Hackers interrupted an Iranian state broadcaster’s main news program on Saturday with a message supporting anti-regime protests as the mass demonstrations entered their fourth week.
The news program was broadcasting an appearance by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, then abruptly cut to a screen with photos of young women and girls who were killed during the protests.
Among the images was a photo of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, whose death last month while in the custody of Iran’s notorious morality ignited the furious uprising against the regime.
Above the photos was an image of Khamenei with a crosshairs centered on his forehead. Protesters regularly chanted “Death to the dictator” and called for regime change.
The screen also had text in Farsi reading: “The blood of our youth is on your hands” and a message urging Iranians to join the protests, according to the London-based Iranian opposition outlet. Iran International.
A hacker group called Edalat-e Ali claimed responsibility for the outage. The group hacked into the Iranian state broadcaster’s website and posted an opposition message on the page earlier this year, Iran International reported.
#RIP The hacktivist group Edalat-e Ali hacked Iranian state television’s live news broadcast and showed a photo of Khamenei with the verse “The blood of our youth is on your hands” along with photos of #MahsaAmini and three other girls killed in #IranProtests. pic.twitter.com/dYM7flUBQt
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) October 8, 2022
Other hacker groups have played a role in the protests by attacking government websites, posting documents and interfering with surveillance cameras.
released in 2017, Iran International it reaches millions of Iranians in Iran and around the world. It is considered an opposition media outlet to the Iranian regime and has made headlines for covering issues such as human rights violations, LGBTQ+ rights, and women’s rights in Iran.
Protests across the country erupted after Amini’s death on September 16, three days after she was arrested in Tehran by the notorious morality police for an alleged violation of Iran’s strict dress code for women.
Iran said on Friday that an investigation found Amini had died of a long-standing illness rather than “blows” to the head, despite her family saying she had previously been healthy.
The protests to see continued saturdaydespite more than 90 deaths since its inception, as schoolgirls chanted slogans, workers went on strike and clashes broke out across the country.
Iran’s ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi has called for unity and posed for a photograph with female students at Tehran’s Al-Zahra University in an effort to douse the flames, but videos and photos posted on social media apparently showed female students outside the university taking off and waving their hijabs and denouncing Raisi and the regime.
The president of the Regime attended the exclusively female Uni. today to take your mandatory “beginning of the school year” photo with a select few. But just outside, the brave female students chanted: “Get lost Raisi… we don’t want a murderous guest… The president is at the university. while the students are in jail” #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/KbOF9Ff3Fb
— Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) October 8, 2022
In Amini’s hometown of Saqez in western Kurdistan province, schoolgirls were heard singing “Woman, life, freedom” and seen marching down a street wearing headscarves, in videos the rights group of Hengaw said they were recorded on Saturday.
In another video he shared, a group of girls could be heard chanting the same phrase, the slogan of the protests, as they entered a school in Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province.
Another footage of students protesting in the city of Saqqez.
October 8, 2022#MahsaAmini#مهسا_امینیpic.twitter.com/QRDf8P2crd
— Hengaw Organization for Human Rights (@Hengaw_English) October 8, 2022
In another widely shared video, a man is seen altering the wording on a large government billboard from “The police are the servants of the people” to “The police are the murderers of the people.”
The ISNA news agency reported a heavy security presence in the capital, especially near the universities. He said “scattered and limited gatherings” were held in Tehran during which “some protesters destroyed public property.”
Street protests were also reported in Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz and Tabriz, among other cities.
The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights says at least 92 protesters have been killed in the crackdown, which has fueled tensions between Iran and the West, especially the United States.
