Ashkan’s post-covid family reunion finds him in the middle of Iranian protests and pepper spray.

Ashkan is not his real name.

The last time Ashkan was in his home country of Iran it was late 2019 and early 2020. That was a tumultuous time for the world in general, but for Iran in particular. In the span of one month Iran had tripled its petrol prices leading to protests all 0ver the country. During the protests the security forces killed more than 304 people, including 19 children, possibly many more that were uncounted (Amnesty International, 2020). Philip Luther of Amnesty International called it “ruthless” and a “killing spree”, none of these victims posed a real threat (Luther, 2020). The Iranian government and public media hardly acknowledged or reported the deaths at the time. Iran is a dangerous place to clash with authority and Ashkan knows it all too well.

Ashkan was born in Iran and moved to Australia at the age of four. But he has moved back and forth every couple of years, due to his father’s job as a university professor. Since turning 18, Ashkan has become a permanent resident of Canberra, while his father stayed in the city of Yazd, in central Iran. Ashkan had not been back to visit his family since covid made it impossible in 2020. But in August 2022, the restrictions were lifted, and he planned for a two and a half month trip back to Yazd, to reunite with loved ones he hadn’t seen in two years.

The first part of his trip was everything he wanted. He spent time with his family, went to parties with old friends and traveled to different parts of the city. But on September 16th, 27 days before Ashkan was set to return, Mahsa Amini died and everything in Iran changed.

Masha Amini was a 22 year old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was arrested for breaking a government mandated dress code by not wearing a hijab. After being detained by Iran’s morality police, she fell into a coma and later died in custody. Eyewitnesses say that Amini was beaten to death (Abassi, 2022). Although the state TV network at first claimed it was a heart problem and later changed to organ failure.

Her death represented a final straw for most Iranian citizens, who felt women lacked the rights and freedoms a man had in Iran. (Aljazeera, 2022). The issue of basic women’s rights in Iran was at the center of scrutiny even before Amini’s death. The country’s enforced dress code for women, regardless of religion, is far behind the rest of the world’s standards. It has been compared to the dystopian novel, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (Reznik 2022).

By his own admission, Ashkan was not as in touch with the news as he would have liked to have been as this story was unfolding. He didn’t know what had happened until his friends began posting about it on Instagram. That was on September 19th, the first day of the protests in Yazd. All of his friends protested. Like most young Iranians, they were outraged and fed up with the state of their government. From then on, there was a protest held every night. Usually there were multiple demonstrations in an attempt to spread out the Revolutionary Guard, the internal security wing of Iran’s armed forces, across the city.

Upon the outbreak of protests, Ashkan’s dad warned him against attending. It would be detrimental to Ashkan’s return to Australia if he were to get in trouble for protesting. The government had been known to withhold passports for people trying to emigrate if they were found to have been at a protest. And the likelihood of this happening is high. Using mobile data tracking, the Revolutionary Guard would know if you had been in a certain area. You would receive a text message warning you against any type of dissent, which includes posting anything about them on social media. You are given one warning, and further behavior of this kind would lead to prosecution.

Most people publicly protesting in this way were younger than 30. Older citizens had much more to lose if arrested. Consequently, in the beginning, universities were the only place where it was safe to protest. So many events were held at Yazd University away from the dangers of the Revolutionary Guard. But the relative safety of the university couldn’t be maintained forever. Since the Guard was not officially allowed to violently constrain anyone, they went undercover. They dressed in regular clothes and took videos and pictures of the students at the university protests.

The common punishment for those caught is to be locked up for seven days by the Guard. Your family would have no knowledge of the charge, until they are contacted on the seventh day. If you were caught protesting again, you or your parents would be forced to offer land, similar to a bail bond. Several of Ashkan’s friends received this treatment. Taking his father’s advice, Ashkan made the wise choice for his future in Australia by avoiding protests at all costs and trying to stay out of public areas.

