He Was Jailed in Iran. Here’s What Happened.

www.ozy.com [OZY]( OZY A Modern Media Company Share This Sh*t December 08, 2022 Share This Sh*t [The drop]( HE WAS JAILED IN IRAN. HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED. Is change coming to Iran? Protesters who’ve been arrested share firsthand accounts. Covered in Blood Komeil Soheili [@komeilsoheili]( The police officers who beat Muhammad while he was handcuffed to a chair wore old green uniforms, batons and small firearms affixed to their belts. Muhammad, who asked to be identified by only his first name as he feared retaliation for speaking to the press, was visiting his girlfriend in the Ekbatan apartment complex in west Tehran on Oct. 17, when protesters began to gather outside the building. What was initially a small group grew quickly, as people shouted and chanted “Down with the murderer” and “Down with the dictator,” referring to the Islamic clergyman Ali Khamenei, who has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989. Such activity in this location was not unusual. The Ekbatan complex has been the site of many protests in recent months, even serving as the location for an enormous projection of Mahsa Amini’s image on the side of an apartment. Amini died in police custody on Sept. 16 after she was arrested for wearing an “inappropriate” hijab. Her death has sparked demonstrations in 140 Iranian cities, and protests have gripped the country ever since.  In Soheil’s view, police officers harass and beat prisoners not out of political fervor, but because it is their job to do so. A 34-year-old bookseller, Muhammad was watching the Oct. 17 protest unfold when he was suddenly struck in the face with such force that, he would later learn, it broke his nose. Like many of his peers, Muhammad has watched countless videos of the protests, which often show activists in conflict with police who have been tasked with quieting the crowds. Yet, said Muhammad, the videos did not prepare him for a fist aimed at his own face. The attack had come from a plainclothes police officer. “I didn’t run away. Since I wasn’t participating in any way, I thought I was safe,” said Muhammad. He quickly realized his error. Minutes after he was struck, he found himself sitting in a minibus with darkened windows alongside several other young men. His clothes were covered in blood. ADVERTISEMENT It took nine years for Darlingtina Tucker and her family to escape the Sierra Leone Civil War and reunite in the United States. Now, with her organization New Breed, she seeks to give the young people of Sierra Leone an opportunity to become change agents through events that inspire community service and social engagement. Her incubator program helps young entrepreneurs “receive financial investments, a peer network and a mentor to guide them along the process,” explains Darlingtina. New Breed will harness new technologies and the ingenuity and energy of young people to incentivize entrepreneurship to reach a more “interdependent and efficient” economy. [WATCH MORE HERE]( ‘Tired and Angry’ With unrest ongoing for three months, each day in Iran brings a new spate of [videos](. Some have shown a police officer harassing women, or beating an [elderly lady](, or even [shooting]( a civilian at [close range](. Iran has [acknowledged]( that more than 300 people have died in the protests, while the Human Rights Activists News Agency [announced]( that at least 402 people had died as of Nov. 18, and that at least 58 of them were minors. Some videos show officers smashing personal property, beating pedestrians or shooting protesters with cameras. Other videos capture people fighting back, a police officer being [mocked]( or getting [injured](, or a crowd [setting fire]( to the historic home of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Iranian Revolution. Muhammad spent 27 days in prison. While many protesters have been released within a day of their arrest, Muhammad suspects he was kept for nearly a month to allow time for his face to heal. When he was beaten at the police station after his arrest, he recalls one officer saying to the other, “He needs to be our guest for a while, so that he looks better.” Today’s protesters reject Iran’s entire political system, crying out, “We don’t want the Islamic Republic." - Soheil Soheil, who asked to be identified only by his first name, is a political activist who lives in a city outside Tehran. Like Muhammad, he was recently arrested, and spent eight days in a local jail. “The police are tired and angry,” he told OZY in a video call. While in jail, Soheil witnessed an officer shouting and swearing at a student who had been arrested, blaming the young prisoner for keeping him from his family for weeks at a time. In Soheil’s view, police officers harass and beat prisoners not out of political fervor, but because it is their job to do so. Muhammad was brought to a hospital for medical treatment and an overnight stay after he was initially booked — and beaten — at Tehran’s public security police station. Then he was transported to the jail where he would spend nearly a month. More than 30 hours had elapsed since his initial arrest by the time he was granted permission to phone his family, who had been fearful since his disappearance. Though Muhammad was imprisoned in a large facility with five triple-decker bunk beds in each cell, the unit was so packed with prisoners that many of them, including Muhammad, often had to sleep on the floor. Many of those prisoners were scarcely out of adolescence, and were terrified of what might happen to them. There was a small TV in their cell block, which at one point aired a news report about a Tehran court [voting to hang]( a protester. “There was an 18-year-old boy in our cell who was deeply scared by the news,” said Muhammad. “He thought he might be hanged by the government too.” Muhammad tried to comfort him, saying this would never happen to ordinary people like them. ‘There Must Be a Change’ This year is not the first time since the Iranian Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in 1979, that the country has descended into anti-government protest. In 2009, after a controversial election that led to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s reelection, hundreds of thousands of Iranians believed their votes for the opposing reformist candidate had not been counted, and they took to the streets. Those demonstrations, which were known as the Green Movement, came to a halt with the imprisonment of the movement’s leaders. Both Muhammad and Soheil participated in the Green Movement demonstrations. Today’s protests are different. “In the Green Movement, we were protesting within the system,” Soheil explained. “‘Where is my vote?’ was the slogan of that time, referring to the dissatisfaction with the result of the presidential election.” By contrast, he said, today’s protesters reject Iran’s entire political system, crying out, “We don’t want the Islamic Republic.” Muhammad also noted that today’s protests are different in terms of who is showing up in the streets: He said there are people from all social classes, from farmers to university researchers. Iranian Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said the Parliament would review the law that requires women to wear hijabs, and also [suggested]( that the Guidance Patrol — widely referred to as the morality police — had been disbanded. The current movement also seems significant in terms of how it has changed day-to-day life across the country, at least for now. “More girls are walking without hijabs every single day,” said Soheil. “Morality police are no longer on the streets.” On Dec. 2, Iranian Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said the Parliament would review the law that requires women to wear hijabs, and also [suggested]( that the Guidance Patrol — widely referred to as the morality police — had been disbanded. It’s unclear what, if anything, will come of these signs of change, as other Iranian officials subsequently [pushed back]( on the claim that the morality police were finished, noting that this was beyond Montazeri’s jurisdiction. Muhammad believes that the government’s current efforts to control the protests with violence can work only temporarily, and that people will keep flooding the streets as long as their anger and dissatisfaction persist. Such discontent seems to extend far beyond the hijab law. “There must be a change,” said Muhammad. He added, “I hope it won’t cost any more lives.” NOW STREAMING FROM OZY STUDIO Uniting and celebrating women in sneaker culture and creating a space for everyone who loves dope kicks and fly 'fits. Check out Sneaker Fiends, hosted by The Notorious KIA -- new episodes drop every Thursday. Would you like to hear the stories of brave women who have turned hardship into crusades of love? Join the former Mayor of San Juan, C. Yulin Cruz, as she brings you these compelling stories in OZY Studio's new podcast Sheroics! What lasting changes, if any, do you think will come to Iran as a result of the current protests? 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