Iran has made it hard for people in parts of Tehran and Kurdistan to use Instagram and WhatsApp to stop a growing protest movement that uses social media to document opposition.
The September 16 protests were started by the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in police custody. Protesters burned police stations and vehicles Thursday.
Videos of women burning hijabs during anti-regime protests have gone viral. Under “Mahsa Amini,” women have posted videos of themselves cutting their hair in protest.
Mahsa Amini was arrested on September 16 for wearing a hijab “improperly.” Activists stated that Jhina, whose Kurdish first name is Jhina, died of a head wound. Officials refuted the claim and launched an investigation. Her family suspects she was beaten and tortured, but police say she died of natural causes.
Mashhad, NE #Iran
Protesters are torching the city's security cameras to protect those participating in the ongoing #IranProtests.
(Not sure about the date) pic.twitter.com/BdpJIbOj1F
— Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) September 22, 2022
On Thursday, in response to her death, the US blacklisted Iran’s morality police. The US Treasury said morality police were “responsible” for Amini’s death as they imposed sanctions “for abuse and brutality against Iranian women and the rights of peaceful Iranian protestors.”
State media reported on Wednesday that street protests had spread to 15 cities, with police using tear gas and arrests to break up crowds of up to 1,000 people. Video footage from Wednesday, supposedly taken in southern Iran, shows protesters setting fire to a huge picture of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike in Iraq in 2020.
Demonstrators threw stones at security forces, and burned police vehicles and trash bins, Irna said. Iranian media said Thursday that three militias “mobilised to cope with riots” were stabbed or shot in Tabriz, Qazvin, and Mashhad.
A fourth security force member died in Shiraz, Iranian news outlets said, and a protester was stabbed in Qazvin, adding to the six protester deaths already revealed. Iranian authorities deny killing demonstrators. Amnesty International reported eight deaths: six males, one woman, and a child. Four were shot by security forces at close range with metal pellets.
The protests are Iran’s worst since fuel price riots in November 2019. Azadeh Akbari, a cyber-surveillance researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, said internet shutdowns are an extension of physical brutality and repression. “Social media is essential to protester mobilisation, not only to organize gatherings but also to highlight resistance.”
Unbelievable footage from Amol in northern Iran: people in their hundreds pushing back the riot police and state security forces #MahsaAmini #مهساامینی pic.twitter.com/ZolwhOjR6X
— Fazel Hawramy (@FazelHawramy) September 21, 2022
“A woman without a hijab in front of anti-insurgency police is brave. If a video of this becomes viral, women in all cities will do the same.”
“Women, life, freedom” was chanted at Amini’s funeral and by protestors across the country, notably in a video showing young women burning their hijabs as male protesters fought security forces. The Twitter video has 30,000 views. In another video, an Iranian woman sings a song to lost youth while cutting her hair with scissors.
“[The videos] are 100% valuable,” a young Iranian Twitter user told the Guardian, adding that she had participated in opposition activity online. I’m unhappy that my countrymen in other parts of Iran are opposing this dictatorship for our rights. I can only post online. She said videos showing police brutality against protestors are pushing people to act.
“The dictatorship struggles to regulate videos. Many don’t share them on social media but send them over WhatsApp, etc. “Simultaneous cyberspace and physical space displays.”
As public venues are heavily policed, social media has long been a vital anti-regime tactic. “Platforms like Instagram became the virtual street, where we could meet to demonstrate because it wasn’t possible in real life,” said Shaghayegh Norouzi, an Iranian activist in exile in Spain. Norouzi kept in touch with activists in Tehran, but she feared further internet closures for their safety.
During the 2017–2019 protests, the government cut the internet for days. She alleged demonstrators were slain and arrested. “Protesters organise online. They can call each other to warn of danger. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps called on the judiciary to punish “false news and rumours” on Thursday.
Amini died amid a crackdown on women’s rights. Iran’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, passed a directive on August 15 that enhanced the punishment for online anti-hijab propaganda. Raisi told western media at the UN general assembly that Amini’s death was being investigated.
Early evidence from the inquiry showed she died of natural causes, he said. “All symptoms lead to a heart attack or brain stroke,” he stated, but “that’s not final.”
He alleged police brutality had killed hundreds in the US and UK. Akbari stated the Iranian government was tightening its cyber-regime while targeting women’s rights. She thinks that ongoing internet outages could be used to expand Iran’s cut-off internet.
“This is a really hazardous idea that would knock Iran off the internet soon,” she warned. This would allow the regime to police the internet and establish an all-encompassing control system.