NCRI – The Iranian regime’s State Security Forces (police) used tear gas to attack a crowd of mourners that had gathered after the death of a pop singer in the city of Mashhad.
A state-run news agency said: “Residents of Mashhad have not been able to attend any concert in the city and if they want to participate in a concert they should travel to other cities. However the residents of the city held a memorial for a pop singer to show that the restrictions imposed upon them have not had any result.
“We should not forget that Morteza Pashaei was only 30 years old and he was not yet as famous as some big names in the music world. Many only heard of him after news of his illness and death was published. However, and without any provocation by the news media, a trend began that shows which direction the country is going in.
“This event shows that the restrictions imposed by the regime on social networks are basically useless. As in this case, restrictions imposed on musicians have not succeeded in making people indifferent towards music and musicians.
“The social networks once again showed their power. Gatherings were held in a number of cities without any announcement broadcast by the state TV and Radio networks and without any call by official institutions on the people to attend such gatherings. People who were connected to social networks held this memorial for Pashaei.
Iranians under the rule of the repressive clerical regime, use every opportunity in the country to hold gatherings, despite the continuous crackdown by the mullahs who fear any weakness on their side would endanger their despotic rule.
Often protests that begin over a non-political issue instantly turns to political ones with people chanting for the end of the mullahs’ rule.
In March this year, residents of a northern province held a number of public gatherings to protest at the broadcast of a TV series by the Iranian state-run broadcaster. They protested at the broadcast of ‘Pay-e Takht 3’, a series that many people find offensive.
In February, thousands of Iranians from the Bakhtiari tribes staged a mass protest in a number of cities in anger at a TV series broadcast on a state-run network that they said was racist and insulting to their people.
The series entitled ‘The Old Land’ is a history of Iran from the 1940s to the mullahs seizing power in 1978. But the Bakhtiari claim it distorts historical facts about their tribes. The protest led to clashes with State Security Forces and hundreds were arrested. The Iranian regime was then forced to take the TV series off air.