Death toll doubles in Iran protest crackdown

The official death toll has nearly doubled to 35 in a crackdown by Iran‘s security forces on more than a week of protests that erupted after the death of a young woman in custody.

Angry demonstrators have taken to the streets of major cities across Iran, including the capital Tehran, for eight straight nights since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

The Kurdish woman was pronounced dead after spending three days in a coma following her arrest by Iran’s feared morality police for wearing the hijab headscarf in an “improper” way.

“The number of people who died in recent riots in the country has risen to 35,” state media said, raising the official toll from at least 17 dead, including five security personnel.

Protests were held around the Islamic republic on Friday, with online videos showing some turning violent in Tehran and other major cities including Tabriz. In some of the footage, security forces could be seen firing what appeared to be live ammunition at unarmed demonstrators in the northwestern cities of Piranshahr, Mahabad and Urmia.

It said other footage showed a “stream of state security forces… on a Tehran highway” on Friday night. Security forces have carried out a wave of arrests of activists and journalists, including Niloufar Hamedi of the reformist newspaper Shargh, who reported on Amini’s death.

Elsewhere, the Norway-based Kurdish rights group Hengaw said protesters “took control” of parts of the city of Oshnaviyeh, in West Azerbaijan province.

Amnesty International warned late Friday of “the risk of further bloodshed amid a deliberately imposed internet blackout”. The London-based human rights group said evidence it gathered from 20 cities across Iran pointed to “a harrowing pattern of Iranian security forces deliberately and unlawfully firing live ammunition at protesters”.

In its statement, Amnesty said security forces had shot dead at least 19 people on Wednesday night alone, including at least three children.

Thousands of people marched through Tehran during a pro-hijab rally Friday, paying tribute to security forces who have moved to quell a week of protests by what media called “conspirators”.

Activists said she suffered a blow to the head in custody but this has not been confirmed by the Iranian authorities, who have opened an investigation.

Iranian women have burnt their headscarves and symbolically cut their hair in protest at the strict dress code, echoed in solidarity demonstrations from New York to Istanbul and Brussels to Santiago, Chile. On Friday night, Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi insisted Amini had not been beaten.

Source: IOL

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