TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian security forces beat protesters in central Tehran on Saturday while hard-line activists disrupted a speech by the country’s moderate former president, reformist Web sites said, raising tensions ahead of opposition rallies expected during a key religious mourning ritual.
Several injuries were reported in Saturday’s unrest, which came a day before the Shiite Muslim mourning ceremony of Ashoura. Opposition activists have held a series of anti-government protests since the death of a dissident cleric last week, and other rallies are expected during today’s Ashoura rituals.
Last Sunday’s death of the 87-year-old Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a sharp critic of Iran’s leaders, has given a new push to opposition protests, which have endured despite a heavy security crackdown since disputed presidential elections in June.
The Rah-e-Sabz Web site said forces, including the elite Revolutionary Guard and the paramilitary Basijis, used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse demonstrators. The forces also broke the windows of cars that were honking horns in protest. It said protests occurred in at least three areas of the capital.
The report could not be independently confirmed because the Iranian government has banned foreign media from covering opposition protests.
In other unrest, about 50 plainclothes hard-line activists interrupted a speech by the popular former President Mohammad Khatami and beat some of the audience, the pro-reform Salaam News Web site said. It reported several injuries, though further details weren’t immediately available.
The attackers chanted slogans in support of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini, it said.
Khatami was speaking at the former residence of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of Iran’s 1979 revolution, in north Tehran.
Iran is marking the first 10 days of the Islamic month of Moharram, a time of mourning rituals for a revered Shiite saint.
The period culminates today with Ashoura, when Shiites beat themselves with fists and whips to mark the anniversary of the seventh-century death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, who was killed in a battle near Karbala. The day also coincides with the seventh day since the death of Montazeri, who was Iran’s most senior dissident cleric. More memorials and possible protests are expected.
H i s m e m o r i a l s h ave brought out not only the young, urban activists who filled the ranks of earlier protests, but also older, more religious Iranians who revered Montazeri on grounds of faith as much as politics. Tens of thousands marched in his funeral procession in the holy city of Qom on Monday, many chanting slogans against the government.
Front Section, Pages 14 on 12/27/2009