Schoolgirls screamed, protest songs were played, workers went on strike, and street brawls broke out all around Iran as Mahsa Amini’s murder rallies reached their fourth week in spite of a brutal crackdown.
The death of the Iranian-Kurd, 22, on September 16, three days after she had been detained by “morality police” for allegedly breaking Iran’s stringent dress code for women, sparked outrage.
Iran stated on Friday that, despite her family’s claims that she had previously been healthy, an inquiry revealed that Amini died of a chronic disease rather than from “blows” to the head.
But on Saturday, protests persisted even as President Ebrahim Raisi posed with students at Tehran’s all-female Al-Zahra University to commemorate the start of the new academic year.
The administration has characterised the demonstrations as a plot by Iran’s adversaries, particularly the United States, and has blamed armed protesters for the violence that has claimed the lives of at least 20 security personnel.
Raisi spoke to both students and educators. According to state TV, “they think they can accomplish their wicked objectives at universities.” They are unaware that our students and instructors are vigilant and won’t let the enemy accomplish their terrible objectives.
Videos allegedly taken on Saturday, according to the Hengaw rights organisation, show schoolgirls marching along a street while swinging headscarves over their heads in Saqez, Amini’s hometown in the western Kurdistan province.
Another video it posted showed a group of females entering a school in Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Kurdistan, while shouting the same message.
In Sanandaj, where gunfire could be heard in other recordings, horrifying videos of a guy who appeared to have been slain while driving his car were extensively circulated on Twitter.
According to a police officer, the man was slain by “counter-revolutionaries” and that security personnel did not use live ammunition, according to state news agency IRNA. Tehran’s protests were downplayed by Iran’s semi-official news organisations. The ISNA agency denied there was a strike and reported “minimal” protests in ten parts of the city. It was also claimed that many bazaar traders had closed their stores out of fear of property damage.
The fear of arbitrary detention was cited by the French government as the reason for its Friday advice to its citizens visiting Iran to “leave the country as soon as possible.”
The Dutch government recommended its residents stay away from Iran or depart as soon as it was safe to do so. It warned that violent demonstrations could occur in several locations across the nation. A British-Iranian charity worker named Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was detained in Tehran for six years until being freed in March, urged the UK government to take action in response to Iran’s violations of human rights.
“I want the [UK government] to pay attention to what is going on, not to ignore it. I want them to keep us safe. She told Sky News that we cannot remain oblivious to what is taking place in Iran.
And if we talk about defending our citizens’ rights, we ought to take action. And I believe we must hold Iran responsible.
