2022-09-21

Since the morning of Saturday, September 17, when Mehsa’s lifeless body was carried away under strict security conditions and among slogans of death to the dictator by people and buried in the Aichi Cemetery in the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan province, a huge wave of hatred, anger and protest against the criminal regime of the Islamic Republic has swept across Iran. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died on September 16 following injuries suffered in police custody after being detained by Iran’s “morality police” over the compulsory wearing of hijab. Brave women at the funeral threw away the Islamic hijab, this symbol of humiliation and slavery of women and chanted slogans against the misogynistic policies of the Islamic regime. The militant people turned Mahsa’s funeral into a platform to express solidarity with her family and to protest this crime of the Islamic Republic. The demonstrations turned into street clashes between the protestors and military forces following the attack of the regime’s repressive forces on the protestors and targeting them with tear gas and gunshots. Thirteen protesters were injured during the clash. At 6 o’clock in the afternoon of the same day, the freedom-loving people in the city of Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province, poured into the streets in solidarity with the people of Saqqez and against the murder of Mahsa.

On Sunday, September 18, people of Sanandaj, led by more organized women, took over the streets and made military forces to set back, followed by the city of Mahabad in Kurdistan province which also joined the street uprisings to condemn the murder of Mehsa and the criminals of the Islamic regime. The Islamic Regime of Iran killed Mahsa to intimidate the society, but it was the rulers of ignorance and capital that were intimidated by the street protests.

On Monday, September 19, most of the cities of Kurdistan went on strike; stores, shops, offices and workplaces were closed or partially closed. In the meantime, Divandare, this hero city, from the very beginning of the strike, took to the streets and called other cities to do the same. Along with Divandareh, the streets of more cities in the Kurdistan Province, such as Dehgolan, Sanandaj, Mahabad, Bane, Sardasht, Ashnoye, Marivan, Saqez, Bukan, Paveh, Bijar, Kamiyaran, etc. saw more demonstrations and confrontations between the protesters and the repressive mercenaries of the Islamic regime.

The same day, a wave of anger and protest engulfed several Iranian universities like Tehran University, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Art University, Tarbiat Modares University, Beheshti University as well several other universities, where young male and female students protested against the murder of Mahsa and the crimes of the Islamic regime and shouted slogans “from Kurdistan to Tehran, oppression against women”, “No to forced hijab”, “From Kurdistan to Tehran, bloody all over Iran”, “Death to the oppressor, be it the king or the Supreme leader”, “This is the

last message, the aim is the whole system”, “The only way of liberation, the council administration”, “Arise the oppressed to bring down the palace of oppression”, “No to Gender Apartheid”, “Woman, Life, Freedom”, “We are all Mahsa, we will fight you” and “Death to the Dictator” which shook the university campuses and the heart of the security repressive forces. At the same time, Tehran, Ilam and several other cities joined the wave of protests. In Ilam, free men and women marched and chanted slogans in condemnation of the death of Mahsa and against the misogynist policies of the regime. In Tehran, thousands of people protested on Keshavarz Blvd and surrounding streets who were attacked by the police and security forces. In Vali Asr Street, female protestors and vanguards removed their headscarves and waved them in the air as a sign of not accepting forced hijab anymore. In Rasht, protesters came to the square shouting “bread, work, freedom, voluntary clothing”.

Since the terrified regime had filled the streets of the cities with police, security forces and special guards, there were clashes between protestors and police forces on the streets everywhere. The solidarity of the masses of people who had opened the doors of their houses to the young people in all the neighborhoods and treated the wounded was reminiscent of the scenes of the 1979 revolution. During these protests and confrontations, so far seven people have died, tens of people injured and dozens of people have been arrested. The panicked President Raisi called the protests a riot and announced that “terrorist groups have entered the operational phase”. But to prove him wrong, on Tuesday, September 20, Tehran University of Science and Technology, Tabriz and Yazd universities, and the cities of Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz, Hamadan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Marivan, Mashhad, Sari, Birjand, Sanandaj, Bandar Abbas and several other cities became the scene of protests by students and angry men and women against the killing of Mahsa and the Islamic government. In the town of Sari, women set their scarves on fire and declared that it was the symbol of putting the Islamic Republic on fire.

The murder of Mahsa by the Islamic regime sparked the accumulated anger of people and the protests in Kurdistan, Tehran and other Iranian cities against the Islamic Republic, and once again people of Iran not only condemned the death of Mahsa, but also showed their determination to overthrow the regime of the Islamic Republic in a revolutionary way. They gave the criminal regime in Iran a resounding response through their glorious protests on the streets combined with a general strike. Undoubtedly, this glorious protest movement will change the balance of power in favor of the labor and mass struggles. Also, the Iranian women’s movement will enter a new phase in the fight against the gender oppression and the compulsory hijab and anti-women laws of the Islamic Republic.

The Communist Party of Iran, while offering its condolences to the families and all freedom-loving and equality-seeking fighters for those who have lost their life during the protests of the past few days, honors the struggles, the strong presence and the solidarity of masses of people from Kurdistan to Tehran to all other cities of Iran as well as the progressive student movement in the universities, and salutes the organizers and participants of these protests. The advancement of these protests, which have spread to more than 100 cities in Iran so far, depends on the expansion and mobilization of the protest movement on a wider scale, the spread of labor strikes to all parts

of the country and the connection between the street and the factory. The working class of Iran can guarantee the continuation and progress of this protest movement with a nationwide strike.

Down with the Islamic Republic of Iran!

Long live Freedom, Equality and Workers’ State!

Central Committee of the Communist Party of Iran

September 21, 2022