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Anger over Executions Fuels Protests in Iran

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Anger over Executions Fuels Protests in Iran

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Night demonstrations flared up in several Iranian cities, hours after the execution of two protesters, and amid international condemnation of Iranian authorities.

Iran’s judiciary announced on Sunday jail terms of up to 10 years for people who called for strikes as part of a month-long protest movement. Four Iranians have been convicted against the background of inciting a strike by truck drivers.

Media outlets also reported on authorities convicting Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former lawmaker, and the daughter of former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

On Sunday evening, anti-regime demonstrations resurged in the Sattar Khan neighborhood at the heart of the capital, Tehran.

The day before, Iranian protesters took to the streets in 20 of Tehran’s neighborhoods against authorities executing Mehdi Karami and Sayed Mohammad Hosseini.

They chanted anti-establishment slogans like “Death to Khamenei,” “We do not want the government that kills children,” “Death to the Basij,” and “Death to the Revolutionary Guards.”

Protesters also warned that “poverty, corruption and hiked prices” were driving them harder towards overthrowing the regime.

A group of protesters took to the streets in the cities of Karaj and Arak, according to videos shared on social media.

A group of women demonstrated in the city of Najafabad in Isfahan province on Sunday. They chanted slogans condemning the regime, according to a video clip posted on Twitter.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) published a video showing strikes in the market of the Kurdish city of Saqqez.

Karami and Hosseini were hanged to death after hasty trials on charges that they participated in the killing of a member of the Basij paramilitary group in November.

These executions drew widespread international condemnation and brought up the number of executions in connection to the protests to four.

A previous execution of Iranians in December sparked domestic and international outrage and the imposition of new Western sanctions on Iran.

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Millions of Children to Suffer from Trump Aid Cuts

Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File
Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File
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Millions of Children to Suffer from Trump Aid Cuts

Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File
Afghan children receive food aid from a local charity in Mazar-i-Sharif on March 2, 2025. Atif Aryan / AFP/File

When he grows up, five-year-old Ahmad wants to be "stronger than Spider-Man".
But his dream clashes with a harsh reality -- the Jordanian boy has a serious disability, and major US aid cuts mean he will likely miss out on vital care.
Like him, millions of children around the world are suffering from the sweeping cuts ordered by US President Donald Trump.
All are grappling with hardship in one form or other: war, crime, global warming, poverty, disease and more.
Ahmad, who has a spinal malformation, cannot hold his torso upright and is paralyzed from the waist down.
The boy was receiving physiotherapy sessions from Handicap International "to strengthen his upper limbs and enable him, later on, to walk with crutches," said his father, Mahmud Abdulrahman, a 30-year-old day laborer.
Abdulrahman said the non-governmental organization was also due to provide orthotics and prosthetics to straighten Ahmad's lower limbs -- none of which he could afford on his meagre salary.
Now, none of that will happen.
The Wehdat Rehabilitation Center they attended in Jordan's capital Amman was one of the first victims of Trump's aid cuts.
More than 600 patients found themselves deprived of care overnight.
Prosthetics already specially designed for around 30 children, as well as wheelchairs, could not be delivered to them, on Washington's orders.
"The movement that was taught will be forgotten," said Dr Abdullah Hmoud, a physiotherapist who worked at the center, describing the potential losses as "catastrophic".
There is also emotional suffering.
When he realized he would no longer see his physiotherapist, "Ahmad stopped eating for three days. He didn't want to get up," said his father.
With the closure of his rehabilitation center, "I feel like they want to kill me," the boy said in a hushed voice.
Global fallout
Ahmad's story is one among many in a wave of horror accounts surfacing from the humanitarian sector since the United States said it was cutting 83 percent of its aid.
USAID -- which the Trump administration has dismantled -- had supported 42 percent of all aid distributed globally, with a $42.8 billion budget.
At a refugee camp in Bangladesh, home to a million Rohingya Muslims who fled persecution in Myanmar, half of them children, Save the Children has been forced to ration food.
The NGO fears desperate families could be pushed to hand over daughters to traffickers or send sons on dangerous sea crossings to Malaysia for work.
In Mozambique, Solidarites International had to shut down a program providing food and water to internally displaced people, including tens of thousands of children.
In Malawi, similar numbers will no longer receive free school meals, according to another NGO which requested anonymity for fear of US reprisals.
Without food, many children will drop out of school -- all the more galling, the NGO said, as millions of meals are reportedly left to rot in warehouses due to the US decision.
"It's like the rug is being pulled out from under their feet," said one staff member.
'Last lifelines'
Women and girls are often the first to lose out, with their education traditionally sacrificed first.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said it will have to "significantly reduce" aid to women and girls in Afghanistan because the US funds paid for many of the female staff who worked with them.
"The very last lifelines for many women and girls will be taken away," said Camilla Waszink, a director at the organization.
Malnutrition already affects 150 million children under five, and the numbers could surge.
"Millions of additional children will suffer stunted growth" and impaired brain capacity, said Kevin Goldberg, director of Solidarites International.
In another blow to children, Washington is expected to drastically reduce funding for vaccination programs in poor countries.
Sania Nishtar, CEO of the Vaccine Alliance, warned the cuts -- if confirmed -- could result in "an estimated 1.3 million children dying from vaccine-preventable diseases".