Southwest Iran’s Water Shortage Protests Take Sharper Anti-government Tone

WASHINGTON - Water shortage protests in drought-plagued southwestern Iran appear to have spread to more cities and taken on a sharper anti-government tone as the unrest extended into a sixth night.   روایت نرگس محمدی از #تجمع فعالان مدنی مقابل وزارت کشور در تهران برای حمایت از #اعتراضات مردم #خوزستان و برهم خوردن تجمع با حمله نیروهای امنیتی pic.twitter.com/eQIVzsZEoP نرگس محمدی دستگیر شد.به وسیله نیروی انتظامی و حمایت نیرو های امنیتی.چند نفر دیگر هم دستگیر شده اند. این دستگیری با ضرب و شتم بوده است.

Videos shared with VOA Persian and posted to social media showed what appeared to be protesters chanting “Death to Khamenei” and “Reza Shah, bless your soul” in the city of Izeh in Iran’s Khuzestan province on Tuesday night local time. Gunshots also were heard in some of those videos.   VOA could not independently verify the videos. Iran has barred VOA from reporting inside the country.   “Death to Khamenei” has been a common refrain of Iranian anti-government protesters angered by the authoritarian rule of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in recent years. “Reza Shah, bless your soul” also has been uttered in previous waves of Iranian street protests as a sign of affection toward the founder of the nation’s former monarchy Reza Shah. Khamenei’s predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, ousted Reza Shah’s son from power in Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.