Mediaboss Marketing

All-stars were plentiful this fall as local standouts made their mark in multiple sports.

Heres a recap:

After a season of resurgence, South Portland placed four players, quarterback/defensive back Anthony Poole, running back/defensive back Keenan Jones, offensive lineman/linebacker Caleb Viola and offensive lineman/defensive lineman Nate Ellington, on the Southwestern Maine Activities Association Class B South football all-star team.

The SMAA Class A all-star offense first-team featured utilityman Jarett Flaker and lineman Max Piispanen.

Scarborough lineman Nathan Mars made the second-team.

The SMAA Class A first-team defense included Scarboroughs Mars (tackle), Zach Alofs (back), Chase Cleary (punter) and Thomas Galekas (linebacker).

The second-team featured Scarboroughs Piispanen (end).

Scarboroughs Mars was also named SMAA Class A Gerry Raymond Lineman of the Year.

In the Western Maine Conference, the Class C all-star team included Cape Elizabeths Matt Laughlin, Finn McQueeney and Gannon Stewart.

Class C all-star honorable mentions included running back/safety Colin Campbell, running back/safety Nick Laughlin and wide receiver/defensive back Ryan McKean.

Cape Elizabeths boys soccer team placed Nick Clifford on the WMC Class B first-team.

Cape Elizabeths Charlie Dall made the second-team.

Cape Elizabeths Jack Dresser, Ben Payson and Jack Sands qualified for the WMC All-Academic team.

In the SMAA, South Portland midfielder Damir Krkic made the first-team.

Scarborough forward Zander Haskell, midfielder Zach Chaisson and back Noah Flagg were named to the second-team.

Scarborough goalkeeper Alex Bachmann and South Portland forward Anthony Perron and back Dillon Ray Bolduc were honorable mentions.

Scarboroughs Benjamin Hatch, Evan Krouskup, Nolan Matthews, Thomas Stratis and Griffin Wedge and South Portlands Homer LaBranche and Anthony Perron qualified for the SMAA All-Academic team.

South Portlands Brkic was also named to the Class A South regional all-star team.

On the girls side, Karli Chapin, Maggie Cochran and Emily Supple of repeat Class B state champion Cape Elizabeth were named to the WMC Class B all-star team.

The WMC All-Academic team included Cape Elizabeths Margaret Brewer, Karli Chapin, Olivia Cochran, Amelia Erickson, Sydney McFarland and Amanda Mikulka.

In the SMAA, Scarborough midfielder Ashley Sabatino and back Emily Johnson made the first-team.

Scarborough forward Ali Mokriski, back Madison Marinko and goalkeeper Nikki Young were named to the second-team.

Scarborough forward Sarah Callahan and midfielder Madison Blanche and South Portland forward Brooklynn Ortiz were honorable mentions.

Scarboroughs Mokriski was also named SMAA Rookie of the Year.

Scarboroughs Blanche and Isabelle Chase made the SMAA Senior All-Citizenship Team.

Scarboroughs Madison Blanche, Samantha Brodeur, Sarah Callahan, Katrina Fowler, Emily Johnson, Madison Marinko, Josephine Patton, Rachel Peterson, Ashley Sabatino and Nikki Young and South Portlands Isabelle Chase and Anna Folley qualified for the SMAA All-Academic team.

Cape Elizabeths Chapin and Scarboroughs Callahan, Johnson, Sabatino and Young played for the South in the Class A/B girls Senior All-Star Game.

Scarboroughs Callahan, Johnson, Sabatino and Young were also named to the Class A South regional all-star team, while Cape Elizabeths Chapin and Maggie Cochran made the Class B South regional all-star team.

The SMAA field hockey first-team included Scarboroughs Hannah Dobecki and Carrie Timpson and South Portlands Lydia Grant.

Scarboroughs Julia Booth-Howe and South Portlands Lauren DiBiase were honorable mentions.

South Portlands Grant was given the Faith Littlefield Player of the Year award.

Scarboroughs Kayleigh York and South Portlands Bonnie Johnston were their teams respective Rookies of the Year.

Scarboroughs Ainslie Allen, Julia Booth-Howe, Jillian Cote, Hannah Dobecki, Natalie McGuire, Abigail Roy and Carrie Timpson and South Portlands Bryanna Alley, Madelyn Drolet, Sarah Folan and Emily Rich qualified for the SMAA All-Academic team.

