Last week, on Saturday, protesters marked 100 days of the nationwide uprising.

On Monday morning, workers at the Abadan petrochemical site in southwest Iran launched a strike. The complex was shut down at around noon local time as a result of the strike.

In the city of Izeh, locals gathered to mark the 40th day of the murdering of 10-year-old Kian Pirfalak by the regime’s security forces. The mourners began chanting anti-regime slogans, including “Death to Khamenei!” and “Khamenei is a murderer! His rule is illegitimate!”

In a similar ceremony in the city of Sanandaj, locals marking the 40th day of the murder of Aram Habibi by the regime’s security forces chanted, “Death to Khamenei!”

In Tehran, people in Jannat Abad district took to the streets to launch their anti-regime rally and chanted “Death to the dictator!”

Protests in Iran have impacted at least 280 cities so far. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 have been arrested by the regime’s forces. The names of 601 of those killed have been published by the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

This week's featured article says: The Iranian "dictatorship is clearly on its way out. The Iranian people will see to it. But the international community can help to hasten that outcome by going beyond mere condemnation of the clerical regime and taking concrete steps to isolate and weaken it at the outset of a fourth month of domestic unrest."

CNN (Dec. 23) - Shahid Alikhani square is a nondescript part of the historic Iranian city of Isfahan. Its sole claim to prominence is the grand entrance to one of the city’s main metro stations. But now it has become a place of pilgrimage for supporters of the high-profile Iranian footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani who fear the young man could be executed in the square, where an execution platform has been installed, a witness close to Nasr-Azadani in Iran told CNN. Terrified Iranian families believe that while the Western world is preoccupied with Christmas celebrations, a wave of executions in the country is imminent following the recent protests that have swept the country following the death in September of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by Iran’s notorious morality police for being accused of improperly wearing her hijab. In collaboration with the activist group 1500Tasvir, CNN has verified documents, video, witness testimony and statements from inside the country which suggest that at least 43 people, including Nasr-Azadani, could face imminent execution. Authorities have already executed at least two people in connection with protests in Iran last month, one of whom was hanged publicly. Read more...

NCRI Women (Dec. 21) - Some 50 days into her arrest, Elham Modarresi is still detained under an uncertain status. Elham Modarresi, 32 and a painter from Sanandaj, suffers from various illnesses. Elham Modarresi is reportedly psychologically tortured in prison. She has been interrogated for long hours while blindfolded. To break and force her to confess, the interrogators lied to her. They said her brother, who had just undergone a liver transplant, was tortured in the adjacent room and that her mother had died. An informed source said the interrogators told Elham they had arrested several people. If she admitted that she was the leader of that group, they would release her. The source added that Elham suffers from genetic liver disease. Due to the harassment under interrogation, she suffered a severe drop in blood pressure and body numbness. But the interrogators said they would send her to the hospital if she accepted their scenario; otherwise, they would keep her there without treatment. On Wednesday, November 2, 2022, Elham Modarresi was arrested by the government forces at her home in Fardis, Karaj. She was subsequently transferred to Kachouii Prison. She was denied access to a lawyer and her case during her detention. She suffers from liver and intestinal diseases, which could lead to death under pressure. Read more...

NCRI (Dec. 26) - On Sunday, December 25, coinciding with the 40th night of the martyrdom of another young kid Kian Pirfalak, a 9-year-old boy who was shot dead by suppressive forces in Izeh on November 16, suppressive forces opened fire on a family car in the west of Hormozgan province (southern Iran) that led to the death of a 12-year-old girl, Soha Etebari. The incident took place on the road from Lamard to Bastak at the Jenah checkpoint of Bastak city. Soha was injured but died on the way to the hospital. ... In another similar crime, on Saturday, December 24, the regime’s agents stationed at the entrance to Kamyaran opened fire on a Peugeot 405 and killed the driver, Farshad Ebrahimi. The agents transferred Farshad’s body to Kermanshah and refused to hand it over to his family and relatives. Suppressive forces, in fear of the nationwide uprising, open fire on the defenseless people in the urban areas and roads under various pretexts with impunity. Read more...

Iran HRM (Dec. 16) - Mohammad Mehdi Karami, 22, is a Karate champion and has several championship medals.

