🔴Iranian security forces are accelerating violence used to suppress protests. From 19 to 21 Nov security forces killed at least 15 more civilians while suppressing protests in Rojhilat the Kurdish-populated western region#jınjiyanazadi | #Kurdish | #Iranhttps://t.co/Xufmhj8LUK pic.twitter.com/bWRIyKEUq7
— MedyaNews (@1MedyaNews) November 23, 2022
Between 19 and 21 November, military-security forces in the Islamic Republic of Iran killed at least 15 civilians while suppressing protests in western Kurdish-populated regions, Kurdistan Human Rights Network reports.
Iranian security forces are accelerating violence used to suppress protests that began with the death of 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian Jina (Mahsa) Amini, and have continued for over two months. Since the beginning of the nationwide uprisings 98 Kurdish civilians, including 10 children, have been killed by Iranian security forces.
The vast majority of the 10 million Kurds living in Iran live in cities in the western part of the country, known as Rojhilat in Kurdish. Iran has been using extreme violence since last week to quell the uprising in Kurdish cities.
Security forces had opened fire on protesters in Kurdish provinces last week, and killed several people, including two children. The killing of nine-year-old Kian Pirfalak by security forces led to further intensification of the protests, and Kian, like Jina Amini, became an icon of the protests.
Then, in clashes in Mahabad, where the Islamic Republic deployed military vehicles, at least 11 people were killed in a matter of days.
After the massacre in Mahabad, solidarity demonstrations were held in many cities in Iran and people took to the streets, especially in Kurdish cities.
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) announced on Tuesday “horrowing new reports” coming from the Kurdish city Mahabad.
“Taking a page from Putin’s playbook, Iran is deploying the same ruthless & barbaric tactics against innocent civilians today as it did in Syria,” said SFRC.
The clashes in Mahabad intensified on 27 October when security forces opened fire at people who had gathered for the funeral ceremonies of protesters killed earlier in the week.
Meanwhile, Iranian protests are globally becoming more and more widespread.
The Iranian national football team showed support for the anti-government protests on Monday by refusing to sing the national anthem in FIFA World Cup 2022.
On Sunday, Iranian female basketball players took off their hijab and shared their unveiled photo on Instagram to protest against the Islamic Republic, Masih Alinejad reported on Twitter.
The Iranian basketball team shared the “Woman, Life, Freedom,” slogan.
The slogan of “Woman, Life, Freedom,” – “Jîn, Jîyan, Azadi,” in Kurdish, and “Zen, Zendegi, Azadi,” in Persian – that has become a rallying cry for women all around the world, was developed within the Kurdish feminist movement.
In addition to the violence of the Iranian security forces in the Kurdish cities of the country, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also launched missile and drone attacks against Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in Iraqi Kurdistan on Sunday night.
