Iranian protesters rallied again on Sunday, defying an order from the powerful Revolutionary Guards to halt demonstrations – now in their seventh week – sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini
Students rallied across Iran overnight and Sunday, even after Major General Hossein Salami, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned protesters: “Don’t take to the streets!”
Amini, 22, died in custody on September 16 after being arrested in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women, sparking a wave of unrest and a state response to the “riots” that were being reported Amnesty International called it a “brutal crackdown”. .
Security forces fired shots and tear gas at a gathering of students in the western US city of Sanandaj on Sunday, where videos showed billowing smoke amid chants of “freedom,” Norway-based organization Hengaw reported.
It also released video showing the sound of ringing gunshots and a 12-year-old girl wailing with a bloodied arm riddled with metal pellets, in reports AFP has not been able to independently verify.
Security forces are struggling to contain the protests, which began with women taking to the streets and burning their hijab headscarves and have evolved into a broader campaign to end the Islamic Republic established in 1979.
– Over 160 dead –
Students protested on Saturday at campuses in Tehran, Kerman in the south of the country and the western city of Kermanshah, as online videos showed.
“Every killed person is followed by a thousand people!” Protesters shouted at a protester’s funeral on Saturday in Arak, southwest of Tehran, footage released by social media channel 1500tasvir showed, adding that the crowd was later dispersed with tear gas.
Demonstrations on Sunday were reported at several universities, including the capital, Mazandaran and Mashhad, where Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said crowds shouted “death to the dictator”.
IHR said Friday that at least 160 protesters, including more than two dozen children, have been killed since the protests began.
At least another 93 people were killed in separate demonstrations that broke out in the southeastern city of Zahedan on September 30 over the alleged rape of a teenager by a police commander, according to the rights group.
In Amini’s hometown of Saqez, plainclothes security forces broke up a protest at a vocational school where officers “attacked students and kidnapped a number of them,” Hengaw said.
– Journalist protest –
Hundreds were arrested and on Sunday more than 300 Iranian journalists and photojournalists signed a statement condemning the authorities for “arresting colleagues and stripping them of their civil rights after their arrest”.
The reformist daily Sazandegi said on Sunday that “more than 20 journalists are still in detention,” while the Tehran Journalists’ Association dismissed the “security approach” as “illegal” and “in conflict with press freedom.”
Tehran has tried to portray the protest movement as a conspiracy by its nemesis, the United States, and has accused some journalists of having received “training courses” to change power in Tehran.
According to local media, a security services report referred to journalist Elaheh Mohammadi from Sazandegi newspaper and photographer Niloufar Hamedi from Shargh daily, who helped publicize Amini’s case and who have been detained for weeks.
Both media outlets questioned the report, with Shargh editor-in-chief Mehdi Rahmanian insisting that “our journalist and our newspaper … acted within the framework of the journalistic mission”.
The protests in Iran are being reflected in numerous rallies of support in cities around the world.
On Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau marched with protesters in the capital Ottawa and told Iranian activists that “we will stand by you”.
