Category Archives: Protest

Coldplay perform Iranian protest song Baraye by arrested singer

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British band joined on stage by exiled actor Golshifteh Farahani to sing protest song by Shervin Hajipour as Buenos Aires concert broadcast in 81 countries

An Iranian protest anthem that has become the soundtrack to the national uprising was again thrust into the international spotlight over the weekend when Coldplay performed a cover and broadcast it live around the world.

The British band played the song, Baraye, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday and Saturday night at the start of their world tour, with the exiled Iranian actor Golshifteh Farahani on stage and singing in Farsi.

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Cop27 protesters will be corralled in desert away from climate conference

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Visitors to Sharm el-Sheikh also face extensive searches and video surveillance in taxis

Across Sharm el-Sheikh, a slim strip of manicured resorts, asphalt and concrete near the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula, teams of workers are putting the finishing touches to preparations for the UN’s Cop27 climate conference.

Sparkling new buses are ready to drive down the enlarged highways that cut across desert landscape, flanked by smooth shiny new walkways adorned with angular sculptural arches. A field of glittering solar panels run by a company with ties to the Egyptian military will be online in time for the conference, as well as a new shopping mall.

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Protesters attacked near Iranian embassy in Berlin

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People at pro-democracy vigil were beaten and threatened at gunpoint by unknown assailants, say police

Protesters holding a pro-democracy vigil outside the Iranian embassy in Berlin were beaten and threatened at gunpoint by unknown assailants over the weekend, German police have said.

An officer guarding the building saw three men with face coverings tear down flags and banners reading “Iranians want democracy” and “Women Life Freedom” from a caravan parked in Dahlem district, in the capital, at just after 1am on Sunday morning.

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Mapping Iran’s unrest: how Mahsa Amini’s death led to nationwide protests

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Interactive map shows spread of demonstrations over five weeks after woman’s death in custody

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death in custody on 16 September of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin who had been arrested three days earlier for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code for women. This interactive map shows how protests spread between 16 September and 21 October, fuelled by public outrage over a crackdown that has led to the deaths of other young women and girls. Now in their seventh week, the protests show no sign of ending.

Methodology

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Iranians hold large rallies in defiance of warning by Revolutionary Guards head

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Raids on student campuses spark protests despite threats made by chief of security force about response to further unrest

Thousands of Iranians have demonstrated in defiance of a final warning by the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) that he would bring protests to an end with unprecedented force.

Rallies were held on the streets on Sunday to protest against raids on student dormitories over the weekend in which students were taken away in buses to state detention. Some were sent text messages saying they were banned from campus indefinitely.

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Iran accuses journalists who reported Mahsa Amini’s death of spying for CIA

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Spying charge levelled at Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi carries death penalty as Tehran seeks to suppress running protests

Two female journalists who were instrumental in reporting the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman whose death in the custody of Iran’s morality police has sparked nationwide protests, have been labelled as CIA foreign agents by the Iranian regime.

Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who were arrested shortly after news broke of Amini’s death and who are reportedly being held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, were accused of being foreign agents in a joint statement released by Iran’s ministry of intelligence and the intelligence organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards last night.

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Iran: Revolutionary Guards chief tells protesters today is last day on streets

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Hossein Salami’s tough language raises fears security forces may be about to intensify crackdown on unrest

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has told protesters that Saturday will be their last day of taking to the streets, in a sign that security forces may intensify their crackdown on unrest sweeping the country.

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, in the custody of the morality police last month, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

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Iran: deaths reported as security forces open fire on protesters in Zahedan

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Crowds in Mahabad also fired on during rally held after funeral of protester Ismail Mauludi

Iranian security forces have opened fired on protesters in Zahedan a month after a massacre that killed scores of people in the restive south-eastern city.

Crowds were also fired on in Mahabad, another city with a long history of resistance against the regime, in renewed deadly violence at the end of the sixth week of unrest sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini on 16 September.

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Iran protests reignite at funerals and commemorations for those killed

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Protesters turn out in dozens of towns and appear to take control of largely Kurdish city of Mahabad

Protests against the Iranian government have suddenly regained momentum as funerals for those killed and a highly emotional commemoration of the movement have stretched security forces drawn into a further cycle of arrests and repression.

Dozens of towns were rocked by protests on Wednesday night as mainly young crowds used the cover of darkness to mark the 40th day since Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died in police custody, sparking unprecedented unrest.

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Iran’s security forces reportedly open fire as thousands mourn Mahsa Amini

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Teargas also used against protesters gathered in home town of 22-year-old Kurdish woman, says rights group

Iranian security forces have clashed with protesters who had gathered in their thousands in Mahsa Amini’s home town to mark 40 days since her death, with reports that shots were fired.

“Security forces have shot teargas and opened fire on people in Zindan Square, Saqqez city,” Hengaw, a Norway-based group that monitors rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish regions, tweeted without specifying whether there were any dead or wounded. It said more than 50 civilians were injured by direct fire in cities across the region.

