Calls for Civil Disobedience in Iran

People light a fire during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
People light a fire during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
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Calls for Civil Disobedience in Iran

People light a fire during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)
People light a fire during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran, Iran (Reuters)

Demonstrations were renewed in several Iranian cities with increasing pressure on authorities to release the detainees amid calls for civil disobedience.

Protesters called for extensive participation to commemorate the mid-Nov 2019 protests, and schoolgirls made a "national appeal" to gather and participate in the three-days marches starting Tuesday.

Students of several universities continued their two-month protest movement, with several strikes at the Sharif University of Technology, the Tehran University of Art, and Al-Zahra University.

Students carried on with their protest and demanded the release of their detained colleagues and political prisoners.

A video circulated on social media showed a march at Qazvin University in support of activist Hossein Ronaghi, whose health has deteriorated in Evin Prison.

Hasan, Ronaghi's brother, said Hussien was transferred to Dey General Hospital. He called on Iranians to gather in front of the hospital to prevent security forces from moving him back to prison.

Ronaghi has been on a hunger strike since his arrest on Sept. 24 during the protests fueled by Mahsa Amini's death.

On Monday, the Iranian judiciary said that Ronaghi was taken to hospital and his health was "stable," denying claims that he had been physically injured before the hospitalization.

"Ronaghi's general state of health is stable, and he will soon be released from the hospital," according to AFP, citing the Iranian judiciary website, Mizan.

The website noted that authorities decided to send him to a hospital outside the prison to avoid any possible deterioration in his clinical condition and for him to receive additional treatment.

Later, Mizan published a photo of Ronaghi's meeting with his mother at the hospital. Reports said that the authorities allowed his parents to enter the hospital to visit him and check his condition.

The family reported that Ronaghi's kidneys had developed hydronephrosis due to the hunger strike and that he could not walk because his leg was broken during detention.

According to his brother, Ronaghi also began refusing water on Saturday in protest of the authorities' refusal to release him for treatment.

The activist has previously published articles in newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, criticizing the human rights situation in Iran.

The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization expressed concern over reports of Ronaghi's deteriorating health.

Director of the organization Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said that Ronaghi's life was in great danger, adding that Iranian officials, especially Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, bear the responsibility for the safety of detainees.

Video also emerged on social media showing the moment Mehdi Hazrati, 17, was shot by security forces in Karaj during a march on Nov. 03 when mourners were paying tribute to Hadis Najafi at the cemetery to mark 40 days after she was killed in the city.

The head of the judiciary in Alborz described the incident as "suspicious," noting that the security personnel at the scene were not carrying firearms.

Meanwhile, an Iranian official in Khorasan announced the death of a Basij security force member during the unrest.

The French Press Agency said that the Basij member was shot by "rioters and anti-revolutionary elements" while he checked their identification cards in Mashhad.

Iranian authorities have adopted various tactics to quell the protests, which have become one of the country's most significant challenges since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Security forces used live ammunition, tear gas, and paintballs.

Iran accused the Western countries of orchestrating the protest. The UK, Canada, the EU, and the US imposed sanctions on Tehran over its human rights violations.

The activist HRANA news agency said 341 protesters had been killed in the unrest, including 52 minors. Thirty-nine members of the security forces had also been killed, while nearly 15,820 have been detained in 140 cities, it said.

Meanwhile, the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Associations (CCITTA) called for an expansion of strikes and civil disobedience, calling on citizens to refrain from paying water, electricity, and gas bills.

The committee criticized 43 years of "self-punishment" imposed by the authority and blamed it for the "artificial inflation."

The statement noted that 70 percent of the Iranian people live below the poverty line.



As Russia Retakes Kursk, Ukrainians Ask, 'Was it Worth it?'

In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, March 14, 2025, Russian soldiers patrol an area in the Kursk region of Russia after it was taken over by Russian troops. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, March 14, 2025, Russian soldiers patrol an area in the Kursk region of Russia after it was taken over by Russian troops. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
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As Russia Retakes Kursk, Ukrainians Ask, 'Was it Worth it?'

In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, March 14, 2025, Russian soldiers patrol an area in the Kursk region of Russia after it was taken over by Russian troops. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, March 14, 2025, Russian soldiers patrol an area in the Kursk region of Russia after it was taken over by Russian troops. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

