Dozens of people took to the streets in southeastern Iran on Friday, according to images shared by human rights groups, as the wave of protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini enters her fourth month.
Demonstrators in Zahedan, capital of Sistan-Balochistan, chanted “Death to the dictator”, in reference to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a video released by Iran Human Rights (IHR), based in Oslo and verified by AFP.
Other images from Zahedan show crowds of men, some holding posters with anti-regime slogans, and a group of women dressed in black walking down what appears to be a nearby street, also chanting slogans.
Iran has been plagued by protests since the September 16 death of young Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, 22, after she was arrested by vice police in Tehran who accused her of violating the Republic’s strict dress code. Islamic for women.
Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands arrested amid the protest, prompting international condemnations, sanctions and Iran’s expulsion on Wednesday from a UN commission on women’s rights.
The impoverished and remote province of Sistan-Balochistan, largely Sunni, is located on the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan and populated by the Baloch minority, which is the object of much discrimination, according to various NGOs.
It had been the scene of often deadly violence even before protests broke out across the country.
According to the US-based human rights group HRANA, hundreds of people gathered after Friday prayers in Zahedan.
Demonstrations have taken place in this city every week since the death of more than 90 people on September 30, killed during rallies against the alleged rape of a teenage girl attributed to a police officer.
Hundreds of dead
According to experts, the Baluchis have taken their cue from the demonstrations sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, initially motivated by the defense of women’s rights and which have spread to other demands.
Last week, a cleric was killed after being abducted from his mosque in Khash, Sistan-Balochistan.
Zahedan prosecutor Mahdi Shamsabadi said on Tuesday that the killers of cleric Abdelwahed Rigi had been arrested, accusing the alleged perpetrators of wanting to “sow discord” between the Sunni and Shia communities.
At least 458 people have been killed in the crackdown on protests in Iran since mid-September, according to a report established on December 7 by the IHR, and at least 14,000 have been arrested according to the UN.
The Supreme National Security Council said on December 3 that “more than 200 people” had been killed, including members of the security services.
Iranian justice said to have pronounced 11 death sentences in connection with the demonstrations.
Two first executions have already taken place, those of Mohsen Shekari on December 8 and Majidreza Rahnavard on Monday, both of whom were 23 years old. The last was hanged in public rather than in prison.
Amnesty International said on Friday that at least 26 people were at risk of execution in connection with protests in Iran, which the London-based human rights group says executes more convicts than any other. countries except China.