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Protesters defy crackdown at universities across Iran

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Tension mounts as ceremonies marking 40 days since Mahsa Amini’s death expected to take place on Wednesday

Students have protested at universities across Iran, defying a bloody crackdown as tensions mount on the eve of planned ceremonies marking 40 days since Mahsa Amini’s death.

“A student may die but will not accept humiliation,” demonstrators chanted at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, in an online video verified by AFP.

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Peter Tatchell stopped in Qatar while staging LGBT+ rights protest

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Incident outside National Museum in Doha comes less than a month before start of men’s football World Cup

The human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has been stopped by police in Qatar while staging a protest against the Gulf state’s criminalisation of LGBTQ+ people.

Tatchell’s protest outside the National Museum of Qatar in the capital, Doha, comes less than a month before the start of the Fifa World Cup, which is expected to attract 1.2 million visitors from around the world.

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Iranian security forces fire teargas as girls clash with staff at Tehran school

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Unverified footage shows armed police firing at least one canister after staff attempted to inspect students’ phones

Iranian security forces fired teargas outside a girls’ school in Tehran when clashes broke out after staff attempted to inspect students’ mobile phones amid ongoing anti-government protests.

Iran’s Ministry of Education said several students were treated by emergency services for a drop in blood pressure, but denied that security forces had entered the school.

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Climate activists throw mashed potatoes at Monet work in Germany

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Two protesters pelt painting with potatoes and glue their hands to wall at Museum Barberini in Potsdam

Claude Monet has become the latest artist to be the focus of food-related climate protests, after members of a German environmental group threw mashed potatoes over one of his paintings in a Potsdam museum on Sunday.

Nine days after Just Stop Oil emptied tomato soup over Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London, two activists from Letzte Generation (Last Generation) entered the Museum Barberini and doused Monet’s Les Meules (Haystacks) with potato before glueing their hands to the wall.

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Protest strikes in Iran reported as solidarity rallies held around world

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Iranian shopkeepers and factory workers said to be on strike as 80,000 protesters in Berlin hear calls for sanctions

Shopkeepers and factory workers reportedly went on strike in Iran on Saturday as women-led nationwide protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini entered a sixth week and solidarity rallies were held around the globe.

The death of 22-year-old Amini, after her arrest for allegedly breaching Iran’s strict dress code for women, has fuelled the biggest protests seen in the Islamic Republic for years.

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Thousands of London protesters call for UK to rejoin EU

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Anti-Brexit rally sees crowds from across UK waving EU flags and blaming Britain’s crises on departure from union

Thousands of protesters have marched through central London calling for the UK to rejoin the EU.

The national rejoin march on Saturday saw large crowds of people walk from Park Lane to Parliament Square. Marchers from across the UK travelled for hours to attend.

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Almost 12,500 people arrested in Iran protest crackdown, says rights group

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Families struggle to contact relatives as opposition calls for movement to focus on plight of thousands in jail

Almost 12,500 people have been arrested and nearly 250 killed since the street protests began in Iran, according to a prominent human rights group, with thousands of anxious families struggling to make contact with loved ones who have gone missing and presumed to be in jail.

The news came as the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Maj Gen Hossein Salami, said security forces were close to snuffing out the remaining protests. He said: “Sedition is going through its last moments.”

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Dozens dead in Chad capital as security forces fire on protesters

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‘Rebels’ accused of setting fire to ruling party HQ during demonstrations calling for faster democratic transition

Security forces in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, have violently dispersed banned protests calling for a quicker transition to democratic rule, leaving at least 50 dead and dozens injured, according to the country’s prime minister.

Palls of black smoke could be seen in some areas in N’Djamena and the crack of teargas grenades could be heard throughout much of the day. Several roads had been blocked with barricades and burning tyres and most shops closed their doors to avoid looting.

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Ministers urged to expel China diplomat over Manchester protest violence

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UK government facing growing criticism for ‘weak’ response to attack on democracy campaigner

British ministers have been urged immediately to expel a senior Chinese diplomat who admitted being involved in violence against protesters in Manchester, as the government faced growing criticism over its “weak and supine” response.

Zheng Xiyuan, the Chinese consul general, said it was his “duty” to grab the hair of a pro-democracy campaigner who was badly injured after being dragged inside the consulate grounds on Sunday.

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Protester condemns ‘barbaric’ attack in Manchester outside China consulate

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Bob Chan backs calls for UK government to expel any Chinese officials involved in peaceful protest

A pro-democracy protester who appeared to be beaten up by men from China’s consulate in Manchester has condemned the attack as “barbaric” and backed calls for the UK government to expel any Chinese officials involved.

Speaking for the first time since the incident, which was captured on video, Bob Chan said: “I’m shocked and hurt by this unprovoked attack,” adding he had been taking part in a “peaceful protest”.

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