Latest update – 10:35 pm CET
Iran’s nationwide uprising is marking its 155th day following an intense night of massive anti-regime protests by people across the country who were marking the 40th day of the executions of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini, two protesters arrested for their roles in the ongoing Iran revolution rallies against the regime. Protesters in dozens of cities and towns took to the streets in major protests that continued well into the night as people were calling for overthrowing the mullahs’ regime and establishing a new government based on freedom, democracy, and human rights.
People throughout the country are specifically holding the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.
Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 647 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.
Protesters in the city of Khash in Sistan & Baluchestan Province, southeast Iran, began their weekly Friday protests today by taking to the streets and chanting “Death to Khamenei!” Iran’s Baloch community have been continuously protesting and demonstrating against the mullahs’ dictatorship and the regime’s cruelty towards the entire country, especially their people in this heavily impoverished province.
People at the weekly Friday prayer in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan & Baluchestan Province, were seen holding placards, one calling for the release of political prisoners. Members of the Baloch community in the city of Galikesh in northeast Iran are also rallying and demonstrating today, and continuing to protest the regime’s oppression and apprehension of their local religious leaders.
The demonstrators have braved all odds for today’s protests, especially as the regime has dispatched a large number of security forces missioned to prevent anti-regime protests.
A similar protest rally was held in Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province in western Iran on Friday where demonstrators in the streets were chanting “Death to Khamenei!” People are angry as regime security forces have apprehended a number of their local religious leaders.
February 17 – Khash, southeast #Iran
Protesters are chanting: "Death to Khamenei!"#NO2ShahNO2Mullahs#مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبرpic.twitter.com/ry7p8EnmNo— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 17, 2023
Thousands of freedom-loving Iranians and supporters of the Iranian opposition coalition NCRI, and its cornerstone member the PMOI/MEK, rallied in Munich, Germany, outside the annual Munich Security Conference.
Several political figures and members of the German Bundestag attended the rally and delivered speeches supporting the Iranian people’s demands for freedom and democracy. The event shed more light on the growing international support for the Iranian people’s uprising and the Iranian opposition.
In this rally, freedom-loving Iranians and supporters of the Iranian Resistance showed their growing solidarity with the brave men and women protesting on the streets of Iran for a democratic and secular republic. The demonstrators also emphasized on the Iranian people seeking a democratic republic and rejecting any kind of dictatorship, be it the mullahs or a return to that of the Shah’s regime.
On Friday night, locals in Tehran’s Ekbatan, Narmak, and Apadana districts, and the city of Isfahan in central Iran, began chanting anti-regime slogans despite the cold winter conditions. The slogans included:
“Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“Death to the Basij!”
February 17 – Tehran, #Iran
Locals in Ekbatan district are chanting:
"Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!"
"Death to the dictator!"
"Death to the Basij!"#No2ShahNo2Mullahs #مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبر pic.twitter.com/3wRBGbQoVe— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 17, 2023
Protesters in various parts of Tehran and other cities, including Mashhad, Sanandaj, Shiraz, Karaj, Qazvin, Arak, Izeh, Ahvaz, Khorramabad, Rasht, Yazd, Javanrud, and Qorveh were taking to the streets on Thursday night. The people wewre responding to calls for protests marking the 40th day of the regime’s executions of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini.
February 17 – Shiraz, south-central #Iran
1:45 am local time
Intense scenes of anti-regime protests. Activists say authorities used bleach and other acidic liquids in the water trucks.#IranRevolution #مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبر pic.twitter.com/NnGWbM0AbG— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 17, 2023
Protesters were starting fires and establishing roadblocks to prevent the regime from dispatching its forces. There are also reports of regime security forces attacking tonight’s demonstrators, especially those in the capital, Tehran.
Protesters in city streets across the country are chanting different slogans, including:
“Death to Khamenei!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“This is the year Seyed Ali (Khamenei) is overthrown!”
“Khamenei is a murderer! His rule is illegitimate!”
“My martyred brother, I will avenge your blood!”
“Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!”
“We don’t want an Islamic state!”
“We will fight and take back Iran!”
“We swear on our compatriots’ blood that we will stand to the end!”
Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi hailed the people of Iran for their anti-regime protests tonight.
“I salute the heroic people of Iran who have taken to the streets with ever-greater determination for the regime’s overthrow, chanting “Freedom” and “Death to Khamenei.” Iran’s protests are ongoing in dozens of districts in Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan, Sanandaj, and Mashhad,” the NCRI President-elect highlighted.
I salute the heroic people of Iran who have taken to the streets with ever-greater determination for the regime’s overthrow, chanting “freedom” and “death to Khamenei.” #Iranprotests ongoing in dozens of districts in #Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan, Sanandaj, and Mashhad.#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/lpamMbQYd4
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 16, 2023
In various parts of Tehran and the town of Eshtehard in Alborz Province, just west of the Iranian capital, regime authorities were busy dispatching security units backed by anti-riot guards in anticipation of anti-regime protests later on Thursday. Authorities have also been using schools in various parts of Tehran, including Sa’adatabad, to station their security forces prior to today’s anti-regime protests. Similar measures are being implemented in the country’s northwest as activists are reporting that authorities are dispatching security forces from Urmia to Mahabad.
Turmoil was also reported from Tehran’s Molavi market (bazaar) following the continuous nosedive of the national currency, the rial.
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.
