Tech-savvy Iranian activists reveal Islamic republic's abuses 

When videos posted on Friday appeared to show the ancestral home of the late founder of the Iranian Islamic Republic on fire, state media derided the news as "a lie". But footage posted by the activist network 1500tasvir told a different story.  

The incident occurred on Thursday evening in Khomein, the birth town of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the group said, as strikes and protests over the death of Mahsa Amini shook Iran for a ninth week. 

They shared footage showing flames amid the distinctive arches that matched file photographs of the residence. The truth was out.  

In a country where free media is banned, 1500tasvir has quickly emerged as a hub for independent information, developing a reputation for a comprehensive and dependable network relied upon both by protesters in the street and Western media.

On an ordinary day the group typically shares hundreds of videos on Instagram and Twitter. Its accounts have gone from 150,000 and 50,000 followers respectively in September, to over 1.5 million and 350,000 currently. No other group has developed such a wide network of coverage of the protest movement.

The Telegraph interviewed two members of 1500tasvir, who agreed to speak anonymously over a secure messaging app to provide an inside account of how a small group of young volunteers is challenging the combined security apparatus of the Islamic republic.

“The only purpose we have is to harm the Islamic republic, in the end destroy it, as all people in Iran want and in the end that’s why people trust us,” one of the activists said.

The group, whose name means 1,500 windows, was formed after Iran’s Bloody November protests in 2019 with the goal of creating an accurate tally of the number of protesters killed by security forces.

Those protests had erupted nationwide following a rapid hike in fuel prices, and authorities responded ruthlessly with a week-long crackdown and near-total internet blackout. While this restricted coverage of the brutal response, 1500tasvir activists were able to document the death of at least 1,500 protesters, hence the name.  

This image grab from a UGC video posted on November 17, 2022, reportedly shows Iranian protesters starting a fire at the family home of the founder of the Islamic republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, now a museum, in the central Iranian city of Khomein - AFP© AFP

The group’s secret volunteer network – made up mostly of young people inside Iran, though some are also based abroad – was well established when protests erupted again in September after Amini’s death. 

Its activists were well placed to challenge the state media’s narrative of a nation beset by rioters, terrorists and agents in the pay of Western powers plotting to foment a civil war.

This year’s demonstrations have not, as yet, been as deadly as 2019, nor as widespread as the 2009 Green Movement, which mobilised up to three million people at a time and lasted for six months.  

Reference: The Telegraph:  Story by Campbell MacDiarmid