(TEHRAN) Clashes erupted on Sunday between groups of students at a top university in Tehran, local media reported, as Iran is rocked by protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.
Posted at 1:42 p.m.
The protests were sparked by the death of the young Iranian Kurd on September 16, three days after she was arrested in Tehran by morality police, who accused her of breaking the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.
Dozens of people, mainly demonstrators but also members of the security forces, were killed during these protests. Hundreds more, including women, have been arrested.
The prestigious Sharif University of Technology, where clashes took place on Sunday, had decided during the month of October to provide its courses online, after clashes between students and the security forces.
On Saturday, when face-to-face classes resumed, “several female students entered the dining room reserved for men” after removing their veils, thus violating Iranian laws on segregation between men and women in certain public spaces as well as the obligation to wear the veil for women, according to the Tasnim News agency.
On Sunday, a group of students “held a rally to protest against the insults and desecrations that took place at the university”, the agency continued.
These students, waving the Iranian flag, called on the university administration “to intervene in the face of anarchy and the violation of norms”.
Another group “shouted rude slogans, destroyed a door and a window before throwing them at the students who were in the room […] injuring some students and university security personnel,” according to the agency.
Tasnim posted a short video allegedly showing students kicking a door, while others blocked it from the inside.
The university said on Sunday it had blocked “a small number of students” implicated in the incidents from accessing the establishment, local media reported.
The latter were “temporarily prohibited from going to the university, for their own good and that of the establishment”, according to a press release quoted by the daily Shargh.
On October 2, riot police dispersed nearly 200 students gathered at the Sharif University of Technology while shouting slogans against Iranian authorities, according to the Mehr news agency.
The police used tear gas, paintballs and non-lethal steel ball weapons.
Iranian Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi said on Saturday that the “riots” following the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran were experiencing their “last days”.
“There are a few gatherings at universities, with fewer and fewer people. The riots are in their last days,” said the deputy minister, quoted by the official Irna agency.