Although, sometimes you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ashkan and his dad innocently visited a radiologist in the middle of the city. This area was known to be protest heavy. They were aware of the risks, but Ashkan needed an x-ray for a tooth cavity and there had been no plan for protests that day. All was well as Ashkan left the building. His dad talked to the radiologist, so Ashkan waited in their car that was parked on the street. After about five minutes of waiting, a man on a motorcycle zoomed past, followed by Revolutionary police cars. The motorcyclist reached a T intersection, hit the breaks and fell off. The police proceed to attack the man, beating him with batons right in front of Ashkan and other shopping onlookers.

When Ashkan’s dad returned to the car, they hypothesized that the man on the motorcycle was a protest leader. Leaders or instigators of protests get severe prison time for their involvement (Sinaee, 2022). They decided it would be best to leave the scene, and many others came to the same conclusion. Ashkan's dad attempted to do a U turn in the middle of the crowded street, but got stuck. They could hear the man yelling his disgust with Iran, and screaming in pain from the beating.

Suddenly Ashkan started to feel his eyes burn and water. The crowd retreated into the nearby stores and Ashkan’s dad hurriedly wound up the car windows. The Revolutionary Guard had dropped a tear gas grenade. This is a common occurrence at true protests, but rare in such a controlled environment. Ashkan later speculated that the goal was to deter the civilians from watching the poorly handled arrest. At the time though, he was scared and solely focused on getting home.

Most Iranians know not to trust the information that is presented to them by local networks or newspapers. They don’t cover the protests properly, they exclude or change certain facts that make the government look bad. As big of an issue as police brutality is, it is never shown and rarely even mentioned on Iranian TV. As Ashkan says, if you don’t go out of your way to get the truth, “you’ll just believe what the government wants you to believe”. The most religious people in Iran tend to take the news at face value. Because of the censored content, they have a negative view of protests and change in general. However most other citizens have turned to foriegn media through satellite television for their news. The most popular among Ashkan’s friends and family are BBC Persia, Voice of America Persia and Manoto. They also gain access to unbiased news companies translated to Farsi or that have Farsi reporters.

The ability to disagree with an authority is fundamental to a healthy society. There is always this struggle between Iran and its people. But when something happens that exposes just how nefarious the revolutionary guard really is, the outcry is legitimate and desperate. It is a chilling cycle, the more protests there are the more protesters will be assaulted and often killed by security forces. The more that protesters die in this way, the more protests there will be. It’s been like that since Ashkan was born.

When he returned to Australia last week, he was relieved to be back home, but still worried for his friends potentially getting hurt by a corrupt police force. Sadly, he says that he is numb to it in a way. But gained a new revulsion when he told his Australian friends about the protest deaths, the data tracking and the tear gas. He saw their shock at the day to day life of Iranians in the middle of political unrest. He says “you aren’t able to escape it and live there” [...] “Because I tried really hard to”.

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Sources:

Al Jazeera (2022) Woman dies after arrest by Iran's Morality Police, Women News | Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/16/iranian-woman-dies-after-moral-polices-detention-reports (Accessed: October 26, 2022).

Farda, (2022) Iranian forensic report denies Amini died from injuries, blames 'underlying diseases', RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Available at: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-forensic-report-denies-amini-death-injuries/32069928.html (Accessed: October 28, 2022).

Shannon, M. (2022) Widespread unrest in Iran reflects the "Handmaid's tale" regime increasingly being imposed upon Iranian women, AIJAC. Australia/ Israel and Jewish Affairs Council . Available at: https://aijac.org.au/fresh-air/widespread-unrest-in-iran-reflects-the-handmaids-tale-regime-increasingly-being-imposed-on-iranian-women/ (Accessed: October 27, 2022).

Sinaee, M. (2022) Underground Youth Group in Iran emerging as protest leader, Iran International. Iran International. Available at: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202210149035 (Accessed: October 27, 2022).

Luther, P. (2021) Iran: Details released of 304 deaths during protests six months after security forces' killing spree, Amnesty International. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/05/iran-details-released-of-304-deaths-during-protests-six-months-after-security-forces-killing-spree/ (Accessed: October 28, 2022).