The protests, which were sparked on September 16 after the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in police custody, show no signs of abating. On Thursday, protesters burned police stations and vehicles in several cities. This comes as anti-regime protests spill over into cyberspace, with videos of women burning their hijabs going viral. Other women have posted emotional videos of themselves cutting their hair in protest under the hashtag #Mahsa_Amini. Mahsa Amini was arrested on September 16 for allegedly wearing a hijab headscarf in an “inappropriate” manner. Activists said the woman, whose Kurdish name is Gina, had suffered a fatal blow to the head, a claim denied by officials, who have announced an investigation. Police continue to maintain that she died of natural causes, but her family suspects she was beaten and tortured. Iran’s state media reported that by Wednesday street protests had spread to 15 cities, with police using tear gas and making arrests to disperse crowds of up to 1,000 people. In southern Iran, footage purported to be from Wednesday showed protesters setting fire to a giant effigy on the side of a building of General Qassem Soleimani, the revered commander of the Revolutionary Guards who was killed in a 2020 US strike in Iraq. Protesters threw stones at security forces, set fire to police vehicles and bins and shouted anti-government slogans, the official Irna news agency reported. On Thursday, Iranian media reported that three militiamen “mobilized to deal with rioters” were stabbed or shot in the northwestern city of Tabriz, the central city of Qazvin and Mashhad in the country’s northeast. A fourth member of the security forces died in the southern city of Shiraz, Iranian news agencies said, adding that a protester was stabbed to death in Qazvin, adding to six protester deaths already announced by officials. Iranian authorities have denied any involvement in the protesters’ deaths. Protesters flood a street in Tehran. Photo: EPA Amnesty International said it had recorded the deaths of eight people – six men, one woman and one child – while four were shot by security forces at close range with metal pellets. The protests are among the most serious in Iran since the November 2019 unrest over fuel price hikes. “Internet blackouts should be understood as an extension of the violence and repression that occurs in the physical space,” said Azadeh Akbari, a cybersurveillance researcher at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. “Social media is essential for mobilizing protesters, not only for coordinating rallies but also for enhancing acts of resistance. “You see a woman standing without her hijab in front of the riot police, which is very brave. If a video of it comes out, suddenly it’s not just one person doing it, but women in all different cities are doing the same thing.” “Women, life, freedom,” the words heard at Amini’s funeral, were echoed by protesters across the country, including in a video showing young women burning their hijabs while male protesters battle security forces. The video has received over 30,000 views on Twitter. A woman cut off her ponytail in front of the Iranian embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. Fueled by social media, the anger has spread to cities around the world. Photo: Erdem Şahin/EPA In a different video, an Iranian woman sings a hymn to fallen youth as she cuts her hair with household scissors, which has garnered more than 60,000 views. “[The videos] they are one hundred percent valuable,” a young Iranian Twitter user told the Guardian, adding that while the protests had not reached her city, she was able to participate in opposition activities online. “I am sorry that my compatriots in other parts of Iran have taken to the streets and are fighting against this regime for all our rights. And I can’t do anything but share information online.” He added that videos showing police brutality against protesters are motivating people in various cities to take action. “It is very difficult for the regime to control the videos that come out. Many people don’t post them on social media but circulate them in WhatsApp groups, etc. Demonstrations take place simultaneously in cyberspace and in physical space.” Social media has long been one of the key tools for counter-insurgency activity, as public spaces are closely policed by security forces. “Platforms like Instagram have become the virtual avenue where we can gather to protest, because it was not possible to do that in real life,” said Shaghayegh Norouzi, an Iranian anti-gender violence campaigner living in exile in Spain. Norouzi said that while she was able to keep in touch with activists in Tehran, she feared future internet blackouts and what they could mean for activists’ safety. “During the last demonstrations [2017-2019], the government shut down the internet for days at a time. During this time, protesters were killed and arrested,” he said. “Protesters are also using the internet to organize themselves. They can call and say when they are in danger or warn each other.” Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps called on the judiciary to prosecute “those who spread false news and rumours” in a statement released on Thursday. Amini’s death came amid a government crackdown on women’s rights. On August 15, Iran’s hardline president Ebrahim Raisi signed a decree that, among other measures, increased punishment for women who post anti-hijab content online. At the same time as targeting women’s rights, Akbari says the government is tightening its cyber regime. It is feared that the ongoing internet blackout could be used to facilitate the expansion of Iran’s national internet, which is cut off from the rest of the world. “This is a very dangerous plan, which would see the regime completely cut off Iran from the global internet in the near future,” he said. “This would allow the regime to control cyberspace along with policing physical space and develop an all-powerful control mechanism.”
