Latest update: 2230 CET
Iran’s nationwide uprising is marking its 67th day on Monday following a full day of lethal crackdown measures by the mullahs’ regime against the city of Mahabad and other cities of Iran’s Kurdish regions.
Regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered military and security units, with helicopters, armored vehicles, and heavy weaponry into Mahabad to quell the locals’ escalating protests during the past few months. The regime’s forces were seen shooting directly at locals, and activists reported that security units were firing live bullets and tear gas into people’s homes.
Even funerals and mourning ceremonies held for the recent victims of the regime’s brutality are being targeted by the regime’s forces, resulting in growing anger among the Iranian people across the country. Iranians in many cities took to the streets on Sunday in solidarity with Mahabad and other Kurdish cities, vowing that the entire nation is in this struggle together against the mullahs’ regime.
Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 243 cities. Over 625 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 485 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.
November 21 – Javanrud, western #Iran
Locals are attending the funeral of Erfan Kakaie & Baha'edin Veisi, both killed last night by the regime's security forces. These ceremonies are turning into anti-regime protests.#IranRevolution2022 #جوانرود pic.twitter.com/8A59WyOLdn— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 21, 2022
Monday began with people in the Kurdish cities of Saqqez, Piranshahr, Dehgolan, Javanrud, and Kermanshah, holding large funeral ceremonies for locals killed yesterday by the regime’s security forces. These ceremonies are constantly evolving into massive anti-regime protests and security forces have been known to use live bullets against the mourners.
Activists in Javanrud are already reporting dozens of people have been killed and injured as security forces opened fire on the locals on Monday morning. Video footage from the scene shows people fleeing and the sound of heavy gunfire can be heard, with some activists reporting the regime’s forces are using 12.7mm DShK heavy machine guns against the defenseless locals. Hospitals in this city are in need of blood as the number of those injured with many in dire conditions, is on the rise.
November 21 – Javanrud, western #Iran
More footage of regime security forces opening fire on locals. Activists are saying the IRGC is using 12.7mm DShK heavy machine guns.#IranRevolution2022#جوانرود pic.twitter.com/78vgA0F96o— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 21, 2022
Similar circumstances are being reported from the city of Piranshahr in northwest Iran where the regime’s forces, including IRGC units, are opening fire on defenseless people. Activists are reporting many have been injured and there could be fatalities among those wounded. A video provided from inside Iran shows the regime’s security forces directly aiming and shooting at defenseless people.
People in the city of Bushehr also took to the streets on Monday morning and began rallying outside the regime’s provincial governor’s office and chanting “Death to the dictator!” in reference to Khamenei. Regime security forces opened fire and used tear gas on their ranks.
In Miandoab of northwest Iran protesters attacked a regime administrative building whose authorities have been permanently closing the shops of those store-owners who have been on strike recently.
In Marvdasht, people participating in the funeral of Arman Emadi, a protest killed by the regime’s security forces, began chanting anti-regime slogans, including: “We will fight and take back Iran!” and “The IRGC is our ISIS!”
Cities in many parts of Iranian Kurdistan, including Saqqez, Kamyaran, and Marivan are seeing merchants and store-owners continue their general strike against the mullahs’ regime and in solidarity with the nationwide uprising. Students at various universities in Sanandaj, Tehran, Tabriz, Hamadan, and Sari are also boycotting their classes, according to incoming reports.
November 21 – Saqqez, western #Iran
Locals are on strike and continuing the nationwide protests against the regime on the 67th day of the uprising.#IranRevolution2022#اعتصابات_سراسری pic.twitter.com/O6OIkvgQWf— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 21, 2022
At the same time, students held protest rallies in several cities, including Tehran, Sari, Sanandaj, Shiraz, and Hamedan. In Shiraz, the students of University of Arts made paper boats and painted them in red in memory of the protesters killed by the regime’s security forces. In Sanandaj, the students of Kurdistan University expressed their solidarity with the people of Javanrud by chanting,
“Javanrud is not alone! Sanandaj supports you!”
Meanwhile, reports indicate that the situation continues to grow grave in Javanrud and Piranshahr. Several videos show civilians shot with live ammunition. The people of the city of Kermanshah have rushed to blood banks to make blood donations to be sent to treat the wounded in Javanrud.
