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Iranian security forces arrested the journalist who first reported the death of Mercer Amini over the weekend, amid nearly two weeks of protests in the country.
“The regime has failed to quell the protests, which have now spread to all provinces of the country,” said Saeed Ghaseminejad, senior Iranian and financial and economic adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracy. told Fox News Digital. “Protests that began in front of a hospital in Tehran where the soul of Martha Zina Amini left her body after being beaten by the Guidance Patrol, also known as the Morality Police, have turned against her native Kurdistan. spread, and from there the country.”
“Protests sparked by Masa’s murder by morality police tasked with imposing Sharia law on Iranians, especially Iranian women, will soon move beyond the hijab issue to overthrow Iran’s Islamist regime. It has united people in the struggle for the cause,” added Ghasemenejad, who was born and raised in Iran.
News of journalist Niloofar Hamedi’s arrest began circulating on social media Wednesday evening local time as her friends and family tried to raise awareness. Hamedi’s attorney, Mohammad Ali Kamfirouj, said he was working to keep his client’s detention status up to date and to release her.
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Kamfirouzi said authorities also suspended his client’s Twitter account.
Protests began at the funeral of 22-year-old Amini after she died in moral police custody, which she claimed had only fallen into a coma after her arrest. Instead, she said she saw evidence that the police had beaten her.
Protesters are demanding an end to the strict Sharia laws enforced by the Moral Police and other violations of women’s rights in the country.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has warned protesters that his regime will act “decisively” to end the violence as people on the streets demand his dismissal and possibly his death .
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“Iran’s brave people are now taking to the streets across the country to protest the brutal murder of an innocent 22-year-old girl who only showed part of her hair,” said Foreign Desk. Editor-in-Chief Lisa Dufftali told Fox News.Digital. “It’s been called a feminist movement or a movement for women’s rights, but it’s changed to a movement for total freedom.”
Some reports claim the protests have spread to 156 cities, killing 240 people and arresting more than 12,000, but Fox News Digital could not confirm these figures. At least 76 people were killed and more than 1,200 arrested, sources said.
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On September 22, Secretary of State Anthony Brinken announced sanctions on the moral police and seven Iranian security officials for Iran’s actions.
But Daftali argued that the United States could do more, urging leaders to send a clear and unified message in support of the protesters.
“Every time Iran’s brave men take to the streets, there may be different triggers that lead them there, but the slogan you hear and the central message of their movement is always the same.” She said, “They want the end of this regime and the abolition of the mullah theocracy.”
“The Iranian people are telling the world that, rather than an isolated incident, this is not just a passing incident, but a systemic atrocity that has endured for 43 years under this regime.”
Iran accuses US, EU of involvement in supporting nationwide protests
Dakhtali and Gasemenedjad also called on President Biden to end negotiations with Iran on a nuclear deal that would return funds to the regime in exchange for a promise to slow the development of nuclear weapons technology. It is causing greater chaos in the Houthis and the Middle East.
“The Biden administration should stop negotiating with the administration. We have a plan and want to annihilate our allies,” Ghaseminejad said.
“The United States can impose sanctions on those involved in the murder of Iranian citizens and should not issue visas to regime officials we know alive and their families. [a] A luxurious double life in America,” he added.
MEK’s current leader, Mariam Rajabi, has praised the Iranian people’s “courageous” protest against the regime led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and said the people, especially women, would “wipe out Khamenei’s dark rule”. claimed.
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“The Iranian people are keeping the UDHR alive by resisting a regime that tramples on basic human rights,” Rajabi posted on Twitter following the first week of protests. “I urge the international community to condemn the clerical regime and support the protesters.”
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.