As Iran prepares to mark the first anniversary of the nationwide protests that began in September 2022, the regime is frantically trying to clamp down on any form of dissent and prevent protests from taking place.
Among the main efforts of the regime are actions against known sympathizers of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and the relatives of PMOI members.
One recent example is the regime’s obstruction in the release of political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared, who is approaching the end of her original 15-year sentence.
Akbari Monfared was arrested in 2009 and has seen her 15-year sentence extended by an additional two years, along with a fine of 150 million rials, as part of a new, in-absentia ruling issued by Branch 101 of Semnan Criminal Court. Shockingly, during her entire 14-year incarceration, she has not been granted a single day of furlough for medical treatment.
Three of Akbari Monfared’s brothers and a sister were executed by the mullahs’ regime. Alireza Akbari, a PMOI member, was executed in 1981. Gholamreza Akbari, also a member of the PMOI, was murdered under torture in 1985. PMOI members Abdulreza and Roghiyeh Akbari were executed during the 1988 massacre of more than 30,000 political prisoners. The massacre was overseen by Ebrahim Raisi, the regime’s current president.
Last week, regime authorities arrested Marzieh Farsi and Forough Taghipour, both being former political prisoners and relatives of PMOI members in Ashraf 3. They were both transferred to Evin prison and denied the right to contact their families. Other PMOI relatives and supporters are also under increasing persecution by regime authorities.
At the same time, the regime is also raising pressure on the families of protesters murdered by regime security forces during the 2022 nationwide uprisings. In recent days, several relatives of the deceased protesters were arrested by regime authorities. Others were threatened by the regime and instructed to refrain from holding memorial ceremonies for their loved ones. Regime agents are destroying and desecrating the graves of slain protesters. During last year’s protests, the funerals and memorials of the martyrs of the uprising became occasions to protest against the regime. And the regime is afraid of such ceremonies turning into anti-regime protests.
Amnesty International recently warned that “Iranian authorities have been subjecting victims’ families to arbitrary arrest and detention, imposing cruel restrictions on peaceful gatherings at grave sites, and destroying victims’ gravestones.”
“The cruelty of the Iranian authorities knows no bounds. In their sinister attempt to cover up their crimes, the authorities are compounding the anguish and suffering of victims’ families by preventing them from demanding justice, truth and reparation or even planting flowers at their loved ones’ graves,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “As the anniversary of the uprising nears, victims’ families fear that the authorities will deploy their usual repressive tactics to bar them from holding commemorations.”
The regime is also preparing for the anniversary of the protests by increasing repressive measures in universities, which became one of the main hotbeds of the uprising.
The regime has dismissed dozens of university professors who do not align with the regime’s political views. At the same time, security forces have resorted to the arrest, expulsion, and intimidation of students and are carrying out other security measures within universities ahead of the beginning of the academic year.
In recent months, a significant number of university professors from universities such as Sharif, Tehran, Allameh, Melli, Azad Tehran, Azad Karaj, Al-Zahra, Kurdistan, Persian Gulf, Ferdowsi Mashhad, Art, Sureh, Tabriz Medical Sciences, Hakim Sabzevari, Bahoner Kerman, Jahrom, Azad Sanandaj, Medical Sciences of Iran, Azad Qom, and Isfahan have been expelled. According to students, security agencies play a central role in all university-related decisions, and repressive forces have surrounded the campuses.
However, the regime’s repressive measures have not deterred the Iranian people and members of their resistance movement in their efforts to overthrow the despotic rule of the mullahs. As PMOI Resistance Units are chanting in every corner of Iran, “The only solution is revolution.”
