Protesters in Iran remained defiant in the fourth week of a movement against the Islamic republic despite a crackdown including the use of tear gas in Tehran and reports Monday of heavy weaponry used in the Kurdish-populated northwest.
Videos posted on social media indicated that protests flared at various points in the capital and other cities nationwide over the last days, with women seen burning headscarves and shouting slogans against the Islamic system.
Meanwhile, the Kurdish rights group Hengaw accused the authorities of using heavy weaponry, including “shelling” on neighbourhoods and “machine gun fire”, in the northwestern city of Sanandaj — claims which could not be independently confirmed.
The unrest erupted over three weeks ago over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, an Iranian woman of Kurdish origin who died in hospital following her arrest by the notorious Tehran morality police who enforce the strict dress rules on women including compulsory headscarf.
Activists say she was beaten in custody, which is not confirmed by the authorities in Iran, who have ordered an investigation, and where a the medical report released blamed a pre-existing condition.
Outrage over her death sparked protests which have channelled anger among some Iranian women over the compulsory headscarf but have also seen repeated slogans against the Islamic system created by late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the ousting of the shah in 1979.
The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) posted videos it said were of protests in Tehran on Sunday, including at several universities including Amir Kabir and Azad.
Footage shared on social media, including by news site Iran Wire, said that students at the women’s university Al-Zahra in Tehran had shouted slogans against the regime on campus during a visit by President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday.
Student at universities including Tehran Azad also painted their hands red to evoke the crackdown by the authorities on the protests, images showed
State news agency IRNA said police used tear gas “to disperse the crowds in dozens of locations in Tehran”, adding that the demonstrators “chanted slogans and set fire to and damaged public property, including a police booth.
Analysts say that the multi-faceted nature of the protests — ranging from street marches to student strikes to individual actions of defiance — has complicated attempts by the authorities to quell the movement.
This could make them an even bigger challenge to the authorities under supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 83, than the November 2019 protests against energy price hikes that were bloodily put down.
One viral video said to show a woman bare-headed in defiance of the dress code, in a street in the northwestern city of Kermanshah with outstretched arms and offering “free hugs” to passers-by
Source: eNCA
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