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gunfire was fired as iranian security forces On Wednesday, Mahsa Amini was killed in a crackdown that has left at least 108 people dead, many of them children.
READ ALSO | Iran’s top leader calls anti-hijab protests ‘scattered riots’
In a video shared by two Norwegian human rights groups, gunfire interrupted chants of demonstrators in the cities of Isfahan and Karaj, as well as Amini’s home city of Sakiz.
In a video verified by AFP, schoolgirls defiantly took off the mandatory hijab, chanting “death to the dictator” as they marched through a street in Tehran.
According to a video posted on Twitter by the Iranian Human Rights Organization (IHR), gunfire was heard in Isfahan and Sagez amid “nationwide protests and strikes,” according to Kurdish rights group Hengaw, the group reported. Later, “security forces fled,” he said.
Amini, 22, died on September 16 after falling into a coma after being arrested by the notorious ethics police in Tehran for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.
READ ALSO | Iran suffers internet ‘major disruption’ as major anti-hijab protests loom
Young women, college students and even schoolgirls have since removed their headscarves to confront security forces in Iran’s biggest wave of social unrest in nearly three years.
Human rights groups said at least 28 children were killed and hundreds were detained, mostly in adult prisons.
The deadly unrest has particularly rocked Amini’s western hometown of Sanandaji in Kurdistan province – and Zahedan in southeastern Iran, where a police commander reportedly raped a teenage girl on September 30. , where demonstrations broke out.
On Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei again accused Iran’s “enemies” of inciting “street riots”.
“The actions of the enemy, such as propaganda, trying to influence minds, creating excitement, encouraging or even teaching the creation of incendiary devices, are now completely clear,” he said.
The ISNA news agency reported the presence of large numbers of security personnel in the capital and demonstrations, including at the University of Tehran, where police intervened “to restore order without resorting to violence”.
‘Bloody crackdown’ is worrying
Activists in Tehran called on protesters to “stand in solidarity with the people of Sanandaj and the heroic people of Zahedan”.
“We don’t want an audience. Come and join us,” a group of mostly young women outside Tehran’s Azad University sang in AFP-verified IHR footage.
An image obtained by AFP shows the protest slogan “Women, Life, Freedom” sprayed on the walls of the former US embassy – abandoned after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and subsequent hostage crisis – but later painted over Lost.
A man, who asked not to be named, told the BBC: “The atmosphere is tense, but it’s also exciting. There is hope this time around and we hope that real change is around the corner. I don’t think people will be willing to give up on this one.
“Almost every night you can hear protests everywhere. It feels good, it feels really good.”
Security forces have so far killed at least 108 people and at least 93 others in Zahedan, the International Health Regulations said, while warning Kurdistan of “an imminent bloody crackdown”.
It also said workers took part in protest strikes this week at the Asalouyeh petrochemical plant in the southwest, Abadan in the west and Bushehr in the south.
In a widening crackdown, Iran has blocked social media, including Instagram and WhatsApp, and launched mass arrests.
missing children
EU countries agreed on Wednesday to take punitive measures against Tehran.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was time “to sanction those responsible for Iran’s “repression of women”, while French President Emmanuel Macron expressed solidarity with the protesters.
The Tehran-based Society for the Protection of Children’s Rights reported the deaths of 28 minors and condemned violence against children by security forces.
It criticized “the family’s ignorance of the whereabouts of the children, cases being conducted without lawyers, and the lack of children’s judges and police”.
“The average age of detainees in many recent protests is 15,” Revolutionary Guard Deputy Commander Ali Fadawi told Iranian media on October 5.
Canada’s foreign minister slammed Iran for killing child protesters on Twitter.
“Canada condemns the Iranian regime’s continued violence against protesters, resulting in the deaths of civilians, including children,” Melanie Jolly wrote. “The continued arbitrary detention and abuse of protesters must stop.”
Human rights lawyer Hassan Raisi said about 300 people between the ages of 12 and 19 were in police custody, some in adult drug offenders detention centres.
Iran’s judiciary said more than 100 people had been charged in Tehran and Hormozgan provinces alone.
An official Iranian forensic investigation found that Amini died of a long-term illness rather than the reported beating.
Her parents denied this and lodged a complaint with those involved. A cousin who lived in Iraq told AFP she died “from a severe blow to the head”.
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