Thousands of Iranians took to the streets this weekend, defying an order by the powerful Revolutionary Guard to halt the demonstrations, now well into their seventh week, over the death of Mahsa Amini. Students gathered across the country on Saturday and Sunday, even after Major General Hossein Salami, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned protesters: “Don’t go out on the streets!”
This Sunday, security forces fired shots and tear gas at a gathering of students in the town of Sanandaj, with videos of the incident showing clouds of smoke accompanied by cries of “freedom,” the Norwegian organization Hengaw reported.
Iranian authorities have intensified repression on universities with the removal of students from colleges and residences for participating in the protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, in addition to the detention of an unspecified number of students.
University sources told EFE that there have been numerous evictions of students from universities and student residences in Tehran over the weekend for their role in the protests. “Until now, students have been able to protest in a climate of relative freedom,” a university source told EFE, asking for anonymity, adding, “This is over.”
Videos shared in the media by the collective 1500tasvir showed a heavy police crackdown on Saturday at Azad University in the city of Mashad, Iran’s spiritual capital in the northwest of the country. One of the videos shows students running away from the police to avoid being beaten.
Clashes broke out at the University of Tehran between students and the Basijis, the voluntary militia loyal to the Islamic Republic. “Basiji, Revolutionary Guards, you are our ISIS,” the students chanted.
Hours earlier, male and female college students had eaten together in the open spaces of the university to protest the country’s gender segregation policies. Activists say the student flat on the Tehran campus was “attacked” overnight by plainclothes police, and an unknown number of arrests were made. Similar scenes took place in universities across the country, according to activists.
The Tehran Journalists Association this Sunday published a letter signed by 300 reporters in several Iranian newspapers calling for the release of colleagues Nilufar Hamedi, who had gone to the hospital where Amini had been admitted, and Elahe Mohammadi, who covered her funeral. The two were accused by Iranian intelligence agencies of having worked for the CIA.
“Journalism is not a crime,” the paper said. Sazandegi on the front page, a sentence accompanied by photos of Hamedi, Mohammadi and 11 other journalists who were arrested for covering the protests sparked by Amini’s death on September 16, after being detained by the moral police. all the newspaper Hammihan devoted its first page exclusively to Hamedi and Mohammadi.
with agencies
Source: DN
