Activists monitoring Iran’s protests are increasingly covering executions and arrests rather than street demonstrations, a sign of how momentum in the unrest has shifted to the state and its crackdown.
(Bloomberg) —
Activists monitoring Iran’s protests are increasingly covering executions and arrests rather than street demonstrations, a sign of how momentum in the unrest has shifted to the state and its crackdown.
Mentions of “protests”, “street” and “gathering” in December fell to the lowest level since the protests began in September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from Persian tweets by Norway-based Iran Human Rights, Hengaw Organization for Human Rights and activist accounts 1500Tasvir and Vahid.
Mentions of “execution”, “prison”, “arrest”, “court” and “sentenced” almost doubled in the same period.
The data illustrate the changing nature of the unrest. What began as spontaneous urban street demonstrations over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, often with thousands of people in multiple cities, was followed by mass arrests, trials and even judicial executions for those accused of involvement.
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In response, some protesters have shifted to individual acts of civil disobedience, like women unveiling in public, anti-government graffiti and protest banners on busy roads.
When crowds gathered in the city of Karaj over the weekend, it was outside a prison rather than the city center, urging an end to executions, according to videos on social media. Bloomberg is unable to verify the footage.
Internet access remains severely limited in some of the most restive parts of the country, including the Kurdish region where Amini was from and the southeast province of Sistan-Baluchestan, home to an ethnic Baluch minority.
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