The repression level has remained high in 2019, even though the number of protests has dropped significantly — by 38 percent according to Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli — with analysts suggesting that the poor economy is likely to weaken citizens’ ability to hold public protests
On January 19, state TV aired a program claiming that Qolian and an organizer of the Shush protests, Esmail Bakhshi, were linked to Western-based activists who sought to overthrow the government in Tehran