The worst turmoil Tehran has seen in years has seen ongoing clashes among Iranian police and opposition protestors.
One individual said that her neighborhood looked like a battleground. In their seventh day, the protests have already spread to 80 other cities and towns. State media reported that 17 people had died, compared to a human rights organization’s estimate of at least 31 civilian deaths.
The death of a lady held by morality police served as the catalyst for the disturbance. Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, from the northwest city of Saqez passed away on Friday in a Tehran hospital after 3 days in a coma.
On September 13, while she was in the city, she was detained by morality police officials on suspicion of breaking the legislation mandating women to cover their arms and legs with loose clothing and their hair with a hijab, or headscarf. After being transported to a correctional facility, she passed out.
According to reports, police pounded Ms. Amini’s head with a baton and hit her head on a car. She experienced a sudden heart failure, according to the police, who also stated that there is no proof of any abuse.
Only her face and feet were visible when Ms. Amini’s body had been wrapped for burial, according to her father Amjad, who said that the authorities had forbidden him from seeing the entire body.
He stated that she had scars on her feet and that he had requested that medical professionals inspect them but had not received a response.
Mr. Amini also denied allegations that his daughter had pre-existing medical conditions made by Tehran’s director of forensic medicine and the interior minister.
He declared, They are lying. She hasn’t visited a hospital in 22 years, except from a few cold-related illnesses.
The death of Ms. Amini infuriated many Iranians, and the first demonstrations began after her funeral, when women were captured on camera waving their headscarves in the air and yelling “death to the dictator”—a common chant against the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Before the protests began quickly spreading across the nation, students at a number of institutions in Tehran conducted similar demonstrations. Now that so many males are participating, the protest is no longer just about the obligatory hijab. It now goes against the Islamic Republic’s very existence, Rana Rahimpour of BBC Persian said on the Today program. This is the most significant challenge to Iran’s Islamic regime that we’ve seen in recent years, she continued.
It was reported that on Wednesday night, as riot police and plainclothes security personnel attacked demonstrators in many neighborhoods, the central and some northern districts of Tehran became heavily tear gassed.
While yelling anti-Supreme Leader chants, the demonstrators set large trash cans on fire and blocked certain streets. Our correspondent claims that some protestors were detained as security personnel went door to door in the homes and businesses where they had sought refuge.
As protests occurred in dozens of other locations, there was also reports that police stations and other governmental structures being occupied or set on fire.
Social media videos showed people rejoicing when an Ayatollah Khamenei billboard was taken down, as well as ladies cutting their hair in publicly and burning their hijabs on bonfires.
They don’t want an Islamic Republic, a woman could be seen standing up on a police car in footage from Mashhad, the most revered Shia Muslim city in Iran. Mahsa Amini resided in Iran’s Kurdish-populated northwest, which has seen the majority of the country’s bloodiest unrest.
Eight demonstrators were murdered by security forces on Wednesday, according to the Kurdish human rights organization Hengaw, raising the total death toll there to 15. It stated that among those killed on Wednesday night in Oshnavieh and Urmia, both in the West Azerbaijan province, were two youths, ages 15 and 16.
According to a different organization, Iran Human Rights, over the first six days of disturbance, at least 31 civilians have died, including nine in the north-west and 17 in the province of Mazandaran, which is on the Caspian Sea north of Tehran.
The latter total included 11 demonstrators who, according to the report, were shot dead during disturbances on Wednesday in the city of Amol. Iranian officials have blamed rioters rather than admitting that security forces have killed any protestors.
On Thursday, state television stated that 17 individuals, including security personnel and demonstrators, had died. According to semi-official news sources, three members of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force, which is frequently employed to repress internal unrest, perished on Wednesday after being shot or stabbed.
According to internet monitoring organization NetBlocks, Iran now has the most stringent internet restrictions since a widespread anti-government uprising began in November 2019. According to the report, access to Instagram and WhatsApp was being restricted, mobile phone networks were mostly shut down, and internet connectivity was interrupted due to protests.
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