In the Western Maine Conference, Cape Elizabeths Isabel Berman was a first-team selection.

The Class B second-team included Cape Elizabeths Emily Goulding and Camden Woods.

Cape Elizabeths Berman, Scarboroughs Dobecki and South Portlands Grant were also named to the All-State team.

Scarboroughs Jillian Cote qualified for the All-State, All-Academic team.

Last, but certainly not least, South Portlands Grant was named one of three finalists for the prestigious Miss Maine Field Hockey award.

Scarborough outside hitters Shaelyn Thornton and Maya Brooks, setter Mayne Gwyer and middle hitter Maddie Strouse and South Portland libero Pearl Friedland-Farley and setter Ashlee Aceto were named to the SMAA volleyball first-team.

Scarborough libero Brenna Humpage and South Portland middle hitter Kaleisha Towle made the second-team.

Scarborough middle hitter Gwen Dorsey and South Portland outside hitter Maria Degifico were honorable mentions.

Scarboroughs Maya Brooks, Bella Dickinson, Anna Gardner, Brooke Leeman, Katherine Mueller and Meredith Winslow and South Portlands Kaleisha Towle qualified for the SMAA All-Academic team.

Scarboroughs Kim Stoddard was named SMAA Coach of the Year.

Scarboroughs Strouse and Thornton and South Portlands Friedland-Farley were named to the Class A all-state, first-team.

Scarboroughs Brooks and Gwyer and South Portlands Aceto made the Class A all-state, second-team.

Scarboroughs Dorsey and South Portlands Degifico were Class A all-state, honorable mentions.

Cape Elizabeths Corina Page and Julia Torre made the Class B all-state, first-team.

Cape Elizabeths Abi Bisceglie made the Class B all-state, second-team.

Cape Elizabeths Sarah Boeckel was named Class B Coach of the Year.

Class B individual state champion Lila Gaudrault of Cape Elizabeth headlined the WMC girls cross country all-star first-team.

Cape Elizabeths Lydia Branson and Marcella Hesser made the second-team.

Class B champion Jack Bassett of Cape Elizabeth made the WMC boys cross country all-star first-team, along with teammate Ricky Perruzzi.

Cape Elizabeths Owen Patry made the second-team.

Cape Elizabeths Jack Bassett, Chloe Butzel, Meredith Hetrick, Genevieve Depke, Molly OSullivan and Helen Vaughan qualified for the WMC All-Academic team.

The SMAA boys all-star first-team included Scarboroughs Zach Barry and Tristram Coffin.

Scarboroughs Erik LoSacco and South Portlands Nick Borelli made the second-team.

Scarboroughs Connor Coffin and South Portlands Liam Piper were honorable mentions.

Scarboroughs Justin Castaldo and Nathan Day and South Portlands Thomas DiPhillippo and Oscar Sullivan qualified for the SMAA All-Academic team.

The SMAA girls all-star first-team featured Scarboroughs Megan Randall and Kayla Randall.

Scarboroughs Kristen Werner and South Portlands Isabella Carrier were honorable mentions.

Scarboroughs Isabella Cook, Ryanne Cox and Vanessa DiRisi and South Portlands Grace Caselden and Molly Woodhouse qualified for the SMAA All-Academic team.

Cape Elizabeths Gaudrault and Scarboroughs Kayla Werner also qualified for the Maine Track and Cross Country Coaches Association girls All-State first-team.

Cape Elizabeths Charlotte DeGeorge made the second-team.

Cape Elizabeths Bassett and Scarboroughs Tristram Coffin made the boys All-State first-team.

Scarboroughs Barry was a second-teamer.

The SMAA Northern Division golf first-team included Scarboroughs Peter Malia and South Portlands Lucas Flaherty.

South Portlands Alex Leupold was a second-team selection.

In the WMC, Class B all-stars included Cape Elizabeths Aiden Lee and Shep Smith.

Previous

Visit link:
It was an all-star autumn in Forecaster Country- Southern edition - Press Herald

Untitled, from the series Slow Decay. Gohar Dashti hide caption

Untitled, from the series Slow Decay.

What or where is home? Is it a place or a people, a feeling or a memory, a reality or a fantasy?

