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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iranian security forces will receive a 20 percent pay rise in this year’s amended budget as tens of thousands of people across the country attend funerals and mourning ceremonies for the 253 protesters and bystanders, including 34 children, killed by authorities over the past seven weeks of nationwide protests.
The parliament voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to increase the salaries of the security forces during a session led by a hardline member of parliament who has described protesters as agents of foreign states and US intelligence.
Protests have engulfed the country for the past seven weeks, sparked by the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini while in the custody of the morality police on September 16, leaving hundreds of people dead and thousands wounded.
The amendment was put forward by Qom representative Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani who sparked controversy on Tuesday when he claimed on state television that the photo of Amini laying on a hospital bed was taken by two US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spies.
The photo of Amini was taken by Niloufar Hamedi, a journalist from the Shargh Daily, a reformist newspaper in Tehran, and went viral after it was posted on Twitter. Hamedi was arrested immediately alongside another reporter, Elaheh Mohammadi who took photos of the funeral in Amini’s hometown of Saqqez in the Kurdish areas of western Iran (Rojhelat).
The claim by Farahani took a sinister turn on Friday when the first ever joint statement by the two main intelligence agencies in the country - the ministry of intelligence and the intelligence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - leveled charges of espionage against Hamedi and Mohammadi.
The Tehran Journalist Association slammed the claims, suggesting that the authorities should outright ban journalism if they cannot tolerate the profession. On Saturday, Mehdi Rahmanian the general manager of Shargh Daily stood by his colleague, saying that breaking the story of Amini’s death was “the right decision”.
“My sister Elaheh Mohammadi is the journalist of an official newspaper inside Iran and travelled to Saqqez with the permission of Hammihan newspaper with the costs paid by the paper, ”Mohammadi’s sister, Elnaz, who works for the same newspaper tweeted. Mohammadi’s husband Saeed Parsaee tweeted on October 28 to say his wife had spent 17 days in solitary confinement.
Authorities have detained thousands of people across the country, with a tougher approach towards journalists, university students, and activists, in particular women’s rights activists. The hardliners have called for harsh treatment to be given to the protesters whom they refer to as “rioters” and agents of foreign states.
On Saturday, IRGC chief Hossein Salami threatened the protesters to end the “riots,” saying that this would be their last day. Protesters defied the warnings, flocking from across the country to shout chants of “death to dictator” and challenge the security services in the street.
As the protests continue, security forces and the intelligence services use different tactics to intimidate protesters including, publicizing the use of drones in tracking down protesters.
IRGC media outlets announced on Sunday that Toomaj Salehi, a well-known rapper in Tehran, had been arrested and published a photo of him in a car with his eyes covered. “Toomaj Salehi, one of the leaders of riots has been caught while trying to flee in the western border region,” IRGC outlets tweeted. Shortly after, two messages appeared on Salehi’s twitter account including one in which he denied having any intention to flee. His twitter account was later “suspended.”
Meanwhile, protests flared up in several universities including in Sanandaj, Shiraz, Hamadan, Mazendaran and Tehran on Sunday as students once again took to the street and chanted “Woman, Life, Freedom”.
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