When Mariia Pankova last exchanged messages with her close friend Pavlo in December, she had no idea that he was among the Ukrainian troops fighting in Russia's Kursk region.
She found out when a fellow soldier told her several days later that her friend, Pavlo Humeniuk, 24, a combat engineer in Ukraine's 47th Magura brigade, had gone missing near the village of Novoivanivka in Kursk on December 6.
Almost four months have passed and there has been no further information about Pavlo's fate, Pankova told Reuters, citing her conversations with his relatives. She keeps searching on Telegram and Facebook hoping to find out whether he is dead or alive.
Pankova, 25, believes the cost of Ukraine's risky incursion into Russia may have been too high. The sentiment is shared by many others in Ukraine, especially after troops retreated from most of Kursk this month following weeks of heavy fighting.
"I'm just not sure it was worth it," she said, large teardrops running down her face when talking about her missing friend, who she bonded with over their shared love of hiking in Ukraine's mountains.
"We're not invaders. We just need our territories back, we do not need the Russian one."
In response to questions for this story, Ukraine's armed forces General Staff said the offensive was meant to put pressure on Moscow, to divert Russian forces from other fronts and to prevent Russian cross-border attacks on neighboring parts of Ukraine.
The operation "achieved most of its goals", the General Staff said.
Kyiv's assault on Kursk in August took Russia, and the world, by surprise. It was the biggest attack on sovereign Russian territory since the Nazi invasion of 1941.
As Ukrainian soldiers smashed into the Kursk region, largely unopposed, they quickly seized some 1,376 square kilometers (531 square miles) of Russian territory.
But short of troops, within weeks the area under Ukraine's control shrank to a narrow wedge.
Kyiv used some of its top marine and air assault forces but the grouping was never large enough to be able to hold on to a larger area.
"From the very beginning, logistics was seriously complicated because as we entered the Kursk region, we ensured sufficient depth but we did not ensure sufficient width," said Serhiy Rakhmanin, a Ukrainian lawmaker on the parliament's committee for security and defense.
From the start, Russia had a manpower advantage along the Kursk frontline.
But the situation became critical late last year. Russia brought in elite units and top drone forces as reinforcements, aided by North Korean forces. They tightened assaults around Ukrainian flanks and advanced to within firing range of a key supply road, according to reports from Ukrainian military bloggers close to the armed forces.
"They not only increased the number of their group opposing our military, but they also improved its quality," Rakhmanin said. Russian President Vladimir Putin has never acknowledged the role of the North Koreans on the battlefield.
'NO LOGIC'
Russia's retaking of the Kursk region removes a potential bargaining chip for Ukraine just as US President Donald Trump undertakes talks to end the war with Russia, which holds around a fifth of Ukraine's national lands.
Ukraine's retreat from the Kursk city of Sudzha, confirmed by Kyiv on March 16, prompted questions and deepened the public divide in Ukraine on the benefits of the incursion.
Soldier Oleksii Deshevyi, 32, a former supermarket security guard who lost his hand while fighting in Kursk in September, said he saw no logic in the operation.
"We should not have started this operation at all," he told Reuters in a rehabilitation center in Kyiv, where he has spent the past six months adjusting to life after injury.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has acknowledged his military is in a difficult position in Kursk and that he expects continued attacks from Russia as it attempts to push the remaining Ukrainian forces out of the region.
However, he has denied claims by Putin and Trump that his forces are surrounded. US intelligence assessments also state Kyiv's troops are not encircled.
The Russian forces are now sending small assault groups to try to break through the Ukrainian border in the Sumy region, and may also be readying for a bigger attack there, Ukrainian military analysts said.
In public comments made to Putin, Russia's chief of General Staff, Valery Gerasimov last week confirmed his troops' recent incursions into Sumy. He detailed what he said were heavy Ukrainian losses in Kursk.
Even as Ukraine shifted to a defensive operation, its goals included “control over the territory of the Russian Federation, exhaustion of the enemy, destruction of its personnel and pulling back its reserves,” Ukraine's General Staff said.
It added that nearly 1,000 Russian soldiers were taken prisoner, some of whom were swapped for Ukrainian prisoners.
Because of the operation, Moscow had to create three new groupings, totaling about 90,000 soldiers, as well as 12,000 North Korean servicemen, the General Staff said.
Reuters could not independently verify those claims.
RISKY GAMBLE
Even at the start, some criticized it as a risky gamble.
Viktor Muzhenko, former head of Ukraine's General Staff, wrote in August 2024 that Ukraine should "focus on defending its key territories, avoiding unpredictable risky operations that could divert attention from main threats, and choose forms and methods of using troops that are adequate to their capabilities."
However, some in Ukraine hailed the operation as a black eye for Russia.
Speaking on March 12, Oleksander Syrskyi, Ukraine's commander-in-chief, said the operation diverted and killed some of Russia's best troops.
Lawmaker Rakhmanin said it also provided a much-needed boost to morale in Ukraine after Russia made territorial advances there in 2024 and showcased Ukraine's ability to conduct successful offensive operations.
While Trump negotiates with Putin for an end to the war, Pankova remembered her friend Pavlo and cast doubt over the possibility of a peace deal that prevented Russia from later taking more Ukrainian territory.
She was thinking of joining the armed forces, she said.
"Every time that someone tries to, let's say, sell some piece of Ukraine, they just have not to forget what we already gave. How many lives our people gave for that.