10 Pieces of Art From Iranian Protests and the Stories Behind Them
10 stories from a real-life dystopia
The people of Iran have been fighting for freedom non-stop since September 16th. People in the streets are facing the regime’s bullets, tear gas, shocker, and batons bravely while shouting “woman, life, freedom.” At the same time, Iranian artists keep creating new pieces to either tell the stories of the regime’s brutality or the people’s bravery. I have chosen 10 of the most important stories which are in my idea, extremely heart-breaking and at times, inspiring.
Please keep in mind that I’m not the artist of any of these pieces. I will be sourcing the photos to their artists’ Instagram page and writing their stories afterward.
1. Hossein Ronaghi is an Iranian freedom activist and blogger who has dedicated his life to the fight for freedom, especially freedom of the internet, media, and speech. He was arrested for his activities in 2009 and was kept in such horrible condition in prison that he developed kidney failure. In the next ten years, he was arrested on different occasions and spent more than six years in prison. He was arrested again in February 2022 during which he lost a kidney due to the lack of medical care. He was released after a while but was rearrested on September 22nd due to his activity during the Mahsa Amini Protests. Under the torture of interrogators, both his legs have been broken and one of his fingers dislocated. However, the authorities still refuse to seek medical care for him. Both of the lawyers who tried to defend him have been arrested as well. Moreover, shortly after his arrest, Hossein went on Hunger Strike and his life is in imminent danger.
2. The woman in the picture is Gohar Eshghi holding a photo of his son, Sattar Beheshti. Sattar was a blogger who was arrested and tortured to death in 2012 for criticizing the regime. Despite all the threats, arrests, and even being beaten by the regime’s forces near her son’s grave, she never stopped showing her disapproval towards the regime. On October 18th, she unveiled herself on the camera in support of young protesters and asked them not to give up on their fight for freedom.
3. Fatemeh Sepehri is a single mother and a brave political activist. Despite being sentenced to years of imprisonment and hundreds of lashes, she has never stopped talking against the dictatorship. In 2019, along with 14 other activists, she wrote a letter to Iran's supreme leader, aka dictator, telling him he should be ashamed of all his crimes and retire from being a supreme leader. She is also one of the many religious women with full hijab who have always spoken against compulsory hijab. On September 21st, she was arrested again for her support of the latest protests and she’s been in solitary imprisonment ever since.
4. Niloofar Hamedi was the first journalist who went to the hospital where Mahsa Amini passed away to reveal the truth about her death and prevent the government from covering yet another crime, as they always do. She was arrested on the 22nd of September. Niloofar and Elahe Mohammadi, another journalist who covered Mahsa Amini’s death, have been charged with espionage, a crime punishable by death. the government believes the only reason anyone can be curious about the suspicious death of an innocent woman is being a spy directly trained by the American government! After all, as George Orwell said:
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
5. On October 15th, Evin prison where all political prisoners including activists, journalists, bloggers, and protesters are held, was burning in fire for hours. During this time, the sounds of many explosions and shootings could be heard from the prison. At least 8 prisoners were reported dead and more than 60 were injured. Despite the government’s denial, the majority believe the fire was started by the guards.
6. On October 2nd students were taking part in a protest on the campus of Sharif university when security forces blockaded the university and started shooting at the students. At least 40 students were arrested and many were injured. Similar incidents have happened before for the protests at the University of Tehran as well. In 1999 security forces attacked protesting students, killed 5 of them, and arrested at least 100 of them. Again in 2009 they attacked the protesting students, killed 7 of them, and arrested many.
PS, while I was writing this article, the same tactic has been used for several other universities in different cities and students' lives are in danger.
7. On September 30th known as “Bloody Friday” there were some protests in the city of Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan which is a deprived province with oppressed religious minorities. After the protests, the security forces started shooting at people while they were saying their prayers. More than 90 people were killed including, 7 children, and more than 300 people were injured. The man in the picture, KhodaNoor Lejei was one of the victims of the shooting. When he was taken to the hospital after the shooting, the regime’s forces threatened and prevented the hospital from giving him medical care and left him to bleed to death. the picture is from a few months before his death when he was arrested, beaten, tortured, and then tied to a pole as a humiliation just because of his religious and political beliefs.
8. Many high school and middle school students have joined these protests. They take down the dictator’s picture from their classrooms, tear up his picture from their school books (his picture is on the first page of every single book), and take off their scarves which they have been forced to wear since they were 6 years old. The main chants used by students are “woman, life, freedom”, “we don’t want Islamic regime” or “Khamenei is a murderer, his rule is expired”. Schools are organizing many events run by mullahs or the security forces to indoctrinate them; which are all being faced with even more protest chants. Some schools are even threatening these teenage students with rape and torture. Many schools started checking students' books to see if they still have the dictator's picture intact. Security forces attacked several schools and beat and arrested many of these young girls. They even beat a 15-year-old girl to death near her school. Most recently, they also beat a 14-year-old girl to death after realizing that her books were missing the dictator’s picture on the first page.
9. On October 9th, Sanandaj the capital of Kurdistan, the province of the oppressed ethnic minority of Kurds, was under heavy military attack. They were shooting at the people both in the streets and even at the homes of the suspected protesters. At least 26 were killed including a few children and more than 140 were injured.
10. Jadi MirMirani is a computer programmer, translator, blogger, and podcaster. He is a strong advocate of free media and is against the regime’s control over people’s access to the internet and the digital world. He was arrested on October 5th.