Mohammad Mehdi Karami has been identified by Iran’s Judiciary as the front-row defendant in the case of Ruhollah Ajmian, a Basij Force member who was killed during the protests. He was found dead on November 3, 2022, in Karaj, during a ceremony commemorating the 40th day after state security forces killed Hadis Najafi. Mr. Karami was arrested by security forces on November 5, 2022, and beaten so hard he fell unconscious to the ground. Government forces thought he was dead and threw his “body” outside the Nazarabad Court. But as they were leaving, they realized he was still alive. After taking him back inside, they broke his rib under torture and injured his hands and head. Read more...

NCRI (Dec. 22) - In fear of the nationwide uprising and the inevitable overthrow, the Iranian regime and its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei do not hesitate for a moment to execution and killings. In one month alone, from November 22 to December 21, at least 61 prisoners were executed, 18 of whom in the last week. Today, Wednesday, December 21, a Baluch prisoner named Abdullah Shahouzei in Adel Abad prison of Shiraz; Tuesday, December 20, a prisoner named Mehdi Kamrani Far and two other prisoners in Karaj Central Prison; Sunday, December 18, a prisoner named Mohammad Akbari and another one in Sari prison; Saturday, December 17, two Baluch prisoners named Qasim Salarzehi and Aziz Gergij in Zabul prison, and two prisoners named Abbas Abdullahi and Fariborz Shahbazi in Rasht prison; Thursday, December 15, one prisoner named Abolfazl Heydarzadeh in Zanjan Central Prison and two prisoners named Yousuf Mirza Begi and Mohammad Ali Seyyedi in Qazvin Central Prison, and on Wednesday, December 14, five prisoners in Gohardasht Prison were hanged by the regime’s Judiciary henchmen. Read more...

NCRI (Dec. 24) - Saturday, December 24, marks the 100 days of Iran’s nationwide uprising. For 100 days, Iranian cities are witnessing the bravery of people from all walks of life, especially youth and women, and the regime’s brutality. The uprising laid bare the face of a moribund and fragile system despite its efforts to portray itself as a regional power, as protests continued despite the regime’s heavy quash. ... Khamenei has repeatedly warned his ilk that any real reform or taking a step backward causes the system to collapse immediately. Shah’s regime started collapsing the day the dictator halted torture and public execution under international pressure. Religious fascism has learned its lesson from history and wouldn’t repeat Shah’s “mistake” of pausing human rights violations or exporting chaos abroad. Therefore, the mullahs’ only choice is a brutal crackdown. In fact, the regime’s entire military apparatus is designed to quash uprisings. The IRGC’s primary goal is preserving the regime at all costs, and since the uprisings indeed pose an existential threat to the clerical regime, the organization has established provincial garrisons, with dozens of subordinate bases to react to and oppress anti-regime protests immediately. Read more...

NCRI Women (Dec. 24) - Shaghayegh Khademi, 23 years old, was abducted at 4 a.m. on September 21, 2022, when security forces attacked her home. She was detained in Ward 209 of Evin Prison before October 15 when a fire broke out in the prison. After that, she was transferred to Qarchak Prison in Varamin. According to the verdict recently issued by Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court headed by Judge Abolghasem Salavati, Ms. Shaghayegh Khademi has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. Shaghayegh Khademi was sentenced to 16 years in prison on November 19, 2022, in Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court. She has objected to this sentence, but Salvati, the judge of the trial and appeal courts, did not allow a lawyer to enter the case. Read more...

NCRI Women (Dec. 25) - The Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Pari Aghaii, the accountant of a non-profit school, to 12 years in prison, a ban on leaving the country, and other social deprivations. Pari Aghaii, 49, was arrested by the security forces on October 16, 2022, and was released from Qarchak prison on December 19 after posting bail. Pari Aghaii was sentenced to 8 years in prison on the charge of “encouraging corruption” and four years in prison on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security,” a ban on leaving the country until the end of the sentence, and two years of work ban and two years of prohibition of cyberspace activity. Read more...

