As Iran protests flare up again, woman in Tehran says students are brave to demonstrate after bloody crackdown

As IranAs the new academic year began over the weekend, large-scale protests broke out at several universities – the first sustained campus unrest since the bloody clerical regime. nationwide repression in December and January.

The Virginia-based Human Rights Activist News Agency said more than 7,000 people have been confirmed dead, while the whereabouts and safety of more than 11,000 others are unknown.

The new outbreaks, which began on Saturday, openly challenge the government to crack down on dissent once again, even as the final death toll from the previous wave of violence has yet to be made official, with Tens of thousands feared dead. Now, for the third day in a row, student protests have broken out.

“They’re not stupid, they’re brave,” said one anti-government protester News themezone was able to contact in Tehran. “Because, as you see in the protests in the universities, there is the flag of the sun and the lion and they sing ‘Javid Shah’. For both elements there is the death penalty and imprisonment. So they are brave to do this. They are not stupid.”

The politically charged phrase “Javid Shah” means “Long live the Shah.” He refers to Iran’s last monarch, Mohammed Reza Palavi, who was deposed during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Within Iran – and in demonstrations abroad – a vocal monarchist movement has been defending his son, Reza Pahlavito assume leadership if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the clerical establishment fall.

At universities in Iran there have also been pro-regime demonstrations and at least one violent confrontation between opposing groups. The protester who spoke to News themezone said speaking out risks prison or death. But with so many protesters killed, she said she feels guilty for still being alive.

“I’m so ashamed, I’m like a human, so ashamed that other people go out into the streets and get killed, and I’m alive right now,” she said. “That’s why I want my pain to be a voice for my people.”

He said he was among many Iranians who protested last month in the country’s 31 provinces and nearly 200 cities. On January 8, in Tehran, he said: “I saw people lying in the streets because they were shot. They were dead.” The next day, he said, “I witnessed a girl being shot twice and I was so scared I came home.”

“Our biggest fear is to witness this regime come back into power, so we go and protest again and again,” he said.

The protester asked not to be identified for fear of government reprisals. On camera, he covered his face and eyes with a scarf and dark sunglasses. News themezone verified that she was in Iran. Sunlight streamed into the room where she was sitting. She also showed a live news program showing the current time in the country and said she and many Iranians are closely watching the major US military buildup in their region.

“I want to see a military intervention in Iran,” he said.

The most advanced American aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar over the weekend and is now in the Mediterranean Sea, approaching the Middle East. The Ford and its strike group of cruise missile destroyers, littoral combat ships and likely at least one submarine joined the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying ships, which have been in the region for nearly a month, creating what officials describe as the largest US military concentration in the Middle East since the 2003 Iraq war.

“I feel very hopeful. I’m not afraid at all,” the protester said. “I feel happy about the change that the United States is bringing here. I want God to start a war here. I am not a person with war interests, but in this situation, we have no other chance.”

He said that if there is a US military intervention in Iran, he believes “a lot of people will come out” to protest and try to overthrow the regime.

And with President Trump preparing to deliver his State of the Union In her speech Tuesday night, she had a message for him and hopes he has one for Iran.

“President Trump, you told us help is on the way,” he said. “You promised us that you would help us get through this. They don’t stop the executions in Iran. Today 11 people were executed. Keep your promise and help us.”

He said he does not want negotiations between the US and Iran and called the Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “a terrorist.”

The next round of indirect conversationsmediated by Oman, is scheduled to take place on Thursday in Geneva.