Those questions are at the heart of My Iran: Six Women Photographers, an exhibition on display at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., through Feb. 9, 2020. All the photos were collected separately by the Sackler Gallery, one of the Smithsonian Institution's Asian art museums, and came together only for this showing. Much of the photographers' work has been displayed previously in Europe but rarely in the United States.

My Iran showcases the works of six female Iranian photographers Hengameh Golestan, Newsha Tavakolian, Shadi Ghadirian, Malekeh Nayiny, Gohar Dashti and Mitra Tabrizian and their attempts to express the psychological condition of the Iranian people and state 40 years after the Islamic Revolution. At their heart, the works seek to capture the deep divides, geographic and philosophical, between Iranians at home and abroad.

A Long Wait, from the series Border. Mitra Tabrizian hide caption

A Long Wait, from the series Border.

In the wake of the Islamic Revolution, many Iranians fled their homeland for a variety of reasons: their Western backgrounds or education, which were now suspect; liberals who opposed the Shah of Iran; men fleeing the draft for the Iran-Iraq War; women and children seeking greater opportunities outside the restrictive regime. However, just because they left does not mean they do not miss home.

"Those who live in Iran tend to idealize life in the West, and those who live outside long for 'home,' " Tabrizian says in one of the exhibition's captions. "But what both groups have in common is the will to survive."

Some of the first images in the show are meant to invite you into this head space. The first is a video created by Tavakolian, a 38-year-old Iranian-based Magnum photographer and documentarian who has contributed to Time, National Geographic and The New York Times. The same shoot also provided a photograph for the collection, one that showcases a young woman almost engulfed by the tentacle branches of a bone-white dying tree.

Somayeh, from Blank Pages of an Iranian Photo Album. Courtesy of Newsha Tavakolian/Magnum Photos hide caption

Somayeh, from Blank Pages of an Iranian Photo Album.

The woman looks down, wrapped in a maroon coat and teal hijab, clutching a brown handbag. Her face is blank and still, statuesque in its lack of emotion but also suggesting an undercurrent of resilience. "What I hope is that they [the works] visualize a generation marginalized by those speaking in their name," Tavakolian said in a statement to the Sackler Gallery.

The clock then rewinds 40 years with the next series of photographs, shot by Golestan (born in 1952), one of the first prominent women photographers in Iran. The photos come from her Witness 1979 series. The seven pictures are among the few images taken on the last day women were permitted in public without wearing a hijab March 8, 1979.

Untitled, from the series Witness 1979. Hengameh Golestan hide caption

Untitled, from the series Witness 1979.

Golestan captures the swell and fervor of the crowd. "In those days, during the revolution, I was thinking, 'Whatever I see in the streets, it's my responsibility to show it to other people,' " Golestan said in an interview.

One visual stands out a woman captured mid-speech in front of a small crowd. It's a powerful symbol of protest and defiance.

Untitled, from the series Witness 1979. Hengameh Golestan hide caption

Untitled, from the series Witness 1979.

"It's Iran that I want to know and I want to take pictures of," Golestan said. "Because in a way I feel responsible for it. ... It's my own country and my own people, and since I was a child, I've seen what's going on."

Time distorts across the exhibition as photographers Nayiny and Ghadirian draw inspiration from Iran's photographic history to play with contemporary identity. Ghadirian, who currently works in Iran, offers a series of images captured in 2000 but shot in the style of 19th-century Qajar-era photography. She juxtaposes the women with simple yet highly verboten signs of the contemporary world around them. A Pepsi in hand is the smallest embrace of rebellion.

Untitled series. Shadafarin Ghadirian hide caption

Untitled series.

Nayiny's work may hit even closer to home one of her main subjects is her family. In one particular sequence, the Paris-based, Parsons School-educated artist pairs portraits of her parents, taken in snapshots over their lifetimes, with some of their valued possessions. Values and ideals morph as father and mother age and adapt to the times and surroundings they live in.

Images from the series Observation. Malekeh Nayiny hide caption

Images from the series Observation.

In the center of all these is a portrait of Nayiny's parents on their wedding day, shot in the carte de visite style of the 19th century and superimposed on a background of postage stamps depicting a stylized diagram of the human heart. The color stands out against the black-and-white images around it.

Untitled, from the series Observation. Malekeh Nayiny hide caption

Untitled, from the series Observation.

