...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
as the most sustained protests in years against a deeply entrenched theocracy entered their fourth week. At least two people were killed.
Marchers hollered poorly rhymed slogans against the government and twirled headscarves in repudiation of coercive religious dress codes. In some areas, merchants shuttered shops in response to a call by activists for a commercial strike or to protect their wares from damage.
Later Saturday, hackers broke into the evening news on Iran's state TV for 15 seconds, just as footage of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...
, was being broadcast. The hackers flashed an image of Khamenei surrounded by flames. A caption read "Join us and stand up!" and "The blood of our youth is dripping from your claws," a reference to Khamenei.
A song with the lyrics "Woman. Life. Freedom" — a common chant of the protesters — played in the background.
The protests erupted Sept. 17, after the burial of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who had died in the custody of Iran's feared morality police. Amini were tossed into the calaboose for an alleged violation of strict Islamic dress codes for women. Since then, protests spread across the country and were met by a fierce crackdown, in which dozens are estimated to have been killed and hundreds arrested.
In the city of Sanandaj in the Kurdish-majority northern region, one man was rubbed out Saturday while driving a car in a major thoroughfare, rights monitors said. The La Belle France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network and the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, said the man was shot after honking at security forces stationed on the street. Honking has become one of the ways activists have been expressing civil disobedience. Video circulating online showed the slain man slumped over the steering wheel, as distraught witnesses shouted for help.
The semi-official Fars news agency, believed to be close to the elite paramilitary force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, said Kurdistan's police chief denied reports of using live rounds against protesters.
Fars claimed that people in Sanandaj's Pasdaran Street said the victim was shot from inside the car without elaborating. But photos of the dead man indicate that he was shot from his left side, meaning he likely was not shot from inside the car. The blood can be seen running down the inside of the door on the driver's side.
A second protester was killed after security forces fired gunshots to disperse crowds in the city and 10 protesters were maimed, the rights monitors said.
A general strike was observed in the city's main streets amid a heavy security presence and protesters burned tires in some areas. Patrols have deterred mass gatherings in Sanandaj but isolated protests have continued in the city's densely populated neighborhoods.
Demonstrations were also reported in the capital Tehran on Saturday, including small ones near the Sharif University of Technology, one of Iran's premier centers of learning and the scene of a
Images on social media showed protests also took place in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
Other protests erupted at Azad University in northern Tehran, in other neighborhoods of the capital and in the city's bazaar. Many shops were closed in central Tehran and near the University of Tehran.
President Ebrahim Raisi in a meeting with students from the all-female al-Zahra University in Tehran alleged again that foreign enemies were responsible for fomenting the protests. He has made the claim without giving specifics or providing any evidence.
"The enemy thought that it can pursue its desires in universities while unaware that our students and teachers are aware and they will not allow the enemies' vain plans to be realized," he said.
Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, the gondola was dangling by a single thread of rope.
Jack!Cynthia cried.
I just realized I'm afraid of heights! I don't even like high heels!...
thousands of people in The Hague, Netherlands chanted and sang in a solidarity demonstration in support of the protesters in Iran.
...The nation is noted for 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
The Iranian government is broadcasting a music video made by the Basij militia recruiting children to fight in Syria's civil war.
The transformation of Turkey, a frontline state which possesses the second-largest army in the Atlantic Alliance, into something like a frenemy on a good day, from any Western viewpoint, has led to awkward questions about what's really going on in Ankara. These have been asked for years, with whispers mounting about covert Iranian influence at the highest levels of politics and security in Turkey, but it's been easy to dismiss much of this as evidence-free conspiracy-mongering of the sort beloved by Turks of all political colorations. Yet there is now convincing proof that Tehran indeed has a disturbing degree of secret influence in Turkey's ruling circles.
A new impressive satellite image has just been released.
[FRANCE24] At a funeral service in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Thursday, footage broadcast on state TV showed mourners bearing the flag-draped coffin of a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards' commander whose killing has underscored the involvement of the powerful Iranian force in the Syrian conflict.