Authorities have arrested 739 people, including 60 women, in northern Iran, accused of participating in the protests triggered a week ago by the death of a young woman detained by the moral police, the Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.
In Guilan province (north), “739 rioters were arrested, including 60 women,” the provincial police chief, General Azizollah Maleki, was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said today that “decisive measures must be taken against those who oppose the security and tranquility of the country” due to the protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, the official IRNA news agency revealed.
According to the agency, Raisi made this statement during a telephone conversation with the family of a member of the security forces who was stabbed to death during the protests that have been taking place in the country for eight days.
The protests began on Friday the 16th, when Amini’s death became known, after being arrested by the Iranian morality police for allegedly wearing the veil incorrectly, and have since spread throughout the country.
Iranian state television put the death toll in the protests at 35, including members of the security forces.
Raisi returned to Tehran on Friday night from New York, after attending the UN General Assembly, where he downplayed the protests, assuring that they are “normal” and that there is freedom in the country, while making it clear that “Vandalism will not be allowed.”
The president today participated in a school year opening ceremony at a Tehran school and was photographed with young students.
However, the main universities in Tehran today suspended face-to-face classes and opted for “online” teaching, a measure that will be applied during the next week and that the authorities justify with the existence of two holidays, the anniversaries of the death of Muhammad (on Sunday) and Imam Reza (Tuesday).
The capital’s universities were the scene of protests last week over Amini’s death and “online” classes are held despite the fact that the internet has been heavily restricted for days in the country.
Amini was arrested on Tuesday last week by morality police while visiting Tehran and taken to a police station to participate in “an hour of re-education” for allegedly wearing the veil incorrectly.
The young woman died three days later in a hospital where she arrived in a coma after suffering a heart attack, which the authorities attributed to poor health, something that the family rejected.
The death of Mahsa Amini managed to galvanize the empathy of thousands of Iranians, unlike other occasions in which the demonstrations were reduced to the protest of social groups normally mobilized for economic reasons.
Source: TSF