In another series, Tavakolian attempts to create a "family photo album" but the images neither are of her family nor are they labeled. In one series, the haunting shot of an abandoned playground leads into the image of a young couple embracing each other as they look to their horizon. She arranges such snapshots of people and places in and around Iran to reflect the tears she observes in the fabric of Iranian society.

An image from Newsha Tavakolian's "family photo album." Courtesy of Newsha Tavakolian/Magnum Photos hide caption

An image from Newsha Tavakolian's "family photo album."

A woman is shown teaching her class of young girls, all clad in conservative dress, while in another photo, a young man walks through a crosswalk wearing a tie a symbol of the West that's culturally disdained by the revolutionary government.

In Dashti's portraiture, the subjects gaze in shell shock at the lens, cut off from others around them and even their surroundings. Dashti sought to express the lasting aftereffects of the Iran-Iraq War on the people who lived through it she grew up during the conflict, which lasted from 1980 to 1988.

Untitled, from the series Iran, Untitled. Gohar Dashti hide caption

Untitled, from the series Iran, Untitled.

Tabrizian explores the tension between Iranians in Iran and those in exile. She photographs the exiled but chooses to set them in surroundings that leave their status ambiguous to a viewer. It's her way of expressing the pain of exile and the strange state of being "in between" two cultures.

"What each narrative implies," Tabrizian wrote in an email, "is the notion of 'waiting' used as a metaphor to indicate both the bleakness of the situation i.e. the futility of waiting (things may never change, certainly not in a near future) and a more esoteric reading of not having any 'home' to return to, even if things will eventually change."

A Deadly Affair, from the series Border. Mitra Tabrizian hide caption

A Deadly Affair, from the series Border.

That notion of "home" is extremely powerful for the individuals in Tabrizian's photographs, but it can also be felt in many of the images in the exhibition. At some level, each photo asks a question about how ideas of home animate Iranians in Iran and abroad. Can they recognize or accept their home, or is there some greater ideal they long for?

"If we think about home as a fixed origin, we all know that doesn't exist that's a fantasy," Tabrizian later said in a phone interview from London. "But the fantasy has a real effect. ... For me, it's not like romantic fantasy, but it's more like the fantasy which is essential to the construction of identity."

Excerpt from:
'My Iran' A Show Of Photography And Video By 6 Women Contrasts Memory And Reality - NPR

GENEVA (Reuters) - Irans top leader on Wednesday denounced an outbreak of deadly unrest as a very dangerous conspiracy as authorities reported about 731 banks and 140 government sites had been torched in the disturbances.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the protests amounted to a plot that Iranians had defeated, referring to the worst anti-government unrest in Iran since authorities put down demonstrations against election fraud in 2009.

The disturbances began on Nov. 15 after the announcement of gasoline price hikes, but quickly turned political, with protesters demanding top leaders step down.

In response, the government has blamed thugs linked to exiles and the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia for stirring up the street unrest.

A deep, vast and very dangerous conspiracy that a lot of money had been spent on ... was destroyed by the people, Khamenei said in a meeting with members of the paramilitary Basij force which took part in the crackdown against protests, according to his official website.

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli meanwhile said about 731 banks and 140 government sites were torched in the unrest.

More than 50 bases used by security forces were attacked and approximately 70 gas stations were also burned, he said, in remarks published by the official IRNA news agency, without specifying where the attacks took place.

According to IRNA, Rahmani Fazli also said up to 200,000 people took part nationwide in the unrest.

London-based Amnesty International said on Monday it had recorded at least 143 protesters killed in the protests.

Iran has rejected Amnestys death toll. It says several people, including members of the security forces, were killed and more than 1,000 people arrested. The Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York-based advocacy group, said the number of arrests was probably closer to 4,000.

The protests took place as new U.S. sanctions imposed this year cut off nearly all of Irans oil exports, and as similar protest movements erupted in Iraq and Lebanon against governments that include heavily armed pro-Iran factions.

There has been about a 20 million liter drop in daily gasoline consumption since the price hike, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

The struggle of ordinary Iranians to make ends meet has become harder since last year when U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers and reimposed sanctions on the country.

Combined with the rising inflation, growing unemployment, a slump in the rial and state corruption, Washingtons maximum pressure has caused Irans economy to deteriorate.

