Tehran, the country’s capital, saw protesters set a street on fire – Reuters
Despite a crackdown that left at least 83 people dead, the protest movement that began in Iran following the death of a young woman named Mahsa Amini who was detained by the morality police entered its third week on Friday.
On September 16, three days after Mahsa Amini, 22, had been detained for failing to adhere to Iran’s stringent dress code, which particularly mandates that women wear the headscarf, protests broke out.
According to a video clip shared on Twitter by Iran Wire, demonstrators yelled “Woman, life, and freedom” on Thursday night in Sanandaj, the capital of the Kurdistan region in the northwest, where Mahsa Amini is from.
Crowds were reportedly observed “chanting slogans and assaulting security personnel” throughout the nation, particularly in the major cities of Tehran, Isfahan, and Yazd in the country’s centre, according to the website managed by Iranian journalists stationed overseas.
Security personnel and protesters clashed in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad as the latter flung stones at the former while yelling, “Whoever killed my sister will be killed.”
“During the protests, which are the largest since 2019, women have burned headscarves and chopped off their hair in defiance of the authorities.
Iranian filmmakers, athletes, musicians, and actors showed support for the demonstrators, including the national football team, which infuriated the government because they saw the rallies as “riots” that are causing “chaos.”
Since the start of the protests, at least 60 people have died, according to the local Fars news agency, and at least 83, according to the Iran Human Rights Organization in Oslo.
Amnesty International, on the other hand, denounced the “merciless” use of force by the security forces, pointing out the use of live ammunition and beatings to put down protests.
The group alleged that Tehran is intentionally deploying lethal force to put down the demonstrations, and it emphasised the possibility of additional deaths or detentions in the absence of international action.
Amnesty International said in a statement that the Iranian government had “mobilised their unrestrained repressive law enforcement machinery to violently disperse rallies across the country, in an attempt to crush any challenge to their control.”
The group acknowledged that after looking at images and recordings, it had come to the conclusion that the majority of the “victims were killed by security officers who discharged live gunfire.”
In contrast, NGOs claim that activists, attorneys, and journalists have also been detained. The government have announced that more than 1,200 demonstrators have been detained since September 16.
Hossein Manahi, a former Iranian international footballer, was detained on Friday “because he instigated riots through social networks,” according to the official IRNA news agency.
The third week of Iran’s protests over Mahsa Amini’s death has begun.
About Author
