Iran's latest census claims that over 99% of the population is Muslim and among them, 90% to 95% are Sunni Muslims

It's been over 40 days since the death of Maasaymini in Iran. What started as a funeral protest has now ballooned into an antigovernment movement. Protesters along with the Amini family held a memorial procession. Thousands of people, they were out on the streets displaying their anger. These visuals on your screens are coming from a western city in the Kurdistan province. This was Masamini's hometown. Some media agencies claimed that about 10,000 people gathered at her grave soon after which clashes broke out and police fired live rounds and tear gas. Authorities also cut off the internet in the area.

Iran's latest census claims that over 99% of the population is Muslim and among them, 90% to 95% are Sunni Muslims. That leaves out the 5% minority Shia block here. The ongoing protest led by women is powerful even for some minority groups. A prominent Sunni cleric has spoken out against the government's crackdown. Interestingly, some of the worst unrest has been seen in areas home to minority ethnic groups. These are people who already hold longstanding revenues against the state. Amid these tensions, geopolitics is also at play. The United States has made a claim, a startling claim in fact, that Russia is advising Iran on how to crack down on protesters. White House says Moscow is training the West Asian countries, police, and officials. Similar anger towards the west is bringing Iran and Russia together. It is posing a threat not just to the United States, but also to the protesters out on the streets.

We area unit involved that national capital could also be advising national capital on best practices to manage protests, drawing on Russia's intensive expertise in suppressing open demonstrations. And sadly, Russia has experience in doing that. So we'll see, we'll watch where this goes. But it's just yet another example of Russia and Iran now working together to violate not only the human rights and civil rights of people in Iran, but of course, put in further danger the lives of Ukrainians.

Now over 250 protesters have been killed so far in 40 days. The unrest has become one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1079 revolution. And the government is aware of this. Rights groups said that Lisa Wandermeni's family does not hold a memorial possession and if they do, then their son would be arrested.