Iran has shut down the internet in parts of Tehran and Kurdistan and blocked access to platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp in an attempt to curb a growing protest movement that has relied on social media to document dissent.
The protests, which erupted on September 16 after the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in police custody, show no sign of abating. On Thursday, protesters set fire to police stations and police vehicles in several cities.
This comes as anti-regime demonstrations spilled into cyberspace, with videos of women burning their hijabs going viral. Other women have been posting emotional videos of themselves cutting their hair in protest under the hashtag #Mahsa_Amini.
Mahsa Amini was arrested on September 16 for allegedly wearing a hijab headscarf “inappropriately”. Activists said the woman, whose Kurdish given name is Jhina, had suffered a fatal blow to the head, a claim denied by officials, who have announced an investigation. Police continue to maintain that she died of natural causes, but her family suspects that she was subjected to beatings and torture.
Iranian state media reported that street rallies had spread to 15 cities on Wednesday, with police using tear gas and making arrests to disperse crowds of up to 1,000 people.
In southern Iran, video footage purportedly on Wednesday showed protesters setting fire to a giant effigy next to a building of General Qassem Soleimani, the revered commander of the Revolutionary Guards, who was killed in a US strike on 2020 in Iraq.
Protesters threw stones at security forces, set fire to police vehicles and trash cans and chanted anti-government slogans, the official Irna news agency said.
On Thursday, Iranian media said three militiamen “mobilized to deal with rioters” were stabbed or shot dead in the northwestern city of Tabriz, the central city of Qazvin and Mashhad in the country’s northeast.
A fourth member of the security forces was killed in the southern city of Shiraz, Iranian news agencies reported, adding that a protester was stabbed to death in Qazvin, adding to six protester deaths already announced by officials.
Iranian authorities have denied any involvement in the deaths of the protesters.
Protesters flooding a street in Tehran. Photo: EPA
Amnesty International said it has recorded the deaths of eight people, six men, a woman and a child, four of whom were shot by security forces at close range with metal pellets.
The protests are among the most serious in Iran since unrest in November 2019 over rising fuel prices.
“Internet shutdowns should be understood as an extension of the violence and repression that is taking place in the physical space,” said Azadeh Akbari, a cyber surveillance researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. . “Social networks are existential for the mobilization of protesters, not only to coordinate rallies but also to amplify acts of resistance.
“You see a woman without the hijab in front of the anti-insurgency police, who is very brave. If a video of this comes out, suddenly it’s not just one person doing this, women in all different cities are doing the same thing.”
“Women, life, freedom,” the words heard at Amini’s funeral, have been repeated by protesters across the country, including in a video showing young women burning their hijabs as male protesters fight back the security forces. The video has received over 30,000 views on Twitter.
A woman cuts her ponytail in front of the Iranian embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. Fueled by social media, the anger has spread to cities around the world. Photo: Erdem Şahin/EPA
In a separate video, an Iranian woman sings a hymn to fallen youth while cutting her hair with household scissors, which has amassed more than 60,000 views.
“[The videos] they are one hundred percent valuable,” a young Twitter user from Iran told The Guardian, adding that although the protests had not reached her hometown, she had been able to participate in the activity of the ‘opposition online. “I am saddened that my compatriots from other parts of Iran have taken to the streets and are fighting against this regime for all our rights. And I can’t do anything but share information online.”
He added that videos showing police brutality towards protesters motivated people in different cities to take action.
“It is very difficult for the regime to control the videos that come out. A lot of people don’t post them on social networks, but circulate them within WhatsApp groups, etc. Demonstrations take place simultaneously in cyberspace and in physical space”.
Social media has long been a key tool for anti-regime activity, as public spaces are closely monitored by security forces. “Platforms like Instagram became the virtual street, where we can gather to protest, because it was not possible to do it in real life,” said Shaghayegh Norouzi, an Iranian activist against gender violence who has been exiled to Spain .
Norouzi said that while he had been able to stay in touch with activists in Tehran, he feared future internet blackouts and what they could mean for activists’ safety.
“During the last protests [2017-2019], the government shut down the Internet for days at a time. During that time, protesters were killed and arrested,” he said. “Protesters are also using the Internet to organize themselves. They can call each other and say when they are in danger or warn each other.”
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps called on the judiciary to prosecute “those who spread false news and rumours” in a statement released on Thursday.
Amini’s death came amid a government crackdown on women’s rights. On August 15, Iran’s hardline president Ebrahim Raisi signed a decree that, among other measures, increased punishment for women who post anti-hijab content online.
While targeting women’s rights, Akbari says the government is tightening its cyber regime. He fears that continuous internet blackouts could be used to facilitate the expansion of Iran’s national internet, which is cut off from the rest of the world.
“This is a very dangerous plan, which would see the regime completely cut off Iran from the global internet in the near future,” he said. “This would allow the regime to police cyberspace along with policing physical space and develop a ubiquitous surveillance machinery.”