The Farda Briefing

Welcome back to The Farda Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that tracks the key issues in Iran and explains why they matter.

I'm RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari. Here's what I’ve been following during the past week and what I’m watching for in the days ahead.

The Big Issue

As Iranian authorities crack down on nationwide anti-government protests, photos have appeared on social media that purportedly show children and adolescent boys wearing unforms and holding batons.

They appear to be wearing the uniforms of the Basij paramilitary forces, a branch of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The photos have led to accusations that the authorities are using minors to help crush the demonstrations.

Protest rallies erupted soon after the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, who died days after she was detained by Iran’s morality police. Iran’s Society for the Protection of Children’s Rights expressed concern over the photos, noting that the use of child soldiers was against international law.

Last week, over 500 members and supporters of the Imam Ali Society, a local charity, said the authorities had recruited children from impoverished families to help “suppress” the ongoing street protests. In exchange, the minors received a “few bags of food,” the charity said.

Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights In Iran, told me that the “desperate and morally bankrupt government” in Iran “has no regard for its own people” and “its only concern is brutal self-preservation.”

Why It Matters: Iran has a record of using children as combatants, including during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. More recently, Tehran has been accused of recruiting Afghan refugee children living in Iran to fight in the conflict in Syria. There were also reports that the authorities had recruited minors to suppress protests in 2011.

Journalist Roza Mohtasab from the fact-checking site Factnameh.com said the recent photos, believed to have been taken in Tehran, appear to be genuine. She said the children in the photos appear to be wearing the uniforms of the Student Basij, a subgrouping of the Basij.

"These images have not been manipulated, they're new,” Mohtasab said. “From the evidence that emerged online, we can say that children have been employed in the current round of protests."

Mohtasab said it was not clear what role the minors were playing in the government crackdown. "It could be that this was part of a maneuver for them to become familiar with the situation," she said.

What’s Next: Tehran could employ a greater number of minors to help control the angry protests. There have been mounting reports of security forces becoming exhausted from quelling rallies across the country for nearly four weeks.

“Distributing all your special police forces becomes challenging when the protests are spread out throughout [the country],” analyst Saeid Golkar, who has authored a book on the Basij, told me.

Stories You Might Have Missed

• Sixteen-year-old Nika Shakarami left to join ongoing anti-government protests in Tehran on September 20. She was never seen alive by her family again.

In an exclusive video shared with RFE/RL's Radio Farda, Nika's mother said the family is now being pressured to echo the official account of her daughter's death, and accused the authorities of "lying" in an attempt to "exempt themselves."

• Iran has arrested several digital rights and Internet freedom activists, including Amir Mirmirani who has previously publicly criticized Tehran’s attempts to intensify online censorship.

Mirmirani had accused IT companies SahabPardaz and ArvanCloud of being involved in cutting off Internet access in order to facilitate the suppression of the protests. Dozens of journalists and activists have been arrested since the protests erupted.

What We're Watching

More than 1,000 workers at Iran’s Bushehr and Damavand petrochemical plants joined the protests on October 10. According to RFE/RL's Radio Farda, the oil workers blocked access roads and chanted slogans such as "Death to the dictator!" as they gathered with a heavy security presence nearby.

Some reports suggested that the strikers were contract workers who had also gone on strike last year to demand higher wages and better working conditions. In recent days, there have been reports of sporadic strikes by traders and shop owners in several cities.

Why It Matters: It marks the first time workers in the crucial oil industry have gone on strike. It is unclear if more workers will follow suit.

If more oil workers go on strike, it could have significant ramifications. Major strikes by public employees preceded the Islamic Revolution in 1979, bringing large parts of the economy to a halt.

That’s all from me for now. Don’t forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have.

Until next time,

Golnaz Esfandiari

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Wednesday.

Welcome back to The Farda Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that tracks the key issues in Iran and explains why they matter.

I'm RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari. Here's what I’ve been following during the past week and what I’m watching for in the days ahead.

The Big Issue

Iran has faced more than two weeks of anti-government protests triggered by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Protesters, the majority of them young women and men, have called for the clerical establishment to be overthrown.

The authorities have reacted with force, killing at least 52 people and detaining more than 1,200, according to Amnesty International.

Despite the crackdown, scattered protests have been reported in major cities, including at universities. At Tehran's prestigious Sharif University, security forces were reported to have used tear gas to disperse demonstrators. Dozens of students were reported to have been detained.

Why It Matters: The protests are the most significant challenge to the authorities in years. But, at least for now, they do not threaten the survival of the regime.

There are no major divisions within the establishment or the security forces. There have been no major strikes like the ones that preceded the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Even so, prominent rights advocate Nasrin Sotoudeh told TIME magazine that there is “a very real possibility of regime change.”

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has blamed the protests on the United States and Israel. Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf accused those outside the country of inciting the protests with the aim of overthrowing the system.

What’s Next: Scattered protests are likely to continue despite the ongoing state crackdown. It's also likely that there will be more acts of civil disobedience, particularly in defiance of the hijab law.

In recent days, an increasing number of women have walked through the streets of Tehran and other major cities without their mandatory head scarves.

During an October 1 protest at Ferdowsi University in the holy city of Mashhad, young women removed and then waved their veils defiantly in the air while chanting, “Freedom, freedom,” according to an amateur video posted online.

Stories You Might Have Missed

• Iran has arrested a singer whose song about the ongoing protests in the country has gone viral, RFE/RL's Radio Farda has learned.

Shervin Hajipur composed his song using tweets by Iranians expressing their grievances against the clerical establishment in the aftermath of Amini’s death. Hajipur’s song, For, has been sung at protests and from rooftops during the night.

Hajipur was reportedly released on bail on October 4. It is unclear what charges were brought against him. Before it was removed from Instagram on September 29, his song had garnered more than 40 million views

• Former lawmaker and women’s rights advocate Faezeh Hashemi has been arrested and accused by state media of encouraging the anti-government protests.

Just days before her arrest, Hashemi, the outspoken daughter of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, expressed support for the protesters while accusing the authorities of having a Taliban-like view of women.

Hashemi said that the authorities refer to the protests that have rocked the Islamic republic as “riots” and “sedition” in order to suppress them.

“What [authorities] want to convey is that these are not protests, they’re riots, but in fact they are protests,” Hashemi said in an audio recording obtained by Radio Farda.

What We're Watching

Iran has allowed detained 85-year-old Iranian-American Baqer Namazi to leave the country to receive medical treatment abroad while his son, businessman Siamak Namazi, was released on furlough after being jailed since 2015.

Baqer Namazi, a retired UNICEF official, was detained in 2016 after traveling to Iran to seek his son's release. Both were convicted of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Washington has dismissed the charges against the men as baseless.

Why It Matters: The release of the Namazis is a rare concession by the Islamic republic, which has long been accused of using detained foreign and dual nationals as pawns to gain leverage in its dealings with Western countries.

It is unclear if Siamak Namazi’s one-week furlough will lead to his full release. It is also unclear if the release of the Namazis could lead to the release of other U.S. citizens detained in Iran.

Iranian state media claimed that, in return for releasing the Namazis, Washington would release billions of dollars of Iran's frozen assets held by the United States. Washington said reports linking the unfreezing of Iranian funds to the release of the Namazis were “categorically false.”

That’s all from me for now. Don’t forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you have.

Until next time,

Golnaz Esfandiari

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your inbox every Wednesday.