The government said the gasoline price rises of as much as 50% aim to raise around $2.55 billion a year for extra subsidies to 18 million families struggling on low incomes. The monthly cash payments are set at just 550,000 rials ($4.44) per person.

Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Paul Tait

Read the original post:
Iran says hundreds of banks were torched in 'vast' unrest plot - Reuters

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Even among hardliners in Iran, there seems to be an acknowledgment of one fact after widespread protests, violence and a security force crackdown following a spike in government-set gasoline prices: This will not be the last time demonstrators come out on the street.

As Iran struggles under crushing U.S. sanctions following President Donald Trumps unilateral withdrawal of America from Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers, its elected civilian government and those in its Shiite theocracy will face ever-tougher decisions on where to cut costs.

Those cuts will more than likely target its vast system of government subsidies that make life affordable for its poor, from low-cost electricity in their homes to the bread on their plates. Any move to increase those prices will draw further protests. But the government may not have any other option.

The protests that struck some 100 cities and towns across Iran beginning Nov. 15 came after Iran raised minimum gasoline prices by 50% to 15,000 rials per liter. Thats 12 cents a liter, or about 50 cents a gallon. After a monthly 60-liter quota, it costs 30,000 rials a liter. Thats nearly 24 cents a liter or 90 cents a gallon. An average gallon of regular gas in the U.S. costs $2.58 by comparison, according to AAA.

Cheap gasoline is practically considered a birthright in Iran, home to the worlds fourth-largest crude oil reserves despite decades of economic woes since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Gasoline there remains among the cheapest in the world, in part to help keep costs low for its underemployed, who often drive taxis to make ends meet.

Irans per-capita gross domestic product, often used as a rough sense of a nations standard of living, is just over $6,000, compared to over $62,000 in the U.S., according to the World Bank. That disparity, especially given Irans oil wealth, fueled the anger felt by demonstrators.

Irans government, however, likely saw little choice in trying to push through changes to its gasoline subsidies. Iran spent $26.6 billion on oil subsidies in 2018, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, the most of any country in the world. Iran spent 15% of its overall GDP, or $69.2 billion, that year on oil, electricity and natural gas subsidies.

Keeping gas costs low also benefits the wealthy, as well as those who smuggle Iranian fuel into other countries.

U.S. sanctions, re-imposed by Trump, largely have stopped Iran from selling its crude oil abroad, cutting into a crucial source of government income. While Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pledged the money saved from cutting gasoline subsidies would go to the poor, Tehran also needs to cut back spending in order to weather the sanctions.

Already, Iranians have seen their savings chewed away by the rials collapse from 32,000 to $1 at the time of the 2015 atomic accord to 126,000 to $1 today. Daily staples also have risen in price.

Even with the hike in gasoline prices, Iran still subsidizes fuel costs. Its economy remains largely state-planned despite privatization efforts. Among other major subsidies are bread and wheat, diesel fuel, heating oil and electricity.

Irans minister of industry and trade, Reza Rahmani, pledged Tuesday that prices will not be increased through the end of the current Iranian year on March 21. However, the gasoline prices came suddenly and without warning overnight, signaling further cuts likely would follow the same way in order to try and control the outcry.

The scale of the gasoline price demonstrations remains unclear even today as Iran so far has not offered nationwide statistics for the number of people arrested, injured or killed in the protests. Amnesty International believes the protests and the security crackdown killed at least 161 people.

One Iranian lawmaker said he thought that over 7,000 people had been arrested, while the countrys interior minister said as many as 200,000 people took part in the demonstrations.

While demonstrators attacked gas stations, the target of choice appeared to be banks. Protesters attacked over 700 banks, smashing ATMs and setting some ablaze, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said. That anger doesnt come as a surprise. In recent years, banks burdened by bad debts or circled by corruption allegations have collapsed in Iran, sparking sporadic protests by depositors who lost their money. Some of those banks had ties to powerful people within Iran, leading to allegations of cronyism.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called those who attacked the banks thugs in his first comments on the demonstrations. His website published a cartoon showing masked rioters attacking a bank, while another frame showed a family and an elderly man with a cane peacefully waiting to withdraw money from an ATM.

Setting fire to such and such bank is not the action of the people, it is the action of thugs, Khamenei said, according to his website. These acts of sabotage do not solve any problem. In fact, they add insecurity to the problems that exist.

