At the end of a match between Esteqlal and Pirouzi football clubs in front of a capacity crowd of 100,000 in Azadi Stadium in west Tehran, young spectators in different parts of the stadium began chanting slogans used by students in the July antigovernment uprising in Tehran.
The match quickly turned into a huge demonstration as young people chanted "Your tanks and machine-guns are no longer effective", "down with mullahs' power", and "down with Khamenei, down with Rafsanjani, down with Khatami."
Special anti-riot units of the State Security Forces stationed in the stadium panicked when they saw the huge crowd chanting slogans against the regime and fired teargas into the crowd and fired into the air. The volleys of gunfire and repeated firings of teargas canisters frightened residents in neighborhoods in the vicinity of the stadium.
Angry crowds once outside the stadium began to demonstrate against the mullahs' regime and clashed with State Security Forces troops as reinforcements from the Revolutionary Guards, the paramilitary Bassij and Ministry of Intelligence agents were called to the scene. Clashes spread to large areas of west Tehran, including Azadi (Freedom) Square, Azadi Street and Enqelab (Revolution) Street. Scores of demonstrators were wounded.
The chants of angry demonstrators in the stadium could be heard briefly on the state radio this evening as it was giving live coverage to the match, but the program was quickly interrupted.
Demonstrators set fire to several government buses during clashes with the State Security Forces and the Revolutionary Guards. School and university students made up the bulk of the demonstrators.
In a message yesterday to young Iranians on the occasion of the new academic year, the Iranian Resistance's President-elect Mrs. Maryam Rajavi called on them to spread protest demonstrations and uprisings against the ruling religious, terrorist dictatorship.
National Council of Resistance President Massoud Rajavi hailed tonight the Iranian youth, students and schoolchildren who demonstrated against the mullahs' regime and told them: "You have scored a great goal against the mullahs' regime with your demonstration and slogans tonight. Keep up the spirit!"
People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran
September 24, 1999
Back Home