Protests against Iran’s leadership entered their fourth week with demonstrations that included female university students heckling President Ebrahim Raisi as he visited their campus.
Social media footage showed students at Al Zahra University, Tehran’s most prominent women-only school, chanting “Raisi get lost!” and “Death to the oppressor!” while Raisi gave an annual speech to pro-regime students in a lecture theatre.
Videos also showed students protesting at other campuses in the capital. The footage couldn’t be verified by Bloomberg News.
During Raisi’s speech, which was shown on state TV, he called the protesters “enemies.” He reiterated support for the police and military who’ve been shown in scores of social media posts brutally cracking down on protesters across the country.
US Imposes Sanctions Over Iran Protests as Criticism Escalates
The unrest, some of the most vehement and widespread since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ushered in the current clerical establishment, was triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16. She died in the custody of Iran’s so-called “morality police,” who arrested her for allegedly flouting Islamic dress codes.
The protests have combined anger at Iran’s discriminatory laws against women with other grievances, uniting socioeconomic groups, generations and ethnicities in what seems to be an emphatic rejection of the political system of the past 40-plus years.
Iran’s government hasn’t provided a death toll for the protests since Sept. 24, when it said 41 people had died. On Saturday, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights said at least 185 people have so far been killed by security forces, including 19 children.
Teenagers Killed
A fresh wave of anger was triggered by the deaths of two teenage girls in September, details of which emerged in recent days. The 16-year olds — Nika Shakarami and Sarina Esmaeilzadeh — died in separate incidents, according to their families and human rights groups.
Death of Iranian Teenager Fans Flames of Nationwide Protests
Many of the unverified videos of recent protests have shown armed, uniformed men in full riot gear beating or pushing teenagers and school girls less than half their size.
There were at least two reports of civilians being shot at close range by security forces on Saturday. Several unverified photos and videos from the centre of Sanandaj, the capital of western Kurdistan province, showed a young man bloodied and slumped behind the wheel of his car after having been shot in the head.
According to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Kurdish-Iranian human rights group, security forces shot the man at point-blank range as he sounded his car horn in solidarity with protesters. A security official in Kurdistan province said the man was killed by “antirevolutionary agents” and that police or security forces weren’t in the area, according to the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency.
In another unverified video, purportedly from Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, a woman is shown collapsed in the street. People around her screamed for help and cried “she’s been shot!” It’s unclear whether the woman survived.
Another clip from the weekend, apparently from the central city of Rafsanjan, shows four or five riot police surrounding a young couple. The husband can be heard repeatedly telling them to stop hitting his wife because she’s pregnant.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Iran protests keep pressure on Raisi as he’s heckled on campus
Image: Bloomberg
Protests against Iran’s leadership entered their fourth week with demonstrations that included female university students heckling President Ebrahim Raisi as he visited their campus.
Social media footage showed students at Al Zahra University, Tehran’s most prominent women-only school, chanting “Raisi get lost!” and “Death to the oppressor!” while Raisi gave an annual speech to pro-regime students in a lecture theatre.
Videos also showed students protesting at other campuses in the capital. The footage couldn’t be verified by Bloomberg News.
During Raisi’s speech, which was shown on state TV, he called the protesters “enemies.” He reiterated support for the police and military who’ve been shown in scores of social media posts brutally cracking down on protesters across the country.
US Imposes Sanctions Over Iran Protests as Criticism Escalates
The unrest, some of the most vehement and widespread since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ushered in the current clerical establishment, was triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16. She died in the custody of Iran’s so-called “morality police,” who arrested her for allegedly flouting Islamic dress codes.
The protests have combined anger at Iran’s discriminatory laws against women with other grievances, uniting socioeconomic groups, generations and ethnicities in what seems to be an emphatic rejection of the political system of the past 40-plus years.
Iran’s government hasn’t provided a death toll for the protests since Sept. 24, when it said 41 people had died. On Saturday, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights said at least 185 people have so far been killed by security forces, including 19 children.
Teenagers Killed
A fresh wave of anger was triggered by the deaths of two teenage girls in September, details of which emerged in recent days. The 16-year olds — Nika Shakarami and Sarina Esmaeilzadeh — died in separate incidents, according to their families and human rights groups.
Death of Iranian Teenager Fans Flames of Nationwide Protests
Many of the unverified videos of recent protests have shown armed, uniformed men in full riot gear beating or pushing teenagers and school girls less than half their size.
There were at least two reports of civilians being shot at close range by security forces on Saturday. Several unverified photos and videos from the centre of Sanandaj, the capital of western Kurdistan province, showed a young man bloodied and slumped behind the wheel of his car after having been shot in the head.
According to the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Kurdish-Iranian human rights group, security forces shot the man at point-blank range as he sounded his car horn in solidarity with protesters. A security official in Kurdistan province said the man was killed by “antirevolutionary agents” and that police or security forces weren’t in the area, according to the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency.
In another unverified video, purportedly from Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, a woman is shown collapsed in the street. People around her screamed for help and cried “she’s been shot!” It’s unclear whether the woman survived.
Another clip from the weekend, apparently from the central city of Rafsanjan, shows four or five riot police surrounding a young couple. The husband can be heard repeatedly telling them to stop hitting his wife because she’s pregnant.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
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