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. To subscribe, click here. 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 the authorities intensify their deadly crackdown on antiestablishment protests in Iran, some demonstrators are resorting to protest art to express their dissent. The street art and graffiti has targeted Iran’s clerical regime, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and has appeared on public walls in major cities.

Most of the graffiti is done at night. Several Tehran residents told me that they often see public walls spray-painted with anti-regime slogans in the morning. By the evening, most of the graffiti is washed off or painted over, they said. The next morning, new graffiti appears, highlighting the tug-of-war between the protesters and the authorities. One prominent message on a wall in Tehran reads: “Blood cannot be cleansed by anything."

Videos and photos posted on social media appear to show that anti-regime graffiti and public art is expanding.

Some of the art depicts Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman whose death soon after being detained by the morality police ignited the nationwide protests. Other murals show the victims of the state’s crackdown on the protests. Some of the graffiti includes slogans such as, “Death to Khamenei” and “Woman, life, freedom.”

Why It Matters: Protesters are finding new and creative ways to express their anger at the clerical establishment, which has responded to the protests with lethal force and mass arrests. Besides resorting to protest art and graffiti, some Iranians have been shouting antiestablishment slogans at night from their rooftops and windows.

What's Next: Acts of civil disobedience are likely to continue and increase in the face of the government clampdown. Such acts allow protesters to sustain the demonstrations without marching on the streets, where they face a greater risk of arrest and harm. The overstretched security forces have found it difficult to stop street art and creative forms of dissent.

Stories You Might Have Missed

• Iran's universities have turned into a major battleground between the protesters and the authorities. Some female students have removed and burned their head scarves. Male and female students have also broken social taboos by holding hands and singing together. Some art students have covered their hands in red paint to protest the state crackdown on the demonstrations. The authorities have cracked down violently on the university protests, beating and detaining dozens of students.
• Russia is increasingly relying on primitive Iranian suicide drones it its attempts to bomb the Ukrainian population into submission, including the cheap but effective Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 "kamikaze" drones. Now, the prospect of Russian forces replenishing their depleted aerial arsenal with powerful Iranian ballistic missiles has officials in Kyiv scrambling for more air cover.

What We're Watching

At least 7,000 people have been detained since the antiestablishment protests erupted on September 17, according to a monitoring group based outside Iran. The vast majority are street protesters, but they also include scores of students, activists, journalists, and artists, the group said. Around 300 minors have also been detained.

In Tehran alone, 315 people have been indicted for participating in the protests, according to the judiciary. The hard-line Fars news agency, affiliated with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said four of them have been charged with "waging war against God," which is punishable by death. Fars said about 42 percent of people detained across Iran are below the age of 20, while 48 percent are between 20-35. Interestingly, Fars also reported that 2 percent of detainees are government employees, although it did not offer any details.

Why It Matters: While many of the 7,000 have been released on bail, some remain in detention. There are mounting concerns over their well-being. Rights groups have long documented the inhumane conditions in Iran’s detention facilities and prisons. Political detainees in Iran are often held in solitary confinement for days or weeks while under interrogation, rights groups have said.

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

Young people have played a prominent role in the ongoing anti-government protests that have rocked Iran for the past month. Young women and teenage girls have taken to the streets in major cities, removing and burning their head scarves.

In universities and high schools, female students have chanted “Woman, life, freedom” and called on Iran’s ruling “mullahs” to get lost.

Some of them have paid with their lives. The United Nations says at least 23 children, including an 11-year-old boy, have been killed by security forces during the government’s crackdown on the protests.

Hundreds more have been injured, detained, and tortured since the protests erupted on September 17, the UN said. Some of those detained have been sent to so-called “re-education centers.”

Among those killed were 16-year-old girls, Nika Shakarami and Sarina Esmailzadeh, who have become some of the most prominent faces of the protests.

One of the latest victims was Asra Panahi, a 16-year-old schoolgirl who was beaten by security forces in the northwestern city of Ardabil for refusing to sing a pro-establishment anthem when her school was raided by agents.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on October 17 condemned what it said were “grave violations of children's rights” in Iran and urged the authorities “to stop all violence against children.”

Why It Matters: The gap is widening between Iran’s young population and the ruling clerics. Many of Iran’s Internet-savvy youth want greater social and political freedoms.

The clerical establishment, meanwhile, has responded to those calls with violence and repression. The gulf between the regime and the population has never been so wide, and young Iranians have never been so brazen in demanding their rights.

What’s Next: The government’s deadly crackdown is unlikely to discourage young Iranians from venting their anger in public, including through protest art and acts of acts of civil disobedience.

The protests, which have entered a fifth week, are scattered. But they persist, with young Iranians often taking the lead.

Stories You Might Have Missed

• Iran’s western Kurdistan region has become the epicenter of the protests and the focus of the government’s crackdown. The death of Mahsa Amini, who hailed from Kurdistan, was the catalyst for the nationwide protests. Rights groups said on October 17 that at least 39 people have been killed in three predominately Kurdish provinces.

The harshest government crackdowns have occurred in Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Kurdistan, and in Amini’s hometown of Saghez. Amateur videos from the area appear to show security forces using firearms and tear gas and firing directly into residential homes. An even bloodier crackdown has occurred in Sistan-Baluchistan, where at least 95 people have been killed.

The province is under a strict lockdown and Internet blackout, making it difficult for observers to ascertain what is happening there.

• A billboard showing dozens of famous Iranian women, including athletes, actresses, and writers, all observing the mandatory hijab was taken down in Tehran less than 24 hours after going up following widespread criticism.

Amini died three days after she was detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s hijab law. Some of the women on the billboard demanded that their picture be removed. One of them was the award-winning actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, whose emotional video went viral on social media.

The billboard was erected by the Owj Arts and Media Organization, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The organization said it removed the billboard following “controversies and reactions.”

What We're Watching

Iran’s judiciary said eight inmates died in a fire in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

The authorities blamed the blaze on “riots and clashes” among prisoners. But rights groups have questioned the official version of events and expressed concern that the real death toll could be much higher.

Explosions and gunshots could be heard in amateur videos posted on social media.

Prominent filmmaker Jafar Panahi managed to call his wife from the prison to let her know that he and fellow filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof were fine and that the authorities had used tear gas during the unrest, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reported.

Why It Matters: Evin is one of Iran’s most notorious and tightly-guarded prisons.

Dual and foreign nationals as well as some of Iran’s most prominent political prisoners are incarcerated there.

The unrest has renewed concerns about the treatment of prisoners in Evin.

Following the incident, rights groups have urged the authorities to allow international monitors unhindered access to the prison to investigate the alleged use of force against inmates.

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.