November 21 – Javanrud, western #Iran
More footage of today's massacre by the regime's security forces against defenseless locals.#IranRevolution2022#جوانرود pic.twitter.com/vYAT090VOn— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 21, 2022
Protests continued late into the night in several cities. In Tehran, protests were reported in several districts, including Andishe, Niavaran, Jannat Abad, and Chitgar. Protests also continued in Kurdish cities despite the regime’s brutal crackdown, including in Sanadaj, Javanrud, and Piranshahr. In many cities, protesters expressed their solidarity with the people of Iran’s Kurdish cities.
November 20 – Tehran, #Iran
Chitgar district
Locals chanting: "Mahabad and Kurdistan are the pride of Iran!"#IranRevolution2022#كردستان_تنها_نیست pic.twitter.com/sU0mGcScnl— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 21, 2022
Late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, local activists were reporting sounds of explosions through the night in the cities of Marivan, Baneh, Saqqez, and Bukan of Iran’s Kurdish regions. Several drones were reportedly flying over the city of Bukan. At 3 am local time five massive explosions were reported in Bukan and two similar explosions in Saqqez. Further reports indicate the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) were using helicopters to dispatch its armed units into Mahabad, many of which were immediately deployed into the city’s streets.
Activists were reporting that at 5 am Sunday morning security forces began storming people’s homes in Bukan, arresting the residents, and stealing their money, jewelry, and even their mobile phones. Store-owners and merchants in most of Iran’s Kurdish cities are on strike, protesting the regime’s ongoing and unbridled crackdown measures.
On Sunday merchants and store-owners in many cities once again closed their shops in a general strike throughout the country. This included Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province, and Mahabad, Oshnavieh, Piranshahr, Sardasht, Baneh, Marivan, Divandarreh, Saqqez, Qorveh, Bijar, Kermanshah, Paveh, Javanrud, Kamyaran, Ilam, and Nikshahr in Sistan & Baluchestan Province, among others.
Students at numerous universities were also protesting the regime’s crackdown measures by boycotting them and taking to the streets in anti-regime rallies. This included Kurdistan University in Sanandaj where the professors also joined the movement, the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Khajeh Nasir Toosi University and Allameh Tabataba’i University in Tehran, the Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, the Islamic Azad University of Rasht, the Islamic Azad University of Sari, Marvdasht University, Yazd University, the Kharazmi Faculty of Psychology, the Iran University of Science and Technology, and the University of Science and Culture.
High school students in Shahin Shahr of central Iran and Mehrshahr, west of Tehran, were also protesting on Sunday and chanting slogans against the mullahs’ regime.
People in various cities took to the streets in support of their compatriots in Mahabad and other cities under siege on Sunday by the regime’s military and security forces. Such rallies were reported in Bukan and Tehran’s Abuldabad district where people began establishing roadblocks and taking control of their districts.
After the military siege on Mahabad, locals in several cities held protest rallies and expressed their solidarity with the people of Mahabad. Rallies were reported in Tehran, Karaj, Dashti, Kamyaran, and Saqqez, where protesters chanted slogans such as “Mahabad is not alone” and “Mahabad and Kurdistan exemplify all of Iran!”
Nightly protests were also reported in several cities, including Isfahan, Karaj, Sardasht, Marivan, and Urmia. In Paveh and Javanrud, the regime’s security forces opened fire on unarmed civilians.
Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi condemned the regime’s deadly crackdown in Mahabad and other cities while calling on the international community to take swift action to prevent the bloodshed.
“I urge the United Nations Security Council and the European Union to take immediate measures to stop the ruling regime’s massacre of the people of Mahabad, including comprehensive political-economic sanctions, blacklisting of the IRGC and Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and the expulsion of their operatives and agents,” she emphasized.
“Having failed to stop Iran’s protests, the regime has marshaled armored vehicles and helicopters. Inaction towards this war crime and crime against humanity by a terrorist, warmongering regime not only tramples human rights but jeopardizes world peace and security,” the NCRI President-elect explained.
I urge the UNSC, EU, to take immediate measures to stop the ruling regime’s massacre of the people of #Mahabad, including comprehensive political – economic sanctions, blacklisting of IRGC and MOIS, & expulsion of their operatives and agents.pic.twitter.com/eaDNtnu1zh
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) November 20, 2022
The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.
She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.
