Priest condemns violence in Iran
2022.12.23 14:43
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Priest condemns violence in Iran
Budrigannews.com – On Friday, the unofficial foreign exchange market, Iran’s currency was close to a historic low against the US dollar amid renewed street protests in the volatile southeast, where a prominent dissident Sunni Muslim cleric condemned a bloody crackdown on street demonstrations.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian who was arrested for wearing “inappropriate attire” in accordance with Iran’s strict Islamic dress code for women, died in detention on September 16.
One of the greatest challenges to the Shi’ite Muslim-ruled Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution has been the protests, in which people from all walks of life are calling for the downfall of Iran’s ruling theocracy.
“My recommendation is not to assault citizens. “Let soldiers stay in their barracks,” Molavi Abdolhamid, an outspoken Sunni cleric, was quoted by his website as saying during a sermon at Friday prayers in Zahedan, the capital of the Sistan-Baluchistan province. “No government shoots its own citizens like this one… Let soldiers stay in their barracks.”
The government claims that protesters are armed and trained by adversaries like Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States, and that they are intent on destroying public property.
Iran’s Baluch minority lives in impoverished Sistan-Baluchistan. There are up to 2 million of them, and human rights groups say they have been subjected to discrimination and repression for decades.
Sistan-Baluchistan and the Kurdish regions, which are home to minority ethnic groups that have long-standing complaints against the state, have seen some of the worst unrest in recent months.
According to social media videos, demonstrators marched through Zahedan following the sermon, chanting “Death to the Islamic Republic” and “Political prisoners must be freed.” Reuters couldn’t quickly confirm the recording.
Iranians have been attempting to purchase dollars, other hard currencies, or gold in an effort to protect their savings in the face of an official inflation rate of approximately 50%.
According to the foreign exchange website Bonbast.com, the U.S. dollar sold for as much as 400,500 rials on the unofficial foreign exchange market on Friday, which was slightly lower than its all-time high of 401,000 on Thursday.
According to analyst Mohammad Aletaha, who was quoted by the Faraz online daily, “if the dollar breaks through the psychological resistance level (of 400,000 rials) and stabilises above it, the situation will become more critical and one should expect higher dollar prices.”
Since the nationwide protests began more than three months ago, the rial has lost nearly 21% of its value. Just before the United States withdrew from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and reimposed sanctions, the currency was trading at approximately 65,000 per U.S. dollar in May 2018.
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As of Thursday, the activist news agency HRANA reported that 506 protesters, including 69 minors, had been killed. Additionally, sixty-six members of the security forces have perished. It stated that an estimated 18,480 individuals have been detained.
Up to 300 people, including members of the security forces, have reportedly been killed, according to state officials.
