A major three-day national strike called by demonstrators who have been protesting against the regime for months began in Iran on Monday, with the intention of putting pressure on the regime itself. The strike, which is one of the most impressive acts organized in these months of protests, is involving thousands of shopkeepers, students and workers in about 40 Iranian cities. Since Monday, videos of dozens of cities have been circulating on social networks in which the shops are mostly closed, with the shutters down. Truck drivers have also protested these days, which has increased the feeling of blockage.
دوشنبه ۱۴ آذر؛ تهران.#اعتصابات_سراسری #مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/uBb2K3qdji
— +۱۵۰۰تصویر (@1500tasvir) December 5, 2022
However, it is very difficult to understand how participatory the strike really is, in the absence of reliable information from Iran. It is also possible that at least some of the shopkeepers decided to close their businesses not so much in solidarity with the demonstrators as out of fear that the shops would be involved in the clashes and violence.
The Iranian regime he claims that the shopkeepers have closed their activities because they were threatened by the “rioters” demonstrators, even if judging by the extent of the general strike it seems extremely unlikely.
دوشنبه ۱۴ آذر؛ خمین.#اعتصابات_سراسری #مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/bT05ybpRe3
— +۱۵۰۰تصویر (@1500tasvir) December 5, 2022
Posters have been hung in the streets of many Iranian cities inviting everyone to join the strike, which aims to increase the pressure on the regime that governs the country as much as possible. In recent months, similar mobilizations had led to large and violent clashes between demonstrators and the police.
In the meantime, confusion has continued for several days in Iran on the question of the abolition of the religious police, i.e. the body that is responsible for enforcing the strict rules of religious morals and decorum in force in Iran and which has been at the center of protests in recent months . Over the weekend an important exponent of the regime had announced his dissolution, but his statements were not followed by any official action, on the contrary: for now the religious police has not been dismantled and it is not at all clear whether it will be in the future.
Others in the regime, as well as the state media, have refused to say whether or not the religious police will be dismantled, but the reformist newspaper Hammihan he wrote on Monday that in cities outside the capital Tehran his presence has, if anything, been strengthened in recent hours.
However, it remains possible that the regime is preparing some kind of reform of the religious police, even if it is not clear if and how it will be implemented: what is certain is that there will be no major concessions to the demonstrators. For example Ali Khanmohammadi, spokesman for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which deals with the application of religious edicts, he said Monday that the era of the religious police is over, but that Islamic customs and morals will be enforced in other, more “modern” ways.
The elimination of the religious police has been one of the objectives of the protests since the beginning, which began in mid-September after a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, died after being arrested by the moral police for not wearing the veil correctly. Over the months, however, the protesters had greatly expanded their demands, starting to call for the end of the regime and the establishment of a democratic system.
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