THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS
UPDATE: 8:00 PM CET
Iran Uprising at a Glance
Based partially on reporting by PMOI (MEK) Network in Iran
Saturday, April 8, 2023 – 8 PM GMT + 1
- Days: 205
- Protests: 282 cities
- Fatalities: 750+ estimated deaths, 675 identified by MEK
- Detentions: 30,000
Iran’s nationwide uprising is marking its 205th day on Saturday as the mullahs’ regime escalates its measures to both crackdown on dissent across the country and install rifts among various sectors of the society.
MEK-affiliated Resistance Units portrayed a large image of Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi in the city of Dehdasht, Kohgiluyeh, and Boyer Ahmad Province, in southwest Iran at 9:15 pm on Thursday night.
April 8 – Divandarreh, western #Iran
Footage from the city's Khomeini Hospital following two chemical gas attacks launched by regime operatives targeting schools.#IranChemicalAttacks pic.twitter.com/W0k7if2jwd— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 8, 2023
They carried out a series of activities in memory of 36 MEK members killed by the Iranian regime’s proxies in Iraq on April 8, 2011, in Camp Ashraf of Iraq. MEK Resistance Units members in Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz, Shiraz, Isfahan, Karaj, Rasht, Turkaman Sahra, Semnan, Lahijan, Gorgan, Shahroud, Kazerun, Bandar Abbas, Ardabil, Ilam, Astara, Zahedan, and Sabzevar gathered to commemorate the MEK martyrs and pledge to continue their struggle to establish a free and democratic Iran.
Also, MEK-affiliated Resistance Units and defiant youths across Iran launched a series of measures against the mullahs’ regime in recent days.
Defiant youth targeted sites associated with the mullahs’ regime, the IRGC, and Basij paramilitary units.
April 8 – Pardis, Tehran Province, #Iran
More footage of the aftermath regime operatives launching a chemical gas attack targeting the all-girls Khayam School.#IranChemicalAttacks pic.twitter.com/tXu1fPTf54— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 8, 2023
Defiant youth targeted a so-called “Khomeini Relief Committee” site in Hamadan, western Iran. These committees associated either with the mullahs or the IRGC, plunder and steal people’s money and resources.
Defiant youth also torched IRGC paramilitary Basij bases in the cities of Arak and Amol, central and northern Iran, respectively.
They set fire to the office of Khamenei’s representative in the city of Kuhdasht, western Iran, and torched the office of the IRGC paramilitary Basij – Student Branch in Amol, northern Iran.
April 8 – Ardabil, northwest #Iran
Regime operatives launched a chemical gas attack targeting the all-girls Me'raj School.#IranChemicalAttackspic.twitter.com/lAKXZ2CAGr— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 8, 2023
MEK-affiliated Resistance Units torched large posters of Khamenei, regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini, and the eliminated IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani in the cities of Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, and Tonekabon.
They also torched large banners associated with the regime’s Intelligence Ministry in the city of Salmanshahr in Mazandaran Province, northern Iran, and a pro-regime propaganda billboard of the mullahs’ mandatory hijab rules in Amol, northern Iran.
In another development, several schools in different cities were targeted in a new string of chemical gas attacks by regime operatives. The list includes the all-girls Khayam School in Pardis of Tehran Province; two different attacks in the city of Divandarreh in western Iran; the Khalaban Zaker School and all-girls Me’raj School in Ardabil in northwest Iran; and the all-girls Sa’adi School in Urmia in northwest Iran.
According to reports by Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, the all-girls Shahed and Fadak schools in the city of Naqadeh in northwest Iran have also been targeted in chemical gas attacks by operatives of the mullahs’ regime.
Nurses in Mashhad, northeast Iran, held a gathering on Saturday morning protesting the regime’s unjust policies that are delaying and decreasing their paychecks and pensions.
