on Friday, Iranian news agencies and social media reports said, as price protests turned into the largest wave of demonstrations since nationwide pro-reform unrest in 2009.

Police dispersed anti-government demonstrators in the western city of Kermanshah as protests spread to Tehran and several other cities a day after rallies in the northeast, the semi-official news agency Fars said.

The outbreak of unrest reflects growing discontent over rising prices and alleged corruption, as well as concern about the Islamic Republic’s costly involvement in regional conflicts such as those in Syria and Iraq.

An official said a few protesters had been arrested in Tehran, and footage posted on social media showed a heavy police presence in the capital and some other cities.

Washington condemned the arrests. “The Iranian government should respect their people’s rights, including their right to express themselves,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

The U.S. State Department in a separate statement urged “all nations to publicly support the Iranian people and their demands for basic rights and an end to corruption.”

About 300 demonstrators gathered in Kermanshah after what Fars said was a “call by the anti-revolution.” They shouted: “Political prisoners should be freed” and “Freedom or death”, and some public property was destroyed. Fars did not name any opposition groups.

The protests in Kermanshah, the main city in a region where an earthquake killed over 600 people in November, took place a day after hundreds rallied in Iran’s second largest city Mashhad to protest at high prices and shout anti-government slogans.

Videos posted on social media showed demonstrators yelling, “The people are begging, the clerics act like God.”

Fars said there were protests in the cities of Sari and Rasht in the north, Qazvin west of Tehran and Qom south of the capital, and also in Hamadan in western Iran. It said many marchers who wanted to raise economic demands left the rallies after demonstrators shouted political slogans.

PRO-GOVERNMENT RALLIES PLANNED

State television said annual nationwide rallies and events were scheduled for Saturday to commemorate pro-government demonstrations held in 2009 to counter protests by reformists.

The Revolutionary Guards, which along with its Basij militia spearheaded a crackdown against the protesters in 2009, said in a statement carried by state media that there were efforts to repeat that year’s unrest but added: “The Iranian nation ... will not allow the country to be hurt.”

Mohsen Nasj Hamadani, deputy security chief in Tehran province, said about 50 people had rallied in a square but most had left after being asked to by police, while a few who refused were “temporarily detained,” the ILNA news agency reported.

In the central city of Isfahan, a resident said protesters had joined a rally held by factory workers demanding back-pay.

“The slogans quickly changed from the economy to those against (President Hassan) Rouhani and the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei),” the resident said by telephone.

In Qom, a stronghold of the Shi‘ite clergy, footage posted on social media showed protesters attacking Ayatollah Khamenei by name. “Seyyed Ali should be ashamed and leave the country alone,” they chanted.

Protests were held also in the town of Quchan near the Turkmen border, and in Ahvaz, capital of oil-rich Khuzestan province, social media and Iranian news websites reported.

Police arrested 52 people in Thursday’s protests, Fars quoted a judicial official as saying in Mashhad, one of the holiest places in Shi‘ite Islam.

In social media footage, which could not be authenticated, riot police were seen using water cannon and tear gas to disperse crowds.

Openly political protests are rare in Iran, where security services are omnipresent.

The last unrest of national significance occurred in 2009 when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election as president ignited eight months of street protests. Pro-reform rivals said the vote was rigged.

However, demonstrations are often held by workers over lay-offs or non-payment of salaries and by people who hold deposits in non-regulated, bankrupt financial institutions.

Prominent conservative cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda called earlier for tough action against the protests.

“If the security and law enforcement agencies leave the rioters to themselves, enemies will publish films and pictures in their media and say that the Islamic Republic system has lost its revolutionary base in Mashhad,” the state news agency IRNA quoted Alamolhoda as saying.

“DEATH TO DICTATOR”

Some social media videos showed demonstrators chanting “Death to Rouhani” and “Death to the dictator”. Protests were also held in at least two other northeastern cities.

Alamolhoda, the representative of Ayatollah Khamenei in Mashhad, said a few people had taken advantage of Thursday’s protests against rising prices to chant slogans against Iran’s role in regional conflicts.

Tehran backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country’s civil war, Shi‘ite militias in Iraq, Houthi rebels in Yemen and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group.

“Some people had come to express their demands, but suddenly, in a crowd of hundreds, a small group that did not exceed 50 shouted deviant and horrendous slogans such as ‘Let go of Palestine’, ‘Not Gaza, not Lebanon, I’d give my life (only) for Iran’,” Alamolhoda said.

Social media videos also showed demonstrators chanting ”Leave Syria, think about us,” criticizing Iran’s military and financial support for Assad.

Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, a close Rouhani ally, suggested that hardline conservative opponents of the pragmatist president might have triggered the protests but lost control of them. “Those who are behind such events will burn their own fingers,” IRNA quoted Jahangiri as saying.

