Demonstrators gather outside facility at centre of political row over conditions and dangerous overcrowding
Hundreds of people have held a protest in the rain outside Manston detention centre in Kent to demand its closure.
Demonstrators from Action Against Detention and Deportation chanted and banged metal pots outside the site in Thanet, which has been at the centre of a political row after it became dangerously overcrowded.
Continue reading...Movement against country’s regime sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death keeps going in face of crackdown
New protests erupted in Iran on Sunday at universities and in the largely Kurdish northwest, keeping a seven-week anti-regime movement going even in the face of a fierce crackdown.
The protests, triggered in mid-September by the death of Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly breaching strict dress rules for women, have evolved into the biggest challenge for the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.
Continue reading...Protest by People’s Assembly campaign group will also call for action on the cost of living crisis
Thousands of people are expected to hold a demonstration in London on Saturday, demanding an immediate general election, as well as action to combat the worsening cost of living crisis.
Trade unions and community organisations will take part in the protest, which will include a march around parliament, said its organisers, the People’s Assembly campaign group.
Continue reading...Detained students could face death penalty, human rights groups report, with at least 277 people killed as protests enter eighth week
Iran’s security forces have launched a series of attacks on university students at campuses across the country with dozens of students being arrested, according to the Students’ Union of Iran.
According to student organisations and human rights groups, the attacks on universities intensified this week as young people gathered to mark 40 days since Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran’s morality police in September. The death of the 22-year-old woman sparked eight weeks of nationwide protests against the regime. The highly symbolic 40th day traditionally marks the end of mourning.
Continue reading...Activists fear for their safety after limited UK riposte to assault on demonstrator outside Chinese consulate
Hong Kong migrants who fled repression by China said they fear for their safety and are calling on the UK government to take a bolder stance after a pro-democracy protester was beaten in the grounds of a Chinese consulate two weeks ago.
The assault in Manchester drew swift condemnation from activists and politicians across the Commons as videos circulated showing a senior Chinese diplomat forcefully grabbing a pro-democracy protester’s hair before the protester was wrestled to the ground and beaten by a group of men.
Continue reading...Friends of twice jailed human rights activist call for independent inquiry after body found in damaged wetsuit at Base G beach, Jayapura
The human rights campaigner Filep Karma – one of West Papua’s most famous former political prisoners – has been found dead on a beach in Jayapura, sparking calls for a full and independent inquiry into his death.
Twice jailed for raising the West Papuan Morning Star flag banned by Indonesia, 63-year-old Karma was one of the most prominent and influential campaigners for West Papuan independence.
Continue reading...The country’s judiciary says those marching against the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini will be tried
Iran’s judiciary has announced that it will hold public trials for as many as 1,000 people detained during recent protests in Tehran alone – and more than a thousand others outside the capital – as international concern grew over Iran’s response to the protests that began with the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he was shocked by the number of innocent protesters who were being illegally and violently arrested. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has already announced that she is to ask the European Union to sanction the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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