UPDATE: 3:00 PM CET
Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei Signals Regime Split
Has the ongoing insurrection in Iran, now into its seventh month, exposed glaring splits in the theocratic regime? In his Nowruz (Persian New Year) address to the nation, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the elderly and increasingly delusional Supreme Leader, insisted that the main priority of the theocratic regime was to fight inflation. Unveiling his concept of ‘The Year of Curbing Inflation,’ he indirectly acknowledged that his country is bankrupt, but failed to offer any way of resolving the perilous state of the Iranian economy. His mumbled remarks may have disappointed his hard-line followers, who prefer to hear pledges to “wipe Israel off the map” or cries of “death to America,” and have little appetite for economic reforms. But splits and divisions amongst the mullahs are now the trademarks of this failing fascist regime.
UPDATE: 9:30 AM CET
Intentional and Criminal Poisoning of Female Students Resumes After Nowruz Holidays
After the Nowruz holiday ended on April 3, the poisoning of students, especially girls, resumed. According to the State-run Rukna website, on April 4, 78 students were poisoned. “In one of Naqdeh schools, about 50 students suffered poisoning symptoms and were taken to the hospital and hospitalized,” said the general director of the regime’s education in West Azarbaijan, IRNA news agency reported on April 4.
On April 4, the IRNA news agency quoted the head of the emergency department in Tabriz as saying that “20 girls’ school students in Baghmisheh town of Tabriz were taken to the hospital due to poisoning.” On the same day, the Rukna website reported, “On April 4, Isfahan Medical Sciences reported that the number of poisoned students in the Daulatabad area of Isfahan is still unknown. The sick students have been taken to the hospital.”
Regime’s Disastrous Economic Policies Lead to New Protests in Iran
Different cities across Iran witnessed teachers taking to the streets yet again to protest their poor living conditions as a result of the regime’s destructive economic policies or lack thereof. More people from various sectors of Iran’s society are once again voicing their anger over high inflation, skyrocketing prices of basic goods and services, unemployment, corruption, and the regime’s unjust policies. People throughout Iran continue to specifically hold the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.
Fariba Zandekarimi, a Freedom-loving Teacher, Is Arrested
Fariba Zandekarimi, a freedom-loving teacher, was arrested by the intelligence department of Sanandaj after being summoned for questioning. The arrest occurred on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, and was followed by a raid on her home, although the exact reasons for her detention remain unclear. Despite efforts by her family to gain information on her whereabouts, no further details have emerged. Fariba Zandekarimi, 35, is a contract teacher employed by the Education Department of Sanandaj and known for her activism in support of freedom.
From Yogurt Buckets to Flogging: Iran Mullahs’ Coordinated Efforts To Enforce the Hijab
In recent months, the Iranian regime has intensified its campaign to impose the compulsory veil on women. There’s been a coordinated effort by various government officials and agencies to promote the hijab as a legal requirement and label its removal as a threat to national security. The mullahs intensified their measures against opponents of the mandatory hijab in March. Businesses that served opponents of the hijab were shut down during the Nowruz holidays, and security personnel prevented access to airports and historical sites.
Unveiling Genuine Alternatives to the Mullahs’ Regime” in 2023
In the midst of the nationwide uprising with the sudden growth of opportunism, we were faced with some exported celebrity figures who presented themselves as alternative, reformist, revolutionary, dissident, and oppositional to the Mullahs’ regime. These were individuals who not only had no activities in the past but also supported and sympathized with the ruling regime. By gathering under the banner of monarchy and supporting some colonialist groups, this group demonstrated their true colors by opposing the genuine democratic alternative and the authentic opposition to religious fascism National Council of Resistance (NCRI). Their activities and physical presence were mainly outside Iran and in cyberspace. These suddenly greened algae on the margin of security, with the help of robots and trolls, were going viral in cyberspace. In this path, well-known and affiliated media also helped them.
Hamburg, Germany—April 6, 2023: MEK Supporters Rally to Support the Iran Revolution
Hamburg, Germany—April 6, 2023: Freedom-loving Iranians, supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) held a rally and photo exhibition of the martyrs of the nationwide protests killed by the mullahs’ regime in solidarity with the Iranian Revolution.
Also, read Iran News in Brief – April 7, 2023