Rouhani’s leading achievement, a 2015 deal with world powers that curbed Iran’s disputed nuclear program in return for a lifting of most international sanctions, has yet to bring the broad economic benefits the government says are coming.

Unemployment stood at 12.4 percent in this fiscal year, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran, up 1.4 percent from the previous year. About 3.2 million Iranians are jobless, out of a total population of 80 million.

Reuters


Iranians, shouting "Death to Hezbollah (in Farsi) مرگ بر حزب الله



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History in Iran

Iranians shouting: We don't want an Islamic Republic!



An Iranian woman took off her Hijab to protest the mandatory Islamic dress code imposed on Iranian women.



Iranian police in Tehran announce women who break Islamic dress codes no longer face arrest
After the 1979 revolution woman were forced to wear long garments and to cover their hair

Aya Batrawy in Dubai Friday 29 December 2017

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 32726.html
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They’re protesting cost of living pressures? Well, if anyone could figure out how their currency works that might be a start lol. Which is it? Rial or toman? That might be messing shit up internationally, you know?
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noir wrote:Iranian police in Tehran announce women who break Islamic dress codes no longer face arrest
After the 1979 revolution woman were forced to wear long garments and to cover their hair

It might seem a small concession but one concession is likely to lead to another and then another until it all unravels.. like the USSR.

My wife is Iranian and is watching some of the protest video feeds. She is saying that the protestors are chanting "Death to Mullahs". lol.
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@SolarCross

I doubt that Iran would end up like the USSR. We already had our USSR moment with the Islamic Revolution, we aren't stupid enough to do something like that again. All we need is to improve our existing institutions rather than destroy them completely and local democratic governments do exist in Iran. We just need to get as much Reformists and Constitutionalists in power locally as possible. Eventually although Iran would be a theocracy in name, it's de facto form of government would be a democracy similar to how Britain technically has a state religion but it's not enforced at all.

@ness31

The idea of replacing Iran's currency with a Bitcoin-esque substitute is quite popular among Reformists in Iran and the government itself also sees the potential for it's usage and both independent labs and government research is being made into bitcoin with the government even attempting to create the infrastructure necessary for Bitcoin as quickly as possible. Bitcoin can have large wide-scale benefits for Iran as a whole and can further decentralize power from the state. However there are some concerns with the first and foremost problem being stability and it's potential use of transferring funds to terrorist organizations.

In my opinion, Bitcoin could be great. It'll fix Iran's currency issue and it'll allow quick and guaranteed usage of the blockchain which has great applications by itself.
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Fake News love Mullahs' Iran. Being stanch adversary for America and Israel makes Iran "progressive".



The pro-regime protesters were carrying ‘down with Israel’ signs.

This photo was taken from Tasnim News Agency in Iran from their protest shots. CNN took their photos from the Tasnim News Agency. They are literally spewing the pro-regime propaganda in their news reports.

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Because everything has to do with Israel.

Half of the reason the situation in Iran is going critical is because of lack of foreign trade and investment, not helped by the renewed sanctions after the revoking of the nuclear deal.
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skinster wrote:https://twitter.com/Louis_Allday/status/946864763342131202


That is what sanctions are exactly for.

I am not sure who is worse than who, but the fact is you always get a hard time if you go against the West or is somehow in their way. Unless you are in a situation like Kim-jong-un, or as powerful as Putin or Xi.

And it doesn't help that most countries against the West are worse in terms of social fairness. That makes the West able to mess around frequently.
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Zagadka wrote:Because everything has to do with Israel.

Half of the reason the situation in Iran is going critical is because of lack of foreign trade and investment, not helped by the renewed sanctions after the revoking of the nuclear deal.


So the sanctions is working. Good to know. Better than risking soldiers and pilots to dismantle the nuclear facilities.
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Yeah, the sanctions are a bit bullshit. But how many of you fuckers have written to your politcans and voiced concern?

But no, you’re all too busy trying to boycott Israel :roll:
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ness31 wrote:Yeah, the sanctions are a bit bullshit. But how many of you fuckers have written to your politcans and voiced concern?

But no, you’re all too busy trying to boycott Israel :roll:


Indeed. From 1945, Israel is under strict Arab and Muslim boycott. It doesn't effect the country because the state is running quite transparently.

With the the Arab and Muslims despots it's different, they are stealing millions and billions from state cashes (mainly the Palestinians). Bibi "corruption" is no more than some extra ice cream out of state regulations and such. Most of the Israeli citizens don't take it seriously. The "anti corruptions" demos are funded by dubious overseas funds. Last election, Obama and State department had a secret fund to topple him without much success.
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