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Feeling the heat, Iranian hard-liners are distancingthemselves from the government's fuel price hike.

The government announced Nov. 15 an important decision affectingdaily life in Iran: the rationing of gasoline and a subsequent increase in gas prices. Iranians have bitter memoriesof fuel price hikes.They considerit tantamount to a deterioration in their quality of life. Increases in gas prices have always led to increases in the costs of food and other necessities.

The government announced the price hike at midnight on Friday, while most people were asleep. The announcement caught people off guard. The public wasnt prepared to face it, and it caused outrage and anger. The timing of the announcement possibly designed to alleviate the exasperation and to prevent protests ultimately was not effective.

Meanwhile, the hard-liners launched an onslaught against the government, portraying President Hassan Rouhanias the man behind the people's misery, further provoking public irein order to possibly take down the incumbent president. State TV, controlled by hard-liners, also added fuel to the fire, urging people to turn away from Rouhani.

As the protests gain momentum, the institutions and organizations under hard-linercontrol distanced themselves from the fuel price hike. In a Nov. 16 statement, the influential Expediency Council addressed the people, saying that the council's secretary and chairman have never spoken in favor of raising gas prices. Yet the decision to raise fuel prices was made by the Supreme Council of Economic Coordination, formed upon the orderofSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The heads of the council judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, parliamentary speaker Ali Larijaniand Rouhani, among others all favored the hike.Despite knowing this, the hard-liners sought to evoke disillusionment among the public on Rouhani and Reformists ahead of the 2020 parliamentary elections. The same council had also tasked state TV to persuade people on the "logic" behind the hike.

Khamenei's throwing his weight behind the council's decision didn't end the attacks on Rouhani. YousefTabatabaiNejad, thehard-line Friday prayer leader inEsfahan,addressed the government Nov. 22, saying,Why do you say the gasoline price hike won't lead to a rise in other things prices? Hard-line cleric Alireza Panahian also lashed out at Rouhani and Reformists, stating Nov.22,It is not clear who decided to raise the gasoline price. However, the protests grew bigger than the hard-liners had predicted, reaching at least 100 locations in the country,which was unprecedented in the past 40 years.

The recent protests are different than the protests of 2009,when people took to the streets after Reformistpresidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi declared that the ballots were rigged. Those protests had leaders and political goals. The protesters demands went beyond holding an election redo they targeted the political system itself. The 2019 events have no leader or specific goal.Nonetheless, the slogans were much harsher in 2009 than today.

The 2019 protests are an expression of deep-rooted anger and pain. The most important factor behind the protests is the dire economic situation,leading people not being able to make their ends meet, that followed the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and the governments mismanagement of the economy.The US embargo on Iranian oil sales the government's main source of revenue is what prompted Rouhani to raise gasprices to compensate for the budget deficit. Before the United States reimposed sanctions, Iran's economy had actually started to recover.

Apart from US sanctions, Iranians'rage has intensified as they witnessed more corruption scandals and increasing inequality. Adding to the pain and rage was the hard-liners campaign to disclose and magnify to some extent Reformists' and moderates' corruption.The hard-liners didnt realize that the public's distrust of Reformists and moderates didn't equate to a hard-liner victory. Many Iranians totally disagree with hard-liners on several issues,including restrictions on social and political freedoms, and would never join them.

The hard-liners campaign against Reformists hashad an alarming impact, as seen in recent protests.The protesters believe that neither hard-liners nor Reformists can represent them. Their distrust in both camps has grown. Thats why today's protesters have no leader, while in 2009 they pinned their hopes on Reformists like Mousavi and the late Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whoboth acted as the opposition leaders.If the political establishment does not address the public's anger and demands, such protests will likely be triggered in the future over issues as basic as an increase in the price of eggs.

