At least 17 people were killed in public unrest across Iran on Thursday over the death in custody of Kurdish woman Mehsa Amini, local media reported, as online services were cut off in a security crackdown. was
Amini, 22, died last week after being arrested by the Islamic Republic’s feared morality police for allegedly wearing a hijab headscarf “improperly”, and news of her death was widely reported. It gave rise to anger.
Protesters are heard chanting “death to dictator” and “woman, life, freedom” in video footage shared widely online during the biggest wave of protests to rock the country in nearly three years.
The U.S. Treasury Department put the Morality Police on its sanctions blacklist, blaming it for Amini’s death and citing “abuse and torture of Iranian women and violations of the rights of peaceful Iranian protesters.”
Some Iranian women burned their headscarves and symbolically cut off their hair in protest against the strict dress code, echoing solidarity demonstrations from New York to Istanbul.
According to local media, the official death toll rose to at least 17, including five security personnel.
But Iran Human Rights (IHR), an Oslo-based NGO, said it had counted the deaths of at least 31 civilians.
Iranians have “rallied to demand their basic rights and human dignity … and the government is responding to their peaceful protests with bullets,” said its director, Mahmoud Amiri-Moghdad.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups said security forces fired birdshot and metal pellets into the crowd, and deployed tear gas and water cannon.
Protesters pelted stones at them, set police vehicles on fire and shouted anti-government slogans.
Unprecedented images show protesters desecrating or burning effigies of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the late commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani.
On Thursday, authorities arrested two female photographers from the reformist newspaper Shargh, Nilufar Hamidi and Yalda Mowairi, who works for the local press, as well as activist Mohammad Reza Jalaipour, Iranian media reported.
Iran International, a London-based television channel, said prominent freedom of expression activist Hossein Ronaghi was arrested while he was giving an interview.
‘I’m afraid’
Violence was feared to escalate after Iran restricted internet access and blocked messaging apps including WhatsApp and Instagram, as in past crackdowns.
The two apps became the most used in Iran in recent years after authorities blocked other platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.
“People in Iran are being cut off from online apps and services,” Instagram chief Adam Mosseri tweeted, adding that “we hope their right to be online is restored soon.” .
The IHR said mobile internet was completely cut off in the large northern city of Tabriz.
Activists have said that Amini, whose Kurdish maiden name is Jehina, suffered a fatal blow to the head after his arrest in Tehran – a claim that authorities have denied.
Iranian women on the streets of Tehran told AFP they were now more careful about their clothing to avoid a run-in with the morality police.
“I’m scared,” said Nazanin, a 23-year-old nurse, who asked to be identified only by her first name for security reasons, adding that she believes the ethics police “face people at all. Shouldn’t”.
Veteran CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour said an interview with Iran’s ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi in New York on Wednesday was canceled after an aide insisted on wearing a headscarf.
“I politely declined. We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves,” Amanpour, who was born in Britain to an Iranian father, wrote on Twitter.
‘Enemy Conspiracy’
Speaking in New York, where he attended the United Nations General Assembly, Raisi complained of “double standards”, pointing to Israeli operations in the Palestinian territories and the killing of indigenous women in Canada.
But he later told reporters that Amini’s death would “definitely be investigated”, confirming an earlier announcement by authorities that an investigation would be carried out.
In a speech at the United Nations on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid accused Tehran’s leadership of conducting an “orchestra of hate” against Jews.
He said Iran’s ideologues “hate Muslims and kill those who think differently, like Salman Rushdie and Mehsa Amini”.
The protests are the worst in Iran since unrest sparked by a sudden hike in petrol prices in November 2019. Hundreds of people were killed in the crackdown that followed, according to Amnesty.
The unrest comes at a particularly sensitive time for the leadership, as the Iranian economy is mired in a crisis caused largely by sanctions on its nuclear program.
Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called the protests an “enemy plot” and praised the “efforts and sacrifices of the police” as a “failed attempt to fail”.
Iran’s Islamic Development Coordination Council announced a rally on Friday in support of the hijab and a conservative dress code for women.
