Protests flare across Iran in violent unrest over woman’s death
- The Supreme Leader’s representative vowed to pursue the case.
- Mehsa Amini died after being detained by the Morality Police.
- The death sparked angry protests across Iran, including in the capital.
Dubai: Protests continued across Iran for a fourth straight day on Tuesday, and officials said three people were killed in unrest over the death of a young woman in police custody.
gave Death Mehsa Amini, 22, was arrested last week. The ethics police The “improper dress” sparked outrage on a range of issues, including rights, security and an economy plagued by international sanctions.
It is Iran’s worst unrest since street clashes last year over water shortages. The Iranian government blames foreign agents and unspecified terrorists for inciting the violence.
In an apparent attempt to ease tensions, an aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered his condolences to Amini’s family, saying Khamenei was moved and saddened by his death.
“All institutions will take action to defend the rights that were violated,” Khamenei’s representative in Kurdistan province, Abdul Reza Pourzahibi, said while visiting Amini’s family home in Kurdistan province. State media reported.
“As I promised the family. Ms. Amini.I will follow the case of his death till the final conclusion,” Porzahbi said.
Amini went into a coma and died while waiting with other women in the custody of Morality police, who enforce strict laws in the Islamic Republic that require women to cover their hair and wear loose clothing in public.
Her father said she had no health problems and suffered injuries to her legs in custody and blamed the police for her death.
The protests started in Kurdistan and spread to several other provinces in northwestern Iran on Monday and Tuesday.
State media late Tuesday reported “limited rallies” in several cities where it said protesters chanted anti-government slogans, threw stones at police vehicles and damaged public property.
Videos posted on social media websites on Tuesday purport to show demonstrations in provinces across Iran, including several areas that have so far been unaffected by the unrest.
Reuters Could not independently verify these videos.
The deadliest unrest has occurred in the Kurdistan region, where state officials and activist websites have reported at least three deaths.
The Kurdish human rights group Hengao said three of the dead were killed on Monday when security forces opened fire.
The governor of Kurdistan province said the killings were suspicious and blamed on unspecified terrorist groups.
“A citizen of (the city of) Dewandarra was killed with a weapon that is not used by the armed forces. Terrorist groups are trying to kill,” Ismail Zari Kosha said in comments to the semi-official Fars News Agency. “
Tehran Governor Mohsin Mansouri blamed foreign agents for fueling the violence in the nation’s capital. He said that during the overnight gatherings, citizens of three foreign countries were arrested.
‘Amini, rest in peace’
gave protestAmini’s death, said Sanam Vakil of the Chatham House think tank, “has highlighted the underlying issues that ordinary Iranians face every day, from security to freedom”.
“I don’t think it’s an existential challenge for the regime … because the Iranian regime has a monopoly of power, a good security strategy that it already has,” he added.
Protesters marched through Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Monday chanting “Mahsa Amini, Aram Mein Aram,” according to a video posted by the widely followed 1500Tswar Twitter account, which captured the footage. Publishes what it receives from the public.
At a large demonstration in Tehran, a crowd of black-clad protesters chanted, “Oh the day we will be armed,” according to another video posted overnight by 1500 Tasweer.
Reuters Unable to verify videos.
Elsewhere in Tehran, protesters took to the streets chanting anti-Khamenei slogans and police fired tear gas to disperse them, the semi-official Fars news agency reported in a rare acknowledgment by state-affiliated media of the scale of the unrest. Reported.
Activist social media accounts, including 1500 Tasweer, said the protests had spread to several areas in northwestern and central Iran, such as Tabriz, Arak and Isfahan.
Hangu said protests took place in 13 cities on Monday and 250 people were arrested.
Reuters Could not independently verify these reports.