Sensing the trouble, the hard-liners are striving to find new faces for their camp to gain votes and popularity. Hard-line cleric PanahianstatedNov.22, No, we arent [part of the] Principlists," which is the name of the hard-line current in Iran. "We only think about the results. Don't let people[affiliate us] with Principlism. A statement fromprominent hard-line figureGholam-AliHaddadAdelclearly demonstrates how hard-liners are strivingto ride the public wave of anger. He said Nov. 23 that hard-liners are concentrating on how to solve people's economic troubles, emphasizing that prominent "economists" will be on their forthcoming electoral tickets.

Nonetheless, the hard-liners' attempts are in vain. Putting on new clothes, choosing new candidatesand even distancingthemselves from Iran's dire economic situation won't prompt Iranians who have lost all hope in Reformists to think of hard-liners as their new saviors.

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Iran How Iran's hard-liners tried to ride wave of protests - Al-Monitor

Paris, London and Berlin on Saturday welcomed six new European countries to the Instex barter mechanism, which is designed to circumvent US sanctions against trade with Iran by avoiding use of the dollar.

As founding shareholders of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (Instex), France, Germany and the United Kingdom warmly welcome the decision taken by the governments of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, to join Instex as shareholders, the three said in a joint statement.

The Paris-based Instex functions as a clearing house that allows Iran to continue to sell oil and import other products or services in exchange.

The system has not yet enabled any transactions.

Washington in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the international agreement governing Irans nuclear programme and reinstated heavy sanctions against Tehran.

The addition of the six new members further strengthens Instex and demonstrates European efforts to facilitate legitimate trade between Europe and Iran, the joint statement said.

It represents a clear expression of our continuing commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal the trio added.

They insisted Iran must return to full compliance with its commitments under the deal without delay.

We remain fully committed to pursuing our efforts towards a diplomatic resolution within the framework of the JCPoA.

The 2015 deal set out the terms under which Iran would restrict its nuclear programme to civilian use in exchange for the lifting of Western sanctions.

Since the US pullout, Iran has taken four steps back from the accord.

The latest was on 4 November, when its engineers began feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into mothballed enrichment centrifuges at the underground Fordow plant south of Tehran.

See the rest here:
Six more countries join Trump-busting Iran barter group - The Guardian

What are you scared of? the woman in the black coat shouts. Help me to understand. She marches up to a man in uniform guarding the petrol station. Youre ruining us, she screams, as the man walks away.

The exchange comes from footage taken around 1am on Friday 15 November in the south-central Iranian city of Shiraz. Hours earlier, in a surprise announcement, Irans government had said it was raising the price of fuel by up to three times, adding to the strain on a population already struggling with an economy suffocated by US sanctions.

The petrol-price hike would trigger what may have been the largest-scale unrest in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic. Iranian officials this week estimated 200,000 people were involved in the protests and riots which led to 7,000 arrests and, by some estimates, the regimes deadliest-ever response to demonstrations. Amnesty International have confirmed 15 deaths in Shiraz; those on the ground say the toll is much higher.

Like the rest of Iran, Shiraz was cut off from the world by an unprecedented five-day internet blackout. Precisely what transpired in the heartland of Persian culture known as the City of Roses is still unclear.

But interviews with activists inside and outside Shiraz, as well as analysis of social media posts, give a glimpse of what is thought to have been one of the largest protest outbreaks in the country, incurring one of the highest known death tolls.

Before the woman in the black coat leaves the petrol station, she turns to the other drivers in line, exhorting them to park their cars in the middle of the roads to protest the price increase. On Saturday, whoever is a real man will park their car in the middle of the street, she declares from the door.

By Saturday morning, people were heeding the woman and others calling for mass civil disobedience. At least one major road in Shiraz had become a parking lot. People are protesting and have blocked the streets completely, says a voice, surveying the sea of cars in both directions in an industrial area of the city. Drivers gather in groups outside their cars, chatting. The vehicles curve along the palm-lined road to the edge of the frame.

As the day went on, protesters were pouring into the streets of outer-lying areas across the city, according to activists. Social media footage shows significant unrest in at least six spots. The two most prominent incidents were in the suburb of Sadra and on Maliabad Boulevard, a long thoroughfare of banks and retailers that cuts across northern Shiraz.

