BURST
Vancouver’s Maryam Shariatmadari stares at her phone, scrolling through images of bloodied protesters and bodies in the streets of Iran, searching for faces she knows.
Each photo tightens her chest, a reminder that members of her family, cut off by a government communications blackout, could be among them.
“I haven’t slept in days,” the pregnant 40-year-old told Postmedia.
Six days ago, when internet service was still available in her mother’s small town near Tehran, Shariatmadari called her. Her mother, 67, said she had been out protesting in the streets when government forces began firing guns.
“I know it’s dangerous, but I want to be there with my family right now,” Shariatmadari said.
An uprising that began against the Islamic Republic of Iran in late December over the rising cost of living has spread to nationwide demonstrations calling for the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to step down.
At least 2,000 protesters have reportedly been killed and more than 16,700 arrested during the unrest, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported.
Iranian officials warned on Wednesday that fast trials and executions lay ahead for people arrested during the countrywide protests, while the Islamic Republic threatened reprisals if the U.S. or Israel intervenes.
In comments to the Associated Press, U.S. President Donald Trump said he had been told that plans for executions in Iran have stopped, without providing many details. The shift comes a day after Trump told protesters in Iran that “help is on the way” and that his administration would “act accordingly” to respond to the Islamic Republic’s crackdown. Canada has also condemned the deaths of protesters.
Shariatmadari’s relatives have been out of touch since the Iranian government cut off phone and internet access on Jan. 8.
“I gave my mother’s number to a friend in the country, but no one is answering her phone,” Shariatmadari said. The mother and daughter are known to Iranian authorities, having been arrested multiple times, including in 2018 for publicly protesting the Islamic Republic’s compulsory hijab rules.
“I don’t know if any of my family is OK or not,” she said.
Vancouver’s Tahminmeh Sadeghi, 61, has lived in Canada for 35 years, but her parents, brother, cousin and aunt remain in Iran, mostly unreachable under the same communications blackout.
Phone service in Iran has been unpredictable since the uprising began. Occasionally, when international lines briefly reopened, Sadeghi’s family managed to reach her. Other times, calls drop after a few seconds.
“The last time I got ahold of my sister-in-law, the phone cut out within a few seconds,” said Sadeghi, an organizer with the Women, Life, Freedom movement.
In recent days, she hasn’t heard anything from her family in Iran.
“I haven’t been able to go to work because of anxiety,” Sadeghi said. “It’s like every one of my cells is vibrating. I’m so scared.”
The last conversation she had was the day before the shutdown, when she spoke with her niece in a city near Tehran, who is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.
“My niece told me that people on the street were yelling,” said Sadeghi. “She could hear all these gunshots. She told me, ‘I want to go there.’”
Amid the communications blackout, contact has been sporadic. One of Sadeghi’s cousins was once able to confirm they were alive via the internet, but she added, “I don’t know for how much longer.”
Some of Sadeghi’s family members are currently trying to leave the country, but the Islamic Republic closed its airspace to commercial flights early Thursday morning for several hours, the Associated Press has reported.
Both Sadeghi and Shariatmadari have taken part in rallies in Vancouver, joining Iranians in cities around the world in showing solidarity with those protesting against the regime in Iran.
For Sadeghi, local activism has come at a cost. She has received numerous online death threats from supporters of the regime, but says she will not be silenced.
“We have to get rid of this regime, no matter what,” said Sadeghi. “If we don’t, we will see an escalation in mass executions. We need to replace it with real democracy.”