Building up pressure on Iranian regime: three days strike called on by protesters
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Roshan Amiri
- . December 5, 2022
- . Update: December 5, 2022 3:50 pm
Protesters across Iran have called for a three days strike in order to continue to ramp up the pressure on Iranian regime as the reports about nation’s “morality police” being shut down still remain unconfirmed. The call by protesters, led by women, has stepped up pressure on Iranian authorities.
On this weekend, the attorney general said that the morality police had been shut down. There has been no confirmation about the closure from the interior ministry, that is in charge of the morality police. The Iranian state media added that the attorney general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, was “not responsible for overseeing the force” The morality police of Iran, that went by name Gasht-e Ershad or “Guidance Patrol”, was founded during the presidency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – a hardline leaders – with aim to “spread the culture of modesty and hijab”.
The protests across Iran were triggered in September when 22 year old Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini was killed in custody after she was arrested by the morality police in Tehran for not wearing the hijab properly. The protesters have met with violent crackdown from the regime but no force has been able to bend the resolve of protests, mainly led by women. Protesters, in attempt to ramp up the pressure on Iranian regime have called for a three day economic strike and a rally in Tehran’s Azadi Square on Wednesday.
Read | Iran’s actions lessen the prospect of nuclear deal revival: US envoy
Addressing the situation in Iran, Rob Malley, the US special envoy on Iran, said that Iran’s leadership has locked itself into a “vicious cycle” with violent crackdown on the protests. “The more Iran represses, the more there will be sanctions; the more there are sanctions, the more Iran feels isolated,” Malley said.
The more isolated they feel, the more they turn to Russia; the more they turn to Russia, the more sanctions there “will be, the more the climate deteriorates, the less likely there will be nuclear diplomacy. So it is true right now the vicious cycles are all self-reinforcing.”