The rallies were peaceful, and at first, so was the state response. Footage shows demonstrators applauding as police in riot gear are handed flowers. Protesters say they sat in groups on the road, chanting and playing cards.

Later, a protester would record a voice message to the US-based Iranian activist Masih Alinejad, reflecting on the morning. Everything was going well and people were all smiling and happy, he said. I saw people giving roses to the police, the first days was very peaceful and it was all good. Even the police were fine.

It did not last. Footage that activists believe was shot on Maliabad Boulevard the same day appears to show security personnel charging through crowds, sending people fleeing. Clouds of what appears to be tear gas can be seen forming.

There also appears to have been rioting: a video said to have been shot in the city shows fires burning in several spots, a handful of shops gutted, and the road scattered with paper and debris.

The youth has no future in this country with these thieves in power, a protester tells Alinejad in a voice recording heard by the Guardian. They couldnt take it anymore and they were full of rage. They took things to another level.

Things started to escalate when the police started to beat people up. We had to make our weapons to defend ourselves and that was it. It was all because we had to defend our lives.

The protesters, including many from working-class neighbourhoods, brawled with security personnel in some areas, using nails pushed through bottle caps as makeshift spikes to puncture the tyres of police motorcycles and cars.

At some point that afternoon, the police started shooting. Activists have posted footage from Saturday that shows gunshots going off near a Maliabad Boulevard police station.

This is Shiraz and the armed forces are firing at the people, says a man filming outside the police station in another clip. He pushes his way through a chanting crowd, who surround a bloodied man on the ground. It is Mehdi Nekouyee, 20, the first person confirmed to have been killed in Shirazs protests.

Because the internet was cut, Nekouyees family overseas first learned of his death when someone inside Iran wished them condolences on social media. [Mehdi] was quiet, very open minded, his uncle remembers. He wanted freedom, freedom of speech.

Nekouyees killing enraged the demonstrators. Activists say the protesters began to hurl rocks at the police station, tearing at its fence. By Saturday evening, the building was said to be alight.

They were firing live rounds and tear gas, but people were really courageous and did whatever it took, a mans voice said in another recorded message sent to Alinejad. We asked the people who were burning things [to stop], we dont know who they are, but people are full of rage and no one could stop them.

It is really bad and everyone is running for their lives, and the armed forces have no mercy and I couldnt believe they were people from the same homeland It was a violence that Ive never seen before.

Throughout Saturday and the next day, demonstrations were erupting in different parts of the city. Golshan, a suburb in Shirazs north-west that is home to many members of the Qashqai minority group, became a war zone, one activist with contacts in the city said. Security forces entered with heavy weapons and helicopters. All roads into the area were closed from Saturday until the following Tuesday, he said.

Protesters appear to have remained in control of Sadra for most of the weekend. On Sunday 17 November, demonstrators appear to have set fire to the office of the senior imam in the area, a direct attack on the countrys clerical establishment.

Activists say the response to the arson was swift and included helicopters swooping over the crowds, firing bullets and tear gas, a tactic reported in several areas and filmed in Sadra.

Ruhallah Gashgaei, an activist with links inside Shiraz, said an accurate death toll was still impossible to ascertain, but the average of several independent eyewitness accounts was that 60 were killed across Shiraz and an additional nine died in the suburb of Sadra. More information would emerge as different parts of the city were brought online, he said.

By Monday 18 November, the regime appeared to have retaken control of most of Shiraz. Images taken last Sunday and sent to the Guardian showed the city still scarred by the conflict, littered with debris and burned out cars.

An activist in Shiraz estimated 80 bank branches and seven petrol stations had been set alight across the city. Police and Revolutionary Guards are carrying out raids of homes and hospital wards, arresting suspected protesters. The countrys supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has blamed the unrest on a deep, vast and very dangerous conspiracy concocted by Irans enemies overseas.

