At least eight demonstrators have died until this Wednesday in the protests of recent days in Iran, following the death of the young Mahsa Amini after having been arrested by the morality police, based on a combined balance.
Public anger erupted when authorities announced Friday the death of 22-year-old Amini, following his arrest by the morality police, charged with making enforce a strict dress code for womenparticularly the wearing of the veil in public.
The young Iranian woman was in a coma after her arrest and died on Friday, three days after being hospitalized.
According to the Iranian authorities, the young woman died of natural causes, but activists and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights affirm that she was violently beaten on the head and against a police vehicle.
On Wednesday, Iranian state media reported that, in the fifth nnight of street protests in 15 cities, police used tear gas and made arrests to disperse crowds of up to 1,000 people.
Ismail Zarei Koosha, governor of Iranian Kurdistan, the young woman’s home province, said Tuesday that three people were killed in the protests, without specifying when.
Like other authorities, blamed the deaths on "an enemy plot".
Meanwhile, Kurdistan Police Commander Ali Azadi announced the death of another person, according to the Tasnim news agency.
In addition, two other protesters died in the province of Kermanshah, said the prosecutor of that region, Shahram Karami, accusing "counterrevolutionary agents"according to quotes collected by the FARS agency.
Finally, the group for the defense of Kurdish rights Hengaw -based in Norway- indicated on Wednesday thatand two other demonstrators, aged 16