However, bank attacks were widespread in 1978 in the months ahead of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi abandoning the throne and the Islamic Revolution. Marxists who hated capitalism, Islamists who opposed usury rates and others taking advantage of the chaos ransacked hundreds of banks, angry over corruption. The Iranian economy nosedived as money flooded out of the country.

The revolution saw millions on the street, something not seen in these recent protests. However, these demonstrations turned violent in the span of a day, showing the danger looming ahead for Irans government as it likely faces further hard choices ahead as sanctions look unlikely to be lifted as it has begun breaking centrifuges, enrichment and stockpile limitations in the nuclear deal.

These riots are not the last ones and it definitely will happen in the future, Revolutionary Guard acting commander Gen. Ali Fadavi has warned.

___

EDITORS NOTE Jon Gambrell, the news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press, has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006. Follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

Continued here:
AP Analysis: Iran protests point to turmoil in the future - Associated Press

November 28, 201912:41 PM

Thousands have been protesting against the government and revolutionary leader Ali Khamenei in dozens of Iranian cities for more than a week now. The security forces have responded with lethal force, with human rights organization Amnesty International reporting more than a hundred deaths. The announcement made on the night of Nov. 15 that gasoline would be rationed and prices would increase dramatically -- in some cases tripling -- triggered the protests. Under sanctions imposed by the United States, Iran is only able to export small amounts of oil and goods, which has created a financial and economic crisis in the country. One of the aims of the American sanctions is to provoke protests. Officials in Washington hope a counterrevolution can bring down the regime. DER SPIEGEL spoke with Iranians who have witnessed the protests. To protect the interviewees, their names have not been used in this article, although their identities are known to the journalist.

Teacher, 37, from Tehran: "The news that gasoline prices would now double, from 1,500 toman to 3,000 toman (around 60 euro cents) per liter hit like a bang. At first, there was a silent protest in front of the university building. In addition to being a high school teacher, I am also completing a doctorate in architecture. I happened to be there when security forces in civilian clothes surrounded and removed some of the demonstrators. I wanted to get home fast, but the Revolutionary Guards stopped me. They called me a "traitor" and a "slut" and said I wasn't a real Muslim. They arrested me too. The police station was totally overcrowded. They insulted and intimidated me. I was allowed to leave after a few hours.

I rushed home. My brother wasn't there. No one had heard from him for 24 hours. A few days ago on Instagram, he wrote, "I have an important question for our leaders: You are so proud of the many missiles you have built to fight Israel. Are you also saving on gas there?" My brother is 27 years old and studying law.

Our internet connected was dead. The phones didn't work. We checked the police stations. It turned out the Revolutionary Guards had arrested him. We kept negotiating until he finally got released. He was totally exhausted. They had terrorized and humiliated him. He was ashamed to say what really happened to him in jail. We now know that many young demonstrators were killed. Just like that, shot on the street."

Islamic theology student, 56, from Shiraz: "When I came back from Tehran to my hometown of Shiraz this week, the streets in the north were full of people. We drove through the Maliabad district, where there are two gas stations. They were on fire. The driver said people were protesting over gas prices. He said they had set the gas stations on fire.

I am very religious and began pursuing a degree in Islamic theology at a later stage in my life. I trust the wisdom of our spiritual leader Khamenei. Closeness to God fulfills me. The protesters are enemies of our republic. They are being manipulated by our opponents, the Zionists. They support U.S. President Donald Trump's imperialist ideas. The Americans want to destroy Islam.

I don't really think there's a shortage of gasoline in Iran. It's all propaganda. President Hassan Rohani wants to stir up unrest in the Islamic Republic to please the Americans. He's a puppet of imperialism. He must have lost his faith.

I live in Farhang Shahr, a middle-class area. The enemies of the state also gathered there. The security forces pushed the demonstrators back. They told the protesters to go home. Then shots were fired. It must have been agents of Israel and America who sought to further incite demonstrators against the government.

We're being bombarded from the outside with false information. That's why it's good for the government to turn off the internet. Then the U.S. and Israel won't be able to continue wrongly and negatively influencing people here."