Last night Shiraz was under the control of Shirazs people, said a protester in a voice message to Alinejad. What [the authorities] say about controlling the situation is all nonsense. The weather changed and became very cold even God is with these people [the regime].

Yes, we survived, a woman says in one of the recorded messages. I saw two people getting shot next to me. Since Monday there has been a military curfew, there are [paramilitary] Basij officers all over the place. They were really scared and with every slight sound they were reacting strangely.

Activists estimate the death toll in Shiraz to number in the dozens, but have not yet been able to provide proof. An Amnesty International report this week increased its confirmed death count across the country to 143. The Iranian government rejects this figure but has not provided its own.

Everyone took to the streets, I was really hopeful that things would change, one of the recordings to Alinejad said. For two days Shiraz was under the control of the people, but nothing bad happened. There was complete peace. It was such a great thing that people had the control over the city. I could see how the country would look like if we take power.

Translations by Mohammed Rasool

More:
Blocked roads then bullets: Iran's brutal crackdown in its City of Roses - The Guardian

Beyond the shadow of a doubt, the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei bears the highest responsibility, followed by President Hassan Rouhani, for the order to use deadly force against people who poured into the streets to protest an unexpected overnight three-fold increase in gasoline prices on November 15.

Based on the Islamic Republic Constitution, Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), presided over by the President, oversees countering anti-establishment protests and dealing with national political crises. The SNSC, assisted by the country's National Security Council (NSC), has access to all tools needed for suppressing widespread demonstrations.

The Constitution stipulates that, at the time of national unrest, SNSC decides the methods and tools required for controlling anti-regime rallies.

Furthermore, SNSC is able to deploy all military forces, including the members of the police, the regular army, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, as well as the militia and armed plainclothesmen to end all protests with an iron fist. The "supreme council" also has the authority to decide on the type of weapons, including aircraft, tanks, and RPGs, that might be used against the protesters.

The country's National Security Council (NSC), headed by the Minister of Interior, Abdol Reza Rahmani Fazli, is practically a subdivision of the SNSC, implementing its guidelines.

Meanwhile, the head of the SNSC, the country's President, may delegate to the head of NSC to preside over the supreme council (SNSC) on his behalf.

That's what happened almost immediately after the widespread anti-regime demonstrations that broke out on November 15. The Interior Minister, assigned by the President, took control of the SNSC to take steps for controlling the fast-expanding protest movement.

As the caretaker of the SNSC, Rahmani Fazli decided on November 16 to shut down the internet across Iran to prevent protesters from linking-up with each other as well as being able to freely upload footage of the unrest and circulate it on social media all over the world.

Although it is still unclear if the SNSC, under Rahmani Fazli's temporary leadership, endorsed opening fire at protesters, Rouhani's responsibility in the recent massacres remains a fact.

Above Rouhani, the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is also responsible for the brutal suppression and killing of protesters since he has the last word on major national affairs, without being accountable to anyone.

Article 176 of the Islamic Republic Constitution stipulates that the Supreme Leader is the leading authority in Iran, and none of the SNCS' rulings and decisions are implementable without his blessing and confirmation.

Therefore, Ayatollah Khamenei is directly responsible for the shutdown of the internet across the country and killing dozens of people who merely protested the shocking hike in gasoline prices.

Furthermore, Khamenei is responsible also because he is commander-in-Chief of Irans armed forces.

Based on Article 110 of the Islamic Republic Constitution, the armed forces that fired at demonstrators and killed dozens were merely obeying orders issued by the Supreme Leader.

Following Khamenei and Rouhani, nearly thirteen other civil and military officials are also responsible for the recent bloodshed and detention of thousands.

These include all members of the SNSC; its Secretary the IRGC Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, the representative of the Supreme Leader to the influential body Saeid Jalili, the members of the NSC, the speaker of Majles (parliament) Ali Larijani, the head of the Judiciary Ebrahim Raeesi, the head of Plan and Budget Organization Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the Interior Minister Abdol Reza Rahmani Fazli, the Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Minister of Intelligence Mahmoud Alavi, the Commander of the General Staff of Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic, IRGC Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri (Bagheri), and the Chief Commander of the IRGC Major General Hossein Salami.