NCRI Women (Dec. 22) - Warning - disturbing image - The mullahs’ regime continues to issue sentences for those arrested during the nationwide Iran protests. The following report is a collection of news about the flogging and prison sentences handed down for some women arrested during the protests. Sara Baluch and Fatemeh Baluch Kari were sentenced to 9 months imprisonment and 148 lashes by the Zahedan Revolutionary Court, which communicated the verdict to them. Sara Baluch was sentenced to 6 months in prison for “propaganda against the state,” and Fatemeh Baluch Kari was sentenced to 3 months for the same charge. In addition to the sentences, each has been sentenced to suffer 74 lashes. Sanaz Razavifard, from Behbahan, was sentenced in absentia by Branch 102 of the 2nd Criminal Court of Behbahan on charges of “disturbing public order by preventing the public from doing business” and “depriving the public of comfort and assaulting individuals.” She was charged in absentia to 4 months of imprisonment, over and above time already served, as well as 34 lashes. Sanaz Razavifard was arrested on Thursday, September 22, during nationwide protests and was first held in Sepidar prison in Ahvaz. She was later transferred to Behbahan prison. Read more...

Iran news Update (Dec. 23) - On Friday, December 23, 2022, Iranian-Baluch citizens resumed the revolution following the Friday Prayer in various cities of Sistan & Baluchestan province. Large crowds of worshippers took to the streets, chanting anti-regime slogans and pledging to conclude the ongoing revolution. Citizens in Zahedan chanted: “Death to Khamenei,” “Death to the dictator,” “Death to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and Basij agents,” “Political prisoners must be freed,” “Khamenei is a tyrant; we will bury him,” “Death to the regime of executions,” “Death to [Khamenei] for all these years of crime,” “This is the year of [Khamenei] overthrow,” “We pledge on our compatriots’ blood that we are standing to the end,” “Freedom, freedom, freedom,” and “This is the last message: another execution and there will be an uprising.” Read more...

Watch: Dr. Aida Rostami abducted & murdered by security forces

The Patriot Post (op-ed, Dec. 23) - The young protesters who have been battling Iran’s ruling theocracy and ruthless security apparatus with bare hands for almost 100 days are unsung heroes. They have changed everything about Iran, a country that has been an enigma for every American administration in the past four decades. I don’t know if this was unpredictable or not, but it surely was not predicted by our diplomats and pundits. As we get closer to 2023, one thing is quite predictable: The nationwide protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran will be continuing into the New Year. This raises the question of whether 2023 will open a new chapter for Iran, the region and the world — one that leaves Iran’s theocratic dictatorships as a relic of the past. As former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put it on December 17 when speaking at a conference hosted by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities, “Iran’s future does not lie with the radical theocratic regime that took power there in 1979. It lies with the brave protesters who have, for months, demanded basic freedom and called for an end to this regime.” ... The brave Iranians have vowed to hold ground and pay the price of freedom with their resistance and blood. The year 2023 can be the dawn for a new chapter in the history of Iran, the Middle East, and the world, should Western governments have the courage to take practical steps to support them. Read more...

NCRI (op-ed, Dec. 21) - ... One of the countries whose name has long been tied with warfare in modern history has been Iran. An eastern neighbor of Iraq, it was pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program for almost two decades until it was exposed by the Iranian opposition group the Peoples Mojahedin Organization (PMOI/MEK). Had the regime gone nuclear, the geostrategic calculus today would look different. ... It’s about time to show that the West can do more than naively oscillate between warmongering and appeasement. It’s time for smart policy, pushing where it hurts Tehran most. Expelling the Iranian regime from the UN, ending diplomatic relations with Tehran, and activating the UNSC 2231 snapback mechanism will send a clear message that the world has had enough. War has shown that it can destroy mankind; let’s prove that there is a policy that is about to save it. Read more...

Treasury (Dec. 21) - Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is targeting the Prosecutor General and key military and paramilitary officials in Iran, as well as a company manufacturing and providing Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces with anti-riot equipment. As nationwide protests continue throughout Iran, the response from Iranian security forces has continued to escalate. In the past two weeks, two protestors have been executed, one publicly, and several others have been sentenced to death. Today’s action targets the senior official overseeing the prosecution of protestors, as well as leaders of military and paramilitary organizations violently cracking down and detaining protestors and a company that procures and provides security forces with tools of suppression. “We denounce the Iranian regime’s intensifying use of violence against its own people who are advocating for their human rights,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “The United States and our partners are dedicated to holding Iranian officials to account for egregious abuses committed against Iranian citizens fighting for their fundamental freedoms.” Read more...

