‘Cease Arbitrary Detentions’ Of Iranians, Says US State Department

Labeling this move as a “desperate attempt” by the regime to suppress women and impede the progress of freedom and equality, the joint statement published on Friday highlights the potential consequences of escalating repression and arrests.

The activists argue that the reintroduction of morality police patrols will only serve to “exacerbate the already mounting public discontent over inflation, soaring prices, and poverty, further fueling the people's anger.”

Recently, the hijab police patrols have reemerged in the capital city, Tehran, and other major urban centers, following a period of lying low, as authorities feared the potential for renewed anti-regime protests.

Notably, the timing of this development coincided with the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death while in morality police custody, an incident that triggered widespread protests across Iran.

Despite facing brutal crackdowns, an increasing number of women in Iran have been defiantly flouting the mandatory hijab rules, which have been in place since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. This mass wave of hijab refusal has left the regime at a loss and revealed the failure of its measures.

The signatories of the joint statement emphasize that the Islamic Republic “must realize its repressive actions, especially during the summer break when universities and schools—the main pillars of the women's revolution—are in session, will be temporary and the regime will face a resolute and overwhelming backlash from the people, particularly women.”

“The enemy has not given up. They’ve said that universities are the first place where new riots should begin,” the official in charge of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representatives in universities across the country, Mostafa Rostami, said at a gathering.

In advocating for preventive measures, Rostami said, “They will completely be defeated if they can’t do something on the anniversary of last year’s riots.”

Iranian authorities always refer to anti-government protests, even peaceful demonstrations, as riots.

At the same gathering, Brigadier General Yadollah Javani, chief of the political bureau of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), said “vindication jihad” should be carried out in universities before the upcoming parliamentary elections in March.

In recent years, Khamenei has applied the phrase ‘vindication jihad’ (jihad tabyyin) to efforts both in the media and on social media platforms and has referred to supporters and employees active in social media as "soldiers of soft war." The term basically means propaganda efforts.

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“The enemy has invested its hope in the coming months until the end of the [Iranian calendar] year [March 21]. All their evil plans will fail if we can be present in universities carrying out vindication jihad and people create an epic in March [with their presence in the elections],” Javani said.

Iranian students had a very active role in the protest movement that was sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa (Jina) Amini in the custody of morality police. Since then, hundreds of students have been expelled or suspended for their activities.

At the same time, activists both inside Iran and abroad have been discussing on social media the importance of the anniversary to show the regime that the protest movement is alive and strong.

Student sources say the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has recently bestowed extraordinary powers to university authorities and security forces to control students and their professors, including the power to suspend those who are known to be government critics. This week, two theology professors at Isfahan University were suspended for “opposing the government and Islam”.

In June tensions grew in universities when security forces cracked down on students at Tehran University of Art protesting draconian hijab laws.

In recent months, the anti-compulsory hijab movement has gained greater momentum, particularly in universities, with many students defying the rules as a form of civil disobedience, showing up on campuses without a headscarf and wearing ordinary cloths instead of the mandatory long coverings.

“It’s ten months since the Mahsa Uprising, during which we demanded our right to life. Today, [ensuring one’s] right to life depends on recovering [lost] civil rights. We have no exit path other than resistance … because passivity in the face of exclusion would only mean perishing,” students of Tehran University said in a statement last week.

“Under various pretexts, from [non-abidance to rules of] hijab to student activity, students are maliciously deprived of their right to study even if they manage to get in,” the statement said.

Students also criticized “dual standards” that allow members of Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi to study in Iranian universities by the virtue of belonging to proxy militia forces but blocks “ideological outcasts” and lower-class Iranians even if they are gifted.

Critics say Iran's university admissions system heavily favors students from the wealthiest families who can afford expensive tutors and classes to prepare for admissions to top universities in highly sought-after fields.

Hossein Salami was quoted by media in Tehran as saying that acts of Quran desecration are planned by those who are against Islam and Muslims.

The IRGC commander spoke after a statement by Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei demanded that Western government hand over those responsible for burning Qurans to Muslim countries. He also emphasized that the incidents were a conspiracy and demanded the harshest punishments that in some Islamic countries would be the death penalty.

Two incident involved Salwan Momika, an Iraqi immigrant, who burned the Quran in front of the central mosque in Stockholm on the first day of Eid al-Adha in late June, after obtaining a permit for a demonstration from the Swedish government. He repeated the desecration, this time in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on July 20.

Salami said that the Islamic Republic should take up measures to deter and end such acts, in cooperation with other Muslim countries.

“We will not allow those who insult the Quran to have security. If someone wants to play with our Quran and religion, we will play with all his world,” Salami threatened. He went on to say, “Sooner or later the vengeful hand of “mujaheds” will reach politicians and stage managers behind this sort of crimes, and we will render the highest punishment to the perpetrator.”

In the late 1980s, Iran’s then-ruler Ayatollah Khomeini issued a Fatwa for the killing of British author Salman Rushdie for his book, Satanic Verses, seen by some Muslims as insulting to Prophet Muhammed. Iran also announced a reward for Rushdie’s killing.

Ali Khamenei claimed in a statement that this stance is supported unanimously by all Muslim clerics.

In a message addressing the incident, he described it as "a bitter, conspiratorial, and perilous act," urging the Swedish government to hand over the culprit to the judicial authorities of Muslim countries. The man in question once burned the Quran in June and on Thursday he stomped and kicked the Muslim holy book.

"The consensus of all Muslim scholars is to impose the severest punishment on the perpetrator of this crime," alleged Khamenei. He also cautioned the Swedish government about “their support for the criminal” warning that such support takes a confrontational stance against the Muslim world, leading to enmity and resentment from Muslim nations and several governments.

Khamenei further addressed what he called “the conspirators behind the act”, asserting that “the sanctity of the Holy Quran will only grow stronger each day.”

Prior to Khamenei's response, Nasser Kanaani, the spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, summoned the Swedish ambassador to express "the strong protest of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

The incident involved Salwan Momika, an Iraqi immigrant, who burned the Quran in front of the central mosque in Stockholm on the first day of Eid al-Adha, after obtaining a permit from the Swedish government. He repeated the desecration, this time in front of the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on July 20.

Burns also touched upon the partnership’s potential ramifications for US allies in the Middle East, specifically Iran's supply of weaponized drones to Russia, which have been used in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

“The Defense partnership between Russia and Iran right now is a useful two-way street…Russian technicians working on the space launch vehicle program in Iran and other aspects of their missile programs. We've seen discussion at least of the possibility of the Russians providing advanced combat aircraft to Iran which you know expands the threat from the innocent Ukrainian civilians,” added Burns, who cited the threats that poses across the Middle East, specifically referring to Iran receiving advanced combat aircraft from Russia.

However, Burns also revealed that the Iranian-Russian partnership has encountered obstacles within Tehran itself. "We have... seen signs where the Iranian leadership has hesitated about supplying ballistic missiles to the Russians, which was also on their wish list as well," Burns disclosed. He attributed Tehran's reluctance partly to apprehensions about not only the US response but also that of European nations.

Earlier this week, MI6 Chief Richard Moore corroborated the impact of the drone sales on Iran's internal dynamics, stating that the dealings had sparked "internal quarrels at the highest level of the regime in Tehran." While Burns acknowledged the report, he refrained from commenting further on the matter.