Iran: Member of Assembly of Experts assassinated

A member of Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts was reportedly assassinated in northeastern Iran this week, according to local media. The suspected assailant was also said to be detained.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news outlet reported that Abbasali Soleimani, a member of the powerful Assembly of Experts and a former aide to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the Sistan-Baluchistan province, was shot in a bank in the city of Babolsar. Soleimani later died in the hospital, and the assailant was detained.

Soleimani is a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that supervises, appoints, and can essentially oust the Supreme Leader.

Sistan-Baluchistan is the province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan and is also one of the poorest regions of Iran. The province has since been in a state of unrest for months due to the anti-government protests that continue to this day since erupting in September. The protests, which have become widespread in the country, began following the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of the so-called morality police.

Amini died days after she was detained for allegedly flouting the Islamic dress code, sparking public outrage in one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s clerical leaders since the 1979 Revolution. Tehran has sought to blame the protests on its foreign adversaries like the United States and Israel and has also sought to crack down on the demonstrations, killing dozens of people. Four people have also been executed on protest-related charges, resulting in further international condemnation.

Iranian state media reported that two of the country’s veteran actresses have been charged for not wearing their hijab, with the police in Tehran referring them to the judiciary. Actresses Katayoun Riahi and Pantea Bahram were charged with “the crime of removing their hijab in public and publishing its images in the virtual space.”

Photos of Bahram without wearing her hijab during a film screening went viral on social media, while Riahi was previously arrested in November on suspicion of “collusion against national security and propaganda against the establishment” after she became the first among her peers to share a photo of herself without her headscarf in support of the protests.

Several other renowned Iranian actresses, including Taraneh Alidoosti, were also posting photos of themselves without their headscarves in support of the protests and were also arrested by the authorities.