Schoolgirls waved their headscarves, employees went on strike, and clashes pitted protesters against police. Protests in Iran sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini entered their fourth week on Saturday despite a deadly crackdown.
Anger erupted across the country following the death of the 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman in hospital on September 16, three days after she was arrested in Tehran by police for violating the city’s strict dress code. particular for the use of the veil.
The crackdown intensified during the protest movement, the largest since protests against rising fuel prices in 2019. The Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights reported in a latest count of at least 95 dead since the September 16, while an official report spoke of about 60 deaths, including 12 police officers.
Mahsa Amini ‘died of illness,’ report says
In Tehran, the authorities affirmed this Friday that Mahsa Amini had died from an illness and not from “beatings”. But the girl’s father, Amjad Amini, who said her daughter was in good health before her arrest, dismissed the medical report in an interview with London-based Iran International, a Persian-language television channel. .
“I saw with my own eyes that blood was flowing from Mahsa’s ears and neck,” he said.
Activists and NGOs claimed that she had suffered a head injury while in detention. However, the report by the Iran Forensic Organization did not calm the streets of Iran, and demonstrations in solidarity with this protest continued abroad.
“Woman, life, freedom”, “the police kill the people”…
On the 14th day of protests, Iranian women and men took to the streets in several cities, including Tehran. According to Iranian analyst Omid Memarian, the videos showed numerous protests in Tehran. In one of them, protesters chant “Death to the dictator.”
According to the Iranian news agency Isna, security forces were deployed in force near Tehran’s universities following calls to demonstrate on social media. But according to Isna, the gatherings were “limited.”
Elsewhere in Iran, schoolgirls chanted “Woman, life, freedom” in Saqez, Mahsa Amini’s hometown in the western province of Kurdistan, and marched waving their scarves above their heads, according to videos recorded on Saturday, the Iranian NGO said. human rights based in Norway Hengaw. .
Another widely shared video shows a man changing the text of a slogan on a large public billboard where the phrase “The police serve the people” has become:
“The police kill people.”
And according to verified images online, a large banner placed on an overpass of the Modares highway that runs through central Tehran reads “We are no longer afraid. We will fight.”
In addition, “general strikes” took place in Kurdistan cities Saqez, Sanandaj and Divandarreh, as well as Mahabad in West Azerbaijan province, according to Hengaw.
Violence
In Sanandaj, where gunshots were heard during clashes between protesters and police, a man appears to have been killed while driving his car, according to video widely shared on Twitter. A police chief blamed the death on “rioters”.
Demonstrations were also held in Shiraz (south), as well as in Karaj, near Tehran, while students demonstrated in Isfahan (centre) and Tabriz (northwest), according to the London-based Iran Wire news site.
This Saturday, President Ebrahim Raisi visited a university in Tehran, and young women were seen on campus chanting “Death to the oppressor,” according to the IHR.
Ebrahim Raisi also met with the head of the judiciary and the speaker of parliament, according to the official Irna agency. They stressed “the need for society to unite” in the face of attempts “to discord by enemies.”
Iran accuses foreign countries of fueling the protests, including the United States, its sworn enemy.
In addition, the IHR, citing the NGO Baluch Activists Campaign, gave a new death toll of 90 in the repression of demonstrations last week in Zahedan, in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan (southeast), which are unrelated to the death of Mahsa Amini. . According to NGOs, the protests were sparked by accusations that a police officer raped a teenage girl.
Source: BFM TV
