The protest movement in Iran continued this Monday with student protests and strikes at factories in various regions of the country, despite the bloody repression of demonstrations motivated by the death of young Mahsa Amini, almost four weeks ago.
Iran has been rocked by protests since the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Amini, three days after his arrest by the morality police in Tehran. The young woman was arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code, which includes the mandatory use of the veil for women.
The NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), based in Oslo, has already counted 95 deaths in the repression of the demonstrations.
The latest official balance sheet by the authorities also mentions 18 members of the security forces killed.
According to images shown on Monday by the IHR, there were student acts at Gilan University and the Mahabad Girls School, both in the north of the country. In the latter, the students took off their veils in protest.
In Tehran, a crowd gathered on Monday in front of the Polytechnic University to denounce “poverty and corruption” in Iran, while chanting “death to the dictatorship”.
On Sunday (9), students from the University of Azad, also in the capital, showed their hands dyed red to denounce the repression of the demonstrations, according to a video posted on Twitter and verified by AFP.
According to the New York-based NGO Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), there have also been concentrations at other universities, such as Amirkabit.
Strikes
Workers in the industrial sector joined the protest movement.
Videos shared by overseas-based Persian media outlets show workers burning tires in front of the Asaluyeh factory in the south-east of the country.
The authorities describe the demonstrations as “riots” and accuse foreign countries of promoting the protests, especially the United States, a declared enemy of Iran.
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani declared that the government must “protect the security of the nation and its citizens and cannot stand idly by in the face of chaos and disorder.”
In Sanandaj, capital of the province of Iranian Kurdistan (northwest), where Masha Amini was originally from, security forces used “heavy weapons” on Sunday night, denounced the NGO for the defense of human rights Hengaw.
The organization highlights that residential neighborhoods were attacked with “machine guns” in this city, the scene of the most important protests. AFP could not independently verify this information.
New sanctions
Acts of support for protesters in Iran also continued in cities abroad, such as Paris, on Sunday.
According to several pro-human rights organizations, around 100 journalists, activists, artists and members of civil society have been arrested by the Iranian authorities since the protest movement began.
Other Iranian personalities had their passports confiscated for supporting the protesters. Among them are football legend Ali Daei (whose document was later returned), singer Homayoun Shajarian and his wife, actress Sahar Dolatshahi, and filmmaker Mehran Modiri, according to the Ilna news agency.
On Friday (7), the Iranian authorities said that Mahsa Amini died of an illness, not of the aggressions suffered, according to a medical bulletin.
Her father, Amjad Amini, rejected the bulletin, saying his daughter was in good health before her arrest. Activists and NGOs claimed that during her detention, she was wounded in the head.
After the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom announced on Monday sanctions against the Iranian authorities and the morality police, accused of responsibility in the death of the young Kurd.
Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to US President Joe Biden, warned Monday on Twitter that “the world is watching.”
“Over the weekend, innocent protesters, including a young woman, were shot dead (…) Iran’s president compared the protesters to ‘flies,’” Sullivan tweeted.
The European Parliament, in turn, asked the bloc’s Commission to adopt sanctions. The issue will be debated at the next meeting of foreign ministers of the 27 member countries, on October 17th.
