Statement of the Tudeh Party of Iran on the regime’s brutal attack on the people and farmers of Isfahan:

Tudeh Party of Iran

The Tudeh Party of Iran strongly condemns the  brutal attack by the regime’s security forces on the people and farmers of Isfahan! According to various reports, on the night of Wednesday 24 November 2021, the security forces of the theocratic regime in Iran attacked, injured, and arrested a large number of farmers who were camping on the dried-out riverbed of the Zayandeh Rud to protest the regime’s disastrous water management policies, and set fire to the farmers’ tents.  The attack upon the protestors in Isfahan continued into Thursday and Friday (25 November and 26 November respectively) and was met with widespread resistance, marked by fierce clashes between the people and the regime’s thugs.  Mass protests against the lack of water, which Isfahan’s farmers had originally begun two weeks ago, were welcomed and further swelled by thousands of Isfahan residents, before spreading to Shahr-e Kord, the capital of neighbouring Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, as well as other suburban towns in Isfahan province.  Only months earlier, people across Khuzestan province had also protested against the lack and of water in a land of naturally flowing rivers.  Despite the regime’s cynical efforts to inflame ethnic and regional divisions, these recent protests once again show the extent of the people’s contempt for the oppressive rule of the theocrats as well as for the repressive apparatuses of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Basij [militia] across the country.  Deploying live fire at people merely participating in a civil and peaceful protest; the brutal and bloody beating, as well as the filthy insulting, of the elderly, women, children, and of a general population for whom the continuation of the oppressive Islamic Republic regime has become unbearable; the deepening of the socio-economic crisis; and the spread of various protests by workers, teachers, retirees, and students, all go to show the deep crisis of a reactionary regime whose only response is to further escalate its repression of the people. According to the latest reports, at least 214 people, including 13 children, were arrested following the arrival of police and security forces – which was accompanied by the beating and shooting of protestors.  At least 19 of those injured in yesterday’s protests alone are have been hospitalised, and official sources have reported the condition of two of them to be critical.  According to HRANA (a human rights activist news agency in Iran), most of the detainees were initially transferred either to the IRGC local headquarters or a Basij base.  Some of them were released by the end of the night on the condition they signed a declaration [promising to desist from further participation in political protests] and had their identification papers marked.  Around 150 of the detainees were transferred to other locations, such as Isfahan prison, Khomeini Shahr prison, and Isfahan women’s penitentiary. In an interview with the regime’s official radio and television broadcaster, Mohammad-Reza Mirheidari, the commander of the Isfahan police force, confirmed the coordination of the police force, the Basij, the IRGC, and the intelligence agencies to suppress the protests and detain those who participated.  According to him, a number of protestors were injured while a few of the security and police forces were wounded as well.  Kayhan daily newspaper, the mouthpiece and propaganda organ of [the “Supreme Leader”] Ali Khamenei, called the protesting citizens of Isfahan “hired thugs” and further described the protests as being similar to those of November 2019 which had required a “strong police and judicial response”. The Tudeh Party of Iran strongly condemns the latest brutal assault by the theocratic regime thugs on the people who have peacefully protested against oppression…

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Statement of the Tudeh Party of Iran on the regime’s brutal attack on the people and farmers of Isfahan: