They rose to 9 the dead in Iran in the protests that erupted following the death of the 22-year-old in Tehran Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by the moral police for not wearing the veil correctly. The BBC reports, stating that among the nine people killed there is also a 16 year old boy, shot when security forces opened fire on demonstrators. Official sources specify that three of the victims are security agents. According to Iranian news agencies, an agent was stabbed to death in Tabriz, in the north-west of the country and one in Mashhad, in the north-east, while another was killed on Tuesday during the protests in Shiraz.
Videos posted online and related to Wednesday’s protests show women waving their veils in the air or burning them. In Iran wearing the veil, the hijabit has been mandatory for women since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Mahsa Amini’s death sparked enormous anger in the population and the worst protests in the Islamic Republic since 2019. Most of them concentrated in the northwest of Iranpopulated by Kurdsbut they have spread to the capital and at least 50 cities and towns across the country, with police using force to disperse protesters.
Protesters in Tehran and other Iranian cities have set fire to police stations and vehicles. In the north-east, however, protesters shouted “We will die, we will die but we will get Iran back” near a police station that was set on fire, as shown in a video posted by the Twitter account 1500tasvir, which deals with the protests. in Iran and has around 100,000 followers.
Another police station was set on fire in Tehran as riots spread from Kurdistan, the hometown of Amini. His death rekindled the fury throughout the Islamic Republic on issues such as restrictions on personal freedoms – including strict dress codes for women – and an economy suffering from sanctions. Iranian clerical rulers fear a resumption of protests of 2019, which broke out due to the increase in the price of gasoline, the bloodiest in the history of the Islamic Republic. Reuters reported 1,500 deaths. This week the protesters also expressed anger at the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Mojtaba, may you die and not become the Supreme Leader,” a group of people were seen singing in Tehran, referring to Khamenei’s son, who according to some could succeed his father at the top of the Iranian political establishment.
As reported by the Kurdish human rights group Hengawthe balance of victims in Kurdish areas had risen to 12 Wednesday. Iranian officials have denied that the security forces killed the protesters, suggesting they may have been shot at by armed dissidents. With no sign of easing the protests, the authorities have limited Internet access, according to testimonies from residents of Hengaw and the NetBlocks observatory. Women played a prominent role in the protests, waving and burning their veils and some by cutting their hair in public. In a video shot in northern Iran, a mob armed with batons and stones attacked two members of the security forces on a motorcycle as the crowd cheered.