Web designer, 32, from Shiraz: "In the beginning, we, the protesters, walked silently down the street. The crowd kept growing. Then, some started shouting slogans, like: "Not Lebanon, not Gaza, I will only sacrifice myself for my fatherland Iran!" The idea was that Iran should not interfere with the conflicts of Arab countries. Another slogan was: "Our enemy isn't America, our enemy is here!" Shots were fired. They were trying to scare us. They also used tear gas. Civilian police, who had only moments ago been walking with the crowd as if they belonged to the demonstrators, suddenly began arresting people. Everyone panicked and scattered.

We just wanted someone to listen to our problems -- they mayor of Shiraz, for example, or an imam. But no one came. The reality is that other prices will go up along with gasoline prices -- bread, eggs, meat, rent. A lot of people are losing their jobs right now.

We're four people in my family. We all live in the same apartment. My dad works as a painter, my mother is a teacher, I'm a web designer and my brother is employed by the city. But the high inflation means we still don't have enough money to buy things like fresh fruit every day. We never go on vacation. We seldom invite friends over anymore. We can only afford meat once a week. The recent price increase just went too far. The situation gets even worse with each new uprising. I would like to start a family, but I can't afford it. Nobody gives us any help. Has the world forgotten us?"

City tour guide, 30, from Shiraz: "Our office is located directly on the big street where the protests took place. Many tourists from Europe, Sweden, Germany and England who had signed up for tours have since canceled their trips because of the unrest. For us, this means we won't make any money yet again.

My cousin Rubina called. She was upset and crying and said she had gotten caught up in a demonstration in front of the university in Maliabad. She saw a fellow student get shot in the head. He fell to the ground and everyone screamed. Rubina thinks he died before the ambulance arrived to take him away. The Revolutionary Guards had simply mingled among the protesters. That's why we no longer know which of the demonstrators belong to us and which belong to them.

On Tuesday, my cousin and I arranged to meet in the city center, at the intersection near the Saadi cinema. Protesters had just set banks there on fire. They wanted to send a message against inflation. There were police and intelligence service people everywhere. It was chaotic. We stayed in the background because we feared they would shoot again.

They're blocking the internet so that none of this gets out. They're cutting us off. Blood is being shed again in vain. We need this connection to the outside world. Call us! Come to our country! Don't forget us."

Architect, 28, from Bushehr: "The price increases have really upset people. The protesters have been normal, mostly poorer people. They made no secret of how fed up they are with the government. They want a regime change.

There were police and members of the Revolutionary Guard everywhere. They aimed hot water at the demonstrators and used tear gas. I saw it myself. It was eerie to observe how they neither allowed the protesters to move forward nor backward. This country has no plan for the future. The economic situation is no longer bearable. It is entirely unclear what will happen next. Perhaps the Iranians will soon be at each other's throats?

My wife's trying to get a student visa for Canada right now. I just want to leave this country."

Businessman, 37, from Tehran: "We're a family business that sells technical equipment. Things were going quite well for us, but everything has been back to zero since the sanctions went into full force again. We are living off our savings. Costs are constantly increasing as incomes decline. The economic pressure on the people has now led to this backlash.

It was the poorer people from the south who took to the streets in Tehran. They set banks on fire as a statement against inflation. In the nearby town of Karaj, people deliberately created traffic jams on the highway. The anger is unrestrained. But the Revolutionary Guard showed up everywhere at once. They were very harsh toward the demonstrators.

Mistrust toward President Hassan Rohani is growing in Iran. The government is chaotic. The people are suffering extremely from the fact that few countries are willing to work with Iran. Things can't continue like this. We now have the feeling that we have been left completely alone here. No one in the outside world will know if they are persecuting or killing us."

Art teacher, 43, Shiraz: "I haven't allowed my son to go to school for a week now. We've barely left our home since the unrest began. The atmosphere outside is tense and things are only slowly quieting down. Banks and other institutions in Tehran have been set on fire and destroyed. What's left is a feeling of serious insecurity. Our trust in this government has been exhausted. There's fraud and corruption everywhere. Things can't go on like this. I can't see anything positive here any longer. My husband and I both make money, but it's not enough to make ends meet. We're so tired of this fight. I wish I could travel back through time to the days before the revolution. Everything needs to change. I would love to live in another country."

More:
'Has the World Forgotten Us?': Eyewitnesses on the Unrest in Iran - SPIEGEL ONLINE