Associated Press (Dec. 23) - The German government said Friday it is formally suspending export credit and investment guarantees for business in Iran in the wake of authorities’ crackdown on protests. The Economy Ministry said it also has suspended other “economic formats,” including a dialogue on energy issues, in view of “the very serious situation in Iran.” Export credit guarantees protect German companies from losses when exports aren’t paid for. Investment guarantees are granted to protect direct investments by German companies from political risk in the countries where they are made. The ministry said that use of those instruments for projects in Iran was suspended for decades until there was a “short phase of opening” from 2016 as a result of Iran’s agreement with world powers, including Germany, on its nuclear program. It said that guarantees were granted or extended for a few projects in that period, but there have been no new ones since 2019. Read more...

Fox News (Dec. 22) - Iran on Thursday took a swing at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over comments he made to Congress this week and denied accusations that Tehran has supplied Russia with drones. "Mr. Zelenskyy had better know that Iran’s strategic patience over such unfounded accusations is not endless," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a threatening message posted to the ministry’s website. Kanaani also advised Zelenskyy "to draw a lesson from the fate of some other political leaders who contented themselves with the U.S. support." The spokesman's comments came one day after Zelenskky addressed the U.S. Congress in an appeal for additional aid — a plea aimed at GOP lawmakers who are divided on whether providing support to Kyiv is a matter of national security. "When Russia cannot reach our cities by its artillery, it tries to destroy them with missile attacks," he said. "More than that, Russia found an ally in its genocidal policy — Iran." Read more...

Official website (Dec. 24) - The anniversary of the birth of Jesus, the son of Mary, is a new dawn for the enchained humanity. On this blessed occasion, I congratulate all the followers of Jesus Christ, the great prophet of monotheism and unity. I salute the Virgin Mary, who embodies human liberation, and whose name evokes painful hardships and trials for a great birth. And peace be upon Christ, the prophet of justice and revolution and the harbinger of an era when “the last will be first and the first will be last.” Now, the song of the Virgin Mary can be heard: “My soul glorifies the Lord; He, who has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble, and has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” So, blessed are the Iranian protesters who have followed the emancipating path of great prophets – from Moses to Jesus and to Muhammed – and found the essence of freedom in fighting against religious tyranny. They are breaking the chains of slavery and coercion, burning the idols of falsehood and religious abuse, and exposing hypocritical Pharisees of our time. They fight and pay the price for a momentous birth. Read more...

NCRI (Dec. 24) - Mashreq News, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Intelligence Organization and has a special section and various tags dedicated to news and reports about the People’s Mojahedin Organization (PMOI/MEK), wrote a comprehensive report on December 21 that run with the title “Maryam Rajavi will become Tehran’s President.” Listing several events and conferences by the Iranian Resistance in the United States, the piece is dominantly opting for an alarmist tone, warning the state and its aids abroad that if the increasing influence of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the PMOI is not countered, it will have grave consequences. Trying to disparage the Iranian Resistance’s delisting campaign as an indication of the Obama administration’s support of the MEK, Mashreq News wrote: “The Rajavi sect is the only opposition group against the Islamic Republic that possesses an organization. During recent events, this issue has been announced in a more public way by famous officials in the American hierarchy in a meeting in Washington DC on Sunday, December 18. Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State of the Trump administration and the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was the speaker at this gathering. This speech was covered by media organizations affiliated with the terrorist organization of the People’s Mojahedin Khalq.” Read more...

Iran’s nationwide uprising is now entering its fourth month. It shows no signs of abating despite the Iranian regime repeatedly accelerating its efforts to crack down on dissent, ever since the first demonstrations erupted after Mahsa Amini was arrested and fatally beaten by morality police in mid-September for allegedly violating the country’s Islamic dress code.

The regime’s latest escalation took place earlier this month when Mohsen Shekari became the first protester to be executed, followed shortly by Majidreza Rahnavard who was hanged from a crane in public as a warning to others. That warning was reinforced by state media, which published the names of around two dozen others for whom death sentences were either pending or already handed down.

The charges in question are vague in virtually every case. Shekari and Rahnavard were each accused of “enmity against God,” a capital crime in the Islamic Republic. The underlying case against Shekari alleged only that he had wounded a security guard, and although Rahnavard was accused of killing two members of the Basij militia, there is no indication that either man’s conviction was based on anything other than forced confessions, likely elicited by torture.

Among the pending executions the authorities have acknowledged, several stem from protesters simply blocking roadways. This is among the most prevalent acts of defiance in the ongoing uprising, and its newfound association with the death penalty is clearly intended to terrorize the public. Yet, far from shrinking away from this association, protesters appear to be confronting it head-on.

In recent days, photographs and video have gone viral on Iranian social media which show a woman carrying out a mock hanging of herself in Mashhad, the same city where Rahnavard was executed the prior Monday. The gender of that protester recalls attention to the female leadership that has been evident in this uprising since its beginning and has set it apart from a number of other uprisings that have broken out in recent years.

The role of women is made all the more remarkable by the fact that it includes teenage girls refusing to wear their hijabs in school, repelling government authorities who invaded campuses to plead for compliance, and destroying images of the clerical regime’s founder and its current supreme leader, the display of which is mandated in classrooms.

Naturally, university campuses have also been hotbeds of protest over the past three months, with every institution becoming involved at one time or another, and some being subjected to brutal government crackdowns and mass arrests. Similar crackdowns have taken place much more out in the open in the streets of major cities, while the breadth of student participation reflects the overall diversity of the uprising as a whole.

According to information gathered by the leading pro-democracy opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), residents of nearly 300 cities and towns have become active in the protest movement, spanning all 31 Iranian provinces. Every major ethnic and religious group has been unified behind slogans like “death to the dictator” which convey the public’s demand for the ouster of the entire ruling system. That unity also spans social classes and includes three distinct generations, including the 2010s generation, which corresponds to a time when illicit access to unfiltered internet and foreign media was becoming prevalent throughout the Islamic Republic.

Young Iranians have grown up with a strong awareness of what life can be like under a democratic system with ingrained civic freedoms.

 This has naturally amplified the contempt for religious dictatorship which has been evident among the public since the immediate aftermath of the 1979 revolution. Over the course of four decades, the divide between the people and the ruling elite has become so wide that it can no longer be bridged. The current uprising is the clearest proof of that.

Nevertheless, the mullahs seem to be living in a different world and cannot come to grips with the fact that the overwhelming majority of Iranians want them overthrown. This is strange, since a prior uprising in January 2018 prompted no less an authority than Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to acknowledge that Iranian citizens were increasingly lining up behind the People’s Mojahedin in order to challenge the theocratic system.

Khamenei was correct about the MEK’s role in that uprising, and its role in the push for regime change has only strengthened since then. The current uprising’s slogans and the people’s organized defiance of violent repression reflect the growing influence of that organization’s “Resistance Units,” which began taking shape in 2014 and grew their membership by a factor of five between the summer of 2021 and this year.

Just as there is no reason to suppose that the uprising will recede, there is no reason to suppose that the organized Resistance movement will not continue to grow, both at home and abroad. Dozens of Western lawmakers and former senior officials, in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, and Ireland among others, have expressed support for that movement, identifying National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) as the most viable alternative to Iran’s theocratic dictatorship.

That dictatorship is clearly on its way out. The Iranian people will see to it. But the international community can help to hasten that outcome by going beyond mere condemnation of the clerical regime and taking concrete steps to isolate and weaken it at the outset of a fourth month of domestic unrest.

In the summer of 1988, some 30,000 innocent men, women, and children were hanged in a matter of weeks. The majority of the victims (90%) were members or supporters of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Raisi was one of four members of the infamous death commission in Tehran. He has continued his role as Iran's henchman to this day, including overseeing the killing of 1,500 Iranian protesters in November 2019. This manuscript makes the case for bringing Ebrahim Raisi to justice before an international tribunal for crimes against humanity.