More than a week after Mahsa Amini’s death, clashes between protesters and security forces remained bloody. According to state television Irib, 41 people were killed. But the toll could well be heavier.
More than a thousand people were reportedly arrested in the north of the country in the space of two days, including journalists present to cover the protests.
Violation of the dress code
Popular anger was sparked on September 16, the day Mahsa Amini died. The 22-year-old, from Kurdistan, had been arrested three days earlier in Tehran for “wearing inappropriate clothing” and not respecting the strict dress code imposed on women in the country.
These unrest are the largest since the November 2019 protests, sparked by rising gasoline prices, in the midst of an economic crisis. A hundred cities were then affected and the repression was brutal, killing 230 people according to the authorities, more than 300 according to Amnesty International.
Riots
Describing the protests as “riots”, ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi called on Saturday “the authorities concerned to act firmly against those who undermine the security and peace of the country and the people”.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry denounced US involvement in the unrest and warned that “efforts to violate Iran’s sovereignty will not go unanswered.” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said he expected “the judiciary to quickly prosecute the main perpetrators and ringleaders”, after the announcement of the arrest of more than 700 people.
The reformist “People’s Union of Islamic Iran” party on Saturday urged the state to rescind the veil requirement and release those arrested. For its part, the government has restricted access to the Internet: WhatsApp and Instagram are thus blocked.
Abroad, rallies in support of the protesters were held in Canada, the United States, Chile, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Iraq, a country neighboring Iran.