Protestors hack Iranian state TV

JournalismPakistan.com | Published: 11 October 2022

Protesters in Iran hacked into state television broadcasts to convey their message of resistance. The action follows widespread dissent after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.
Summary

ISLAMABAD—Protesters in Iran, adopting new tactics to spread their message of resistance and supporting Iran's upsurge of women-led protests, hacked a state television live news broadcast on Saturday, BBC reported.

Anger flared after the death of Ayatollah Amini in police custody on September 16, three days after her arrest in Tehran by the morality police for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

The hackers briefly interrupted TV footage of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and replaced it with images of slain protesters and 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. "Join us and rise up," read another message in the TV hack claimed by the group Adalat-e Ali (Ali's Justice).

Such displays of rebellion against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are historically rare. However, following Ms. Amini's death, there has been widespread open dissent.

Likewise, social media videos emerged which seemed to show female students at a university in Tehran chanting slogans during a visit by President Ebrahim Raisi.

Earlier in the day, two people were shot dead in Sanandaj, Kurdistan's capital, including a man in his car after he sounded his horn in support of protesters. A video shared online also showed a woman shot in the neck lying unconscious on the ground in Mashhad.

On Amini's death, Iran's Forensic Medicine Organization said that she died because of a long-standing medical condition rather than of blows to the head as claimed by protesters.

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