Protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini spilled over into universities across Iran on Saturday, even as the commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards called on protesters to stop taking to the streets.
Iran has been rocked by a wave of protests since the September 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, who died three days after she was arrested in Tehran by morality police who accused her of breaking the dress code. of the Islamic Republic, imposing in particular the wearing of the veil for women.
To the initial slogan of “women, life, freedom” were added, over the course of demonstrations, however harshly repressed, slogans openly directed against the Islamic Republic founded in 1979.
“Death to the dictator”, protesters chanted again on Saturday during a ceremony marking the end of the traditional 40-day mourning of one of their own, Mohsen Mohammadi, 28, in Divandarreh (Kurdistan), according to defense groups human rights. Wounded by a bullet, he died on his arrival on September 19 at Kowsar hospital.
On Friday evening, security forces fired on a gathering outside the same hospital, who had come to “protect” an “injured” protester whom the authorities were seeking to arrest, the Norwegian-based human rights group Hengaw said on Twitter, posting the photo of a man on a stretcher.
Student protests
According to the same source, the security forces then “fired on a dormitory for medical students”, not far from Kowsar hospital, in Sanandaj, capital of Kurdistan province.
A video verified by AFP shows dozens of police arriving on motorcycles before opening fire on the residence hall of the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences.
On Saturday, the start of the working week in Iran, students demonstrated in particular on the campuses of Tehran, Kerman (southeast) and the city of Kermanshah (northwest), according to videos widely shared on social networks .
According to Hengaw, security forces fired on a protest by female students in Kermanshah and two female protesters are in critical condition.
“Shame, shame,” students shouted as they clashed with security staff at a university in Ahvaz (southwest), in footage posted by social media channel 1500tasvir.
Security forces opened fire and fired tear gas at a gathering of students in the town of Sanandaj, according to the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR).
The new demonstrations took place even as General Hossein Salami, the leader of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, proclaimed during the funeral: “Today is the end of the riots, do not descend any more in the street “.
He was speaking to a mourning crowd gathered in Shiraz for the funeral of the victims of an attack claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) which left 15 dead on Wednesday at a Shiite shrine in this southern city of the country.
During the funeral, slogans were chanted against the “riots”, in reference to the demonstrations triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini.
Court case
The repression of protests since mid-September has left at least 160 dead, including around 20 children, according to the IHR.
In addition, 93 people were killed at the end of September in separate demonstrations in the city of Zahedan (southeast), according to this NGO.
On Friday, protesters in Zahedan came under automatic gunfire after weekly prayers, according to the US-based NGO Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
At least 20 members of the security forces were killed during protests linked to the death of Mahsa Amini and eight others during protests in Zahedan, according to a tally compiled by AFP.
On Friday, IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam urged the UN to “increase diplomatic pressure on Iran and establish an investigative mechanism to hold those responsible” for the crackdown.
Iranian leaders, for their part, continued to point the finger at Iran’s “enemies”.
The Intelligence Ministry and Revolutionary Guards on Friday accused the US intelligence agency CIA and its ‘allies from Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia’ of ‘plotting’ against the Islamic Republic .
The trial of five people, accused of crimes punishable by the death penalty, linked to the “recent riots”, opened on Saturday in Tehran, announced the agency of the Judiciary.
On Wednesday, justice announced that it had charged in many provinces of the country, more than a thousand individuals linked to the demonstrations.