More than two weeks after the death of Mahsa Amini, the protest movement continues in Iran, even if the information is struggling to filter. On Saturday October 1, demonstrations took place in several universities. “Students demonstrated on Saturday in universities to denounce the actions of the police against the protesters”said the Iranian news agency Fars.
One of these gatherings, in Tehran, gave rise to “collisions” and protesters were arrested, says Fars, who did not detail the location of other protests or the crowds.
On social networks, several verified videos have circulated showing dozens of protesters in universities on Saturday, notably in Tehran and Mashhad, and on Friday in Saqez, the city where Mahsa Amini was from. “The city is drowned in blood, but our teachers remain silent!” chanted protesters outside Karaj University, west of Tehran, according to a video released by the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights.
The Khayan newspaper for its part claimed that its headquarters in Tehran had been attacked on Saturday by “rioters”. The country’s main ultra-conservative daily, Khayan took a stand against the protesters, calling them “mercenaries of the enemy”. He accuses “thugs” linked to the protest movement to have “thrown Molotov cocktails” on the building, partly damaged, and having tried to enter “by shouting insults and slogans against the newspaper”.
Iran Human Rights lists at least 92 dead since the start of the protest movement on September 16, according to a new report published on Sunday (in English). The Fars agency claims that around 60 people were killed. More than 1,200 protesters were arrested, according to an official tally.
Iran Human Rights also lists 41 deaths in a demonstration on Friday in the city of Zahedan. If the NGO links this rally to the rest of the movement triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, the demonstrators in Zahedan were protesting against the rape of a 15-year-old girl by a local police chief. According to Iranian media, five members of the Revolutionary Guards, Iranian intelligence, were also killed during this rally.
Rallies in support of the Iranian movement were organized in more than 150 cities around the world on Saturday, including New York, Rome, Madrid, London, Lisbon, Athens or Tokyo. Tens of thousands of people marched in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver (Canada). More than 1,000 demonstrators were present in Berlin (Germany) and 2,000 in Brussels (Belgium). A march is organized on Sunday in Paris, at the call of several artists, including the author of comic strips Marjane Satrapi.