According to Article 176 of the country's Constitution, the Chief Commanders of the regular Army and the IRGC are not fixed members of the SNSC but attend its sessions on affairs related to their duties.

Meanwhile, the role of several SNSC members in suppressing protesters and anti-regime demonstrators is more crucial than their counterparts. For example, the Minister of Interior Rahmani Fazli played a decisive and direct role in shutting down the internet, placing more pressure on the protesters.

Moreover, the governors across Iran are also directly under the Interior Minister's command, implementing his orders.

It also goes without saying that parallel intelligence apparatuses, notably the IRGC's, have always played a decisive role in killing and detaining thousands of people who dare to challenge the clergy-dominated ruling establishment.

Continued here:
The Joint Responsibility Of Khamenei And Rouhani For Deaths Of Iran Protesters - Iran News By Radio Farda

Untitled, from the series Slow Decay. Gohar Dashti hide caption

Untitled, from the series Slow Decay.

What or where is home? Is it a place or a people, a feeling or a memory, a reality or a fantasy?

Those questions are at the heart of My Iran: Six Women Photographers, an exhibition on display at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., through Feb. 9, 2020. All the photos were collected separately by the Sackler Gallery, one of the Smithsonian Institution's Asian art museums, and came together only for this showing. Much of the photographers' work has been displayed previously in Europe but rarely in the United States.

My Iran showcases the works of six female Iranian photographers Hengameh Golestan, Newsha Tavakolian, Shadi Ghadirian, Malekeh Nayiny, Gohar Dashti and Mitra Tabrizian and their attempts to express the psychological condition of the Iranian people and state 40 years after the Islamic Revolution. At their heart, the works seek to capture the deep divides, geographic and philosophical, between Iranians at home and abroad.

A Long Wait, from the series Border. Mitra Tabrizian hide caption

A Long Wait, from the series Border.

In the wake of the Islamic Revolution, many Iranians fled their homeland for a variety of reasons: their Western backgrounds or education, which were now suspect; liberals who opposed the Shah of Iran; men fleeing the draft for the Iran-Iraq War; women and children seeking greater opportunities outside the restrictive regime. However, just because they left does not mean they do not miss home.

"Those who live in Iran tend to idealize life in the West, and those who live outside long for 'home,' " Tabrizian says in one of the exhibition's captions. "But what both groups have in common is the will to survive."

Some of the first images in the show are meant to invite you into this head space. The first is a video created by Tavakolian, a 38-year-old Iranian-based Magnum photographer and documentarian who has contributed to Time, National Geographic and The New York Times. The same shoot also provided a photograph for the collection, one that showcases a young woman almost engulfed by the tentacle branches of a bone-white dying tree.

Somayeh, from Blank Pages of an Iranian Photo Album. Courtesy of Newsha Tavakolian/Magnum Photos hide caption

Somayeh, from Blank Pages of an Iranian Photo Album.

The woman looks down, wrapped in a maroon coat and teal hijab, clutching a brown handbag. Her face is blank and still, statuesque in its lack of emotion but also suggesting an undercurrent of resilience. "What I hope is that they [the works] visualize a generation marginalized by those speaking in their name," Tavakolian said in a statement to the Sackler Gallery.

The clock then rewinds 40 years with the next series of photographs, shot by Golestan (born in 1952), one of the first prominent women photographers in Iran. The photos come from her Witness 1979 series. The seven pictures are among the few images taken on the last day women were permitted in public without wearing a hijab March 8, 1979.

Untitled, from the series Witness 1979. Hengameh Golestan hide caption

Untitled, from the series Witness 1979.

Golestan captures the swell and fervor of the crowd. "In those days, during the revolution, I was thinking, 'Whatever I see in the streets, it's my responsibility to show it to other people,' " Golestan said in an interview.

