Tens of thousands of Iranians converged on central Tehran and major cities on Saturday morning to mark the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, nearly five months after the start of the protest movement sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.
President Ebrahim Raïssi was to speak at the end of the morning in front of the people gathered on Azadi (“Freedom”) square in the capital on this holiday.
In 2021 and 2022, the 1979 Revolution anniversary ceremonies had been restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But this year, the government has revived these celebrations, organized in 1,400 cities in the country, according to television.
In Azadi Square, those gathered held up portraits of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as well as the popular general Qassem Soleimani, killed by an army raid American in January 2020 in Baghdad, according to an AFP journalist.
They took up the slogans “Down with the United States”, “Down with Israel”, “Down with the United Kingdom”, the main adversaries of the Islamic Republic since 1979, and called for support for “a united, strong and stable Iran “.
Around the huge plaza were deployed Sejjil missiles and Shahed 136 drones produced by Iran.
The celebrations come as the country has been rocked by a protest movement since the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who died after being arrested by morality police, who accused her of violating the Strict Islamic Republic dress code.
According to the authorities, hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed in the context of the demonstrations, which have diminished in size in recent weeks.
Thousands of people, including cultural figures, lawyers and journalists, have been arrested. On the occasion of the anniversary of the Revolution, the government announced the release of a “significant number” of detainees, including that of the Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah, arrested in Iran in June 2019 and sentenced to five years jail for undermining national security.