On December 8, Mohsen Shekari, a protester who participated in the uprising raging through Iran for three months, was executed in Tehran. Regardless of
By LOUISA LOVELUCK AND MUSTAFA SALIM | The Washington Post | Published: May 12, 2021 BAGHDAD The killings take place in public and are captured on surveillance footage. Those videos are then watched by millions. But even if the gunmen are identified, no one is prosecuted, and the cycle starts again. Across Baghdad and southern Iraq, a rising tide of attacks on activists and journalists is alarming what remains of a protest movement to demand the ouster of Iraq s U.S.-molded political system and the often Iran-linked armed groups that prop it up. Mass street demonstrations were crushed last year with deadly force, often by paramilitary groups that the protesters denounced. Now, as some activists prepare to run in elections, prominent figures in the protest movement are being picked off as they walk the streets or drive home at the end of the day.