It’s not exactly standard teenage hijinks. They’re not toilet-papering the Muslim cleric’s house or leaving a flaming bag of dog poop on his porch. But there’s a new game being played by Iranian teenagers that is sweeping social media and being imitated in every corner of the country.
The game involves running up behind a cleric, knocking his turban to the ground, and running away before anyone can catch the perpetrator.
These are some of the videos of #TurbanThrowing movement that I have received from #Iran. Iranians throw turbans of Shiite clerics aka Mullahs as an act of protest to 43 years of religious dictatorship in their country.#Mahsa_Amini #مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/aUD2Hclk3c
— Babak Taghvaee – The Crisis Watch (@BabakTaghvaee1) November 5, 2022
If you really want to know why knocking off turbans of clerics has become a sport in Iran, just watch this video, then you will understand their anger the teenagers. For years clerics have been harassing women in the streets for hijab.#MahsaAmini
pic.twitter.com/vbbAjr0Avy— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) November 6, 2022
In act of defiance to theocratic
fascism and many years of ideological suppression, many people have started to toss and flip mullah's
turbans in Iran. #IranRevolution #iran #مهسا_امینی #Oplran #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/xBl5RwRkVS— برای ایران (@ManBarayeIran) November 6, 2022
Meanwhile, the protests show no signs of abating and, in fact, have picked up momentum in recent days after another Iranian woman was beaten to death by the regime’s Morality Police.
Iranian PhD candidate Nasrin Ghaderi, 35, who was studying philosophy in Tehran died on Saturday after being beaten by security forces with baton during Friday protests.
Under the regime's pressure, however, her father announced today she died of flu and underlying disease. pic.twitter.com/R9QgSzLMRQ— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) November 6, 2022
IHR said on Saturday that at least 186 people have been killed in the crackdown on the Mahsa Amini protests, up by 10 from Wednesday.
It said another 118 people had lost their lives in distinct protests since 30 September in Sistan-Baluchistan, a mainly Sunni Muslim province in the south-east, presenting a further major headache for the regime.
IHR said security forces killed at least 16 people with live bullets when protests erupted after prayers on Friday in the town of Khash in Sistan-Baluchistan.
The violence by the regime is most intense in Sistan-Baluchistan and Kurdistan where the protests are ethnically based. Both the Baluchis and Kurds have been agitating for independence for generations and are using the unrest nationwide to press their cause. The regime’s response has been brutal, as evidenced by the live ammunition being used indiscriminately.
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Meanwhile, Iranian lawmakers issued a call for protesters to be beheaded, calling them “enemies of God.”
The Iranian regime has so far charged several people with ‘moharebeh,’ “corruption on earth,” “assembly and collusion against national security” and “confrontation with the Islamic Republic” for participating in the protests.
Describing the current wave of popular protests as “riots,” the MPs claimed that “the US and other enemies” are inciting violence, organizing rallies, and providing financial support and weaponry to commandeer the protests. They also said “thugs and mobs” have killed tens of people and disrupted the security of the country.
The population is still relatively unarmed. And while the revolution that overthrew the Shah was mostly bloodless, that coup happened because the army refused to fire on protesters.
That won’t be a problem for the fanatically loyal Revolutionary Guards. And despite the oppression, a large plurality of the population still supports the clerical fascist dictatorship and agrees with the Iranian Majles that protesters should be beheaded.
Change will come very, very slowly to Iran.
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