One visual stands out a woman captured mid-speech in front of a small crowd. It's a powerful symbol of protest and defiance.

Untitled, from the series Witness 1979. Hengameh Golestan hide caption

Untitled, from the series Witness 1979.

"It's Iran that I want to know and I want to take pictures of," Golestan said. "Because in a way I feel responsible for it. ... It's my own country and my own people, and since I was a child, I've seen what's going on."

Time distorts across the exhibition as photographers Nayiny and Ghadirian draw inspiration from Iran's photographic history to play with contemporary identity. Ghadirian, who currently works in Iran, offers a series of images captured in 2000 but shot in the style of 19th-century Qajar-era photography. She juxtaposes the women with simple yet highly verboten signs of the contemporary world around them. A Pepsi in hand is the smallest embrace of rebellion.

Untitled series. Shadafarin Ghadirian hide caption

Untitled series.

Nayiny's work may hit even closer to home one of her main subjects is her family. In one particular sequence, the Paris-based, Parsons School-educated artist pairs portraits of her parents, taken in snapshots over their lifetimes, with some of their valued possessions. Values and ideals morph as father and mother age and adapt to the times and surroundings they live in.

Images from the series Observation. Malekeh Nayiny hide caption

Images from the series Observation.

In the center of all these is a portrait of Nayiny's parents on their wedding day, shot in the carte de visite style of the 19th century and superimposed on a background of postage stamps depicting a stylized diagram of the human heart. The color stands out against the black-and-white images around it.

Untitled, from the series Observation. Malekeh Nayiny hide caption

Untitled, from the series Observation.

In another series, Tavakolian attempts to create a "family photo album" but the images neither are of her family nor are they labeled. In one series, the haunting shot of an abandoned playground leads into the image of a young couple embracing each other as they look to their horizon. She arranges such snapshots of people and places in and around Iran to reflect the tears she observes in the fabric of Iranian society.

An image from Newsha Tavakolian's "family photo album." Courtesy of Newsha Tavakolian/Magnum Photos hide caption

An image from Newsha Tavakolian's "family photo album."

A woman is shown teaching her class of young girls, all clad in conservative dress, while in another photo, a young man walks through a crosswalk wearing a tie a symbol of the West that's culturally disdained by the revolutionary government.

In Dashti's portraiture, the subjects gaze in shell shock at the lens, cut off from others around them and even their surroundings. Dashti sought to express the lasting aftereffects of the Iran-Iraq War on the people who lived through it she grew up during the conflict, which lasted from 1980 to 1988.

Untitled, from the series Iran, Untitled. Gohar Dashti hide caption

Untitled, from the series Iran, Untitled.

Tabrizian explores the tension between Iranians in Iran and those in exile. She photographs the exiled but chooses to set them in surroundings that leave their status ambiguous to a viewer. It's her way of expressing the pain of exile and the strange state of being "in between" two cultures.

"What each narrative implies," Tabrizian wrote in an email, "is the notion of 'waiting' used as a metaphor to indicate both the bleakness of the situation i.e. the futility of waiting (things may never change, certainly not in a near future) and a more esoteric reading of not having any 'home' to return to, even if things will eventually change."

A Deadly Affair, from the series Border. Mitra Tabrizian hide caption

A Deadly Affair, from the series Border.

That notion of "home" is extremely powerful for the individuals in Tabrizian's photographs, but it can also be felt in many of the images in the exhibition. At some level, each photo asks a question about how ideas of home animate Iranians in Iran and abroad. Can they recognize or accept their home, or is there some greater ideal they long for?

"If we think about home as a fixed origin, we all know that doesn't exist that's a fantasy," Tabrizian later said in a phone interview from London. "But the fantasy has a real effect. ... For me, it's not like romantic fantasy, but it's more like the fantasy which is essential to the construction of identity."

Excerpt from:
'My Iran' A Show Of Photography And Video By 6 Women Contrasts Memory And Reality - NPR