It looks like a couple of things are going down in Iran. Jim Hoft is rounding up news on a protest in front of Tehran University calling for the release of Akbar Ganji. But there is other unrest throughout the country. I’ve reported over the past week about the state of emergency and mass unrest in the Kurdish Iranian city of Mahabad among others. Here is an update on that.

Reports from Mahabad state the repression reaching new proportions even beyond what was the norm in the past. The strikes and protests in Mahabad are now in its eighth day. In the last few days the state security forces have attacked the homes of Mahabad citizens, and arrested hundreds of the population. It is rumoured in the town that two youth aged 13 and 18 have died under torture. Thirteen of the tortured are in such a critical state that they have been taken to the hospital which is under the control of the military units.

The city is now under complete general strike. Until 6:00 pm yesterday, large crowds had gathered outside the main prison demanding the return of the bodies of the murdered youth.

In solidarity with the people of Mahabad, the near by towns of Bookan, Saqiz, and Kamyaran have also joined the general strike.

While the new president, Ahmadi-Nejad, continues to flex his muscle, his crimes are going unreported. Not one Western correspondence as yet has gone to Mahabad to view the situation.

Today, Reza Pahlavi issued a statement condemning the brutalities of the Islamic regime in Mahabad and supported the struggle of the Iranian Kurds against the oppression of the Islamic Republic.

Soldiers opening fire and killing protestors.

Iran — A Kurdish man was killed when Iranian soldiers opened fire on demonstrators on July 25 in the city of ÄOshonoiehÅ in northwestern Iran, the Kurdish news agency MHA reports.

A Kurd named Umer Emini was killed and tens of people were wounded when Iranian soldiers tried to stop the protest which started at 21:30 (9:30 pm GMT+3:30) led by the Kurdish party PJAK in support of the uprising in Mahabad. An unknown number of people were arrested.

The uprising in Mahabad started after news that Iranian soldiers had on July 9 brutally killed the young Kurdish activist Shivane Qadri in the district of Pisttep in Mahabad. It escalated when grotesque pictures of Qadri’s tortured body was published by Kurdish news agencies. Two Iranian soldiers were killed during the protests.

Protests are still raging on in eastern Kurdistan.

Demonstrations are also beginning to rage again in Khuzestan, where many Arabs were killed during unrest back in April.

The first anti-government protests since last month’s presidential elections erupted at the weekend in Ahwaz City.

Demonstrators chanted slogans denouncing Tehran’s policy of ethnic cleansing of Ahwazi Arabs in the province of Khuzestan, the centre of the Ahwazi homeland.

According to Iran Focus, an Iranian opposition website, witnesses said heavy clashes broke out in the district of Shilang-Abad and soon spread to Lashkar-Abad, Panj Tabaqeh, Mashali, Kian-Pars, Kut-Abdollah, Khashayar, and Zarqan regions. The demonstrations escalated with police cars and state-owned banks set alight.

Barricades made of burning tyres were set up in some streets, while groups of protestors attacked State Security Force vehicles to free those who had been arrested by the police. Police fired on demonstrators in Kuy Enghelab.

Ahwaz City has recently experienced a rise in protests by Ahwazi Arabs, with more than 150 killed by security forces during two weeks of civil unrest in April. Khuzestan contains 80-90 per cent of Iran’s oil reserves and represents around 10 per cent of OPEC’s total output. None of the wealth generated is redistributed to the province’s 4.5 million indigenous Ahwazi Arabs inhabitants, most of whom have been living in absolute poverty since their land was expropriated by Tehran for the oil, gas and sugar industries.

The Iranian government is implementing a policy for forced migration, driving the Ahwazis from Khuzestan to other provinces and populating the Ahwazi homeland with “compliant” ethnic groups, particularly those perceived to be loyal to the military or religious elite.

A combination of abject poverty and the government’s ethnic cleansing policies have prompted a rise in civil unrest. This weekend’s revolt indicates that Ahwazis have no faith in the new Ahmadinejad administration.