General shutdown in Iran’s Kurdish areas

According to agency reports there is a general shutdown in various towns in Iran’s Kurdish areas. The shutdown is in protest against the recent executions of Kurdish activists and the danger of further executions.

The shutdown of markets and shops is in effect in Mahabad, Oshnavieh and Sanandaj (1). There is heavy security forces’ presence in the streets which are empty of the local residents. In Kamyaran, the home town of Farzad Kamangar, the Kurdish teacher killed by the dictatorship on May 9, many school students, in what appears to be a spontaneous protest, have boycotted their classes.

On May 9 the Iranian regime murdered four Kurdish political prisoners: Farzad Kamangar, Shirin Alamhouli, Ali Heidarian, and Farhad Vakili (2). The recent executions bring the total of political executions in Iran since the disputed ‘election’ in June 2009 to eight. Currently there are said that 17 Kurds and three other prisoners on death row in Iran.

A long history of oppression

Sadly there is nothing new in the brutal repression and the denial of basic national rights of Iran’s national minorities. This regime not only follows the same policies as the Shah’s dictatorship but has taken them to a higher level of violence. But the national minorities have also taken their resistance to a higher level.

Nearly five years ago, on July 9, 2005, in Mahabad, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish republic of 1946-47, the Iranian regime’s security forces fired live rounds at a number of youth. Two were injured and Shwaneh Ghaderi, a politically active 30-year-old, was killed. At night his body was tied to the back of a pickup truck and dragged through the town before being released to his family.

News of this state murder enraged the crowds in Mahabad’s Independence Square and people protested against the treatment of Ghaderi and the brutal way he was killed by the dictatorship’s forces. They attacked government offices, breaking windows, and killed a member of the security forces. There were also protests in Sardasht and other Kurdish towns.

Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network
13 May 2010