Where the protests against compulsory hijabs began, they are still fiercest today and cause the regime the most trouble. But the authorities are merciless against demonstrators.
The protests in Iran have been going on for almost four weeks now. They are increasing and decreasing in waves, but the Iranian leadership has not been able to completely end them so far. Nowhere are the uprisings as violent and persistent as in the Kurdish areas in the west of the country, where they ignited almost a month ago after the death of Mahsa Amini.
Shopkeepers there have responded to calls for a general strike several times, paralyzing economic activity. As in other cities in the country, students are challenging the authorities with protest actions against the headscarf requirement, but above all the Kurds are resisting the harsh actions of the security forces.
protests everywhere
One of the strongholds of rebellion is Saqez, the hometown of Zhina Amini, as the young woman who died was called in Kurdish. But it’s far from the only city. Observers and human rights organizations recorded protests from the far north of the Kurdish region around Piranshar to the far south around Ilam. Small towns like Divandarreh were hit by unrest, as were medium-sized towns and cities such as Baneh, Bukan, Kermanshah and Mahabad, the capital of the short-lived Kurdish republic of the same name from 1946.
Nowhere, however, is the rebellion as strong as in Sanandaj, the capital of the province of Kordestan (Kurdistan) and the second largest Kurdish city in Iran. For days there have been serious clashes between Kurds and security forces in the city with more than 400,000 inhabitants. A video shows how security forces, armed with shields and helmets, attack demonstrators with clubs. Only a little later you see how the same troop flees from stone-throwing demonstrators.
The government has greatly increased the number of security forces in the Kurdish areas in recent weeks and days. In addition, she has partially switched off the Internet or throttled the connections. Also the cell phone connections are restricted on some days.
“Foreign Conspiracy”
Despite this, the security forces have not been able to break the resistance so far. Video recordings show street battles at night; Kurds set car tires on fire, shots ring out through the night. It is by no means only young men, as is usually the case in such cases, who defy the police and militias day and night.
There are men of all ages and women too. In a picture taken earlier this week, a young woman can be seen standing alone on a fallen dumpster in the middle of the night without a headscarf, spreading her fingers in the victory sign. In others, women put on sturdy shoes and are said to be preparing for protests.
At least 32 Kurds have been killed and hundreds injured since the protests began, according to the Oslo-based Kurdish human rights organization Hengaw. According to the organization, more than 2,500 Kurds were arrested, including 30 minors. In addition, according to official figures, two security forces were killed.
The Iranian leadership blames a foreign conspiracy and Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq for the protests. Attacks on insurgent bases with rockets, drones and artillery have claimed at least 14 lives, including several civilians.
Sanandaj in particular, a center of Iranian-Kurdish culture, has a long tradition of rebellion against the regime in Tehran. Shortly after the Islamic Republic was proclaimed, there was an uprising against the new rulers in the city, which spread across large parts of the Kurdish region. The suppression of the uprising claimed thousands of lives.
The Iraqi Kurds as a role model
Like other minorities in Iran, the Kurds are demanding more cultural and political rights, and quite a few are striving for autonomy. In neighboring Iraq, where the Kurds have set up their own state, they can see how much better off they could theoretically be. Even without protests, the presence of Revolutionary Guards and other security organs in the Kurdish areas along the border is extremely high.
But there is a lively exchange between the Iranian and Iraqi Kurds, both through regular trade and smuggling and through cultural and family relationships. This also makes it much more difficult for the security apparatus to suppress the flow of information than in other parts of the country.
This time, however, the death of young Kurdish woman Amini, arrested for allegedly wearing lewd clothing during a visit to Tehran, has united people of all ethnic groups, women and men, against those in power. The Kurdish slogan “Woman, life, freedom” is now being shouted from north to south and west to east or sprayed on house walls. The Kurds are demanding what many Iranians are currently demanding: an end to oppression and paternalism by the theocratic regime.