The protests are largely over in Iran, crushed by the heavy hand of the government, but the retribution is just beginning.
Doctors who treated injured protesters have been swept up in mass arrests, beloved businesses have been seized and shuttered, and critical media has been silenced — all to stamp out the possibility of further unrest.
Even families holding funerals for loved ones killed during the crackdown have been ordered not to cry in public.
Several rights groups estimate that up to 40,000 people have been detained since protests began, many on charges of being "rioters" or "terrorists". Many have made televised confessions that rights groups say are likely forced.
Activists say the scope and scale of the repression tactics are perhaps the most sweeping in the Islamic Republic’s history.
“It’s collective punishment,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based organisation. “They want to traumatise a whole generation, so they won’t rise up again.”
The severity of the crackdown reflects how much Iran’s clerical leaders feel they have their backs to the wall, analysts say.
In addition to an ever-deepening economic crisis, which set off protests in late December that snowballed into a nationwide movement, the government also has to reckon with the possibility of a US attack.
Since quelling the protests, the Iranian government has publicly acknowledged the death of around 3,000 people in the crackdown, though rights groups estimate the final toll will be far higher.
Household names in Iran have not been spared arrest, among them Mohammed Saedinia, the grey-mustachioed owner of a national cafe chain.
Saedinia’s coffee shops offered Iranians a taste of a world closed off to them by clerical rulers and punishing international sanctions, serving international crazes like cruffins and cold brew. But on January 8, the Saedinia cafes joined businesses around the country that showed support for the demonstrations by going on strike.
Days after the deadly crackdown, the authorities sealed the doors of Saedinia cafes across the country, and left a notice that they would remain closed for two months, according to one employee. Saedinia; his son, Sadegh — who ran the cafes — and a store manager were arrested, the employee said.
New York Times News Service