The antigovernmental protests flared up in Iran following a 22-year-old girl’s, Mahsa Amini, death in police custody on September 16, 2022.
Iran has imposed tough restrictions on the use of the internet in a bid to hamper protests.
Protests flared in Iran for an eighth straight night Friday over the death of a young woman arrested by the morality police, verified social media posts showed, hours after counter-demonstrations mobilized by authorities.
Almost Fifty people have been killed by security forces in the antigovernmental protests, Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based organization, said — more than three times the official death count of seventeen, which includes five security personnel.
The street violence, which IHR says has spread to 80 towns and cities, was triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurd who had spent three days in a coma after being detained by the morality police in Tehran.
Scared Government?
The new measures will “help counter the Iranian government’s efforts to surveil and censor its citizens,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“It is clear that the Iranian government is afraid of its own people,” he added.
On Friday, thousands took to the streets in support of the hijab at government-backed counter rallies in Tehran and other cities.
“The great demonstration of the Iranian people condemning the conspirators and the sacrileges against religion took place today,” Iran’s Mehar news agency said.
Mortal Clashes Throughout Iran
Amini died on September 16, 2022 three days after she was hospitalized following her arrest by the morality police, the unit responsible for enforcing the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Activists said she suffered a blow to the head in custody but this has been disputed by the Iranian authorities, who have opened an investigation.
After she was pronounced dead, angry protests flared and spread to major cities, including Isfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz and Tabriz as well as her native Kurdistan province.
In the latest violence, demonstrators clashed with security forces on Friday evening in the city of Bokan in West Azerbaijan province, said Hengaw, a human rights organization. The report by this Kurdish organization could not be independently verified.
Babol city, in northern Mazandaran province, demonstrators were seen setting ablaze a large billboard bearing the image of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the videos those were shared online.
Unverified footage showed protesters setting fire to a base of the feared Basij militia on Ferdowsi Street in downtown Terhan. It could not immediately be verified.
Some women demonstrators have defiantly taken off their hijabs and burned them in bonfires or symbolically cut their hair before cheering crowds, video footage spread virally on social media has shown.
Devastating Counter Attacks
Demonstrators have hurled stones at security forces, set fire to police cars and chanted antigovernment slogans, state news agency IRNA reported.
“The government has responded with live ammunition, pellet guns and tear gas, according to videos shared on social media that have also shown protesters bleeding profusely,” the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said.
Government Measures
Internet access has been restricted in what web monitor Net-Blocks has called a “curfew-style pattern of disruptions”.
Measures were taken in response to “the actions carried out via these social networks by counter-revolutionaries against national security”, Iran’s Fars news agency said.
Iran has imposed tough restrictions on the use of the internet in a bid to hamper protesters gathering and stop the flow of images of the backlash from reaching the outside world.
President’s statement
President Ebrahim Raisi, at a news conference in New York where he attended the UN General Assembly, said on Thursday: “We must differentiate between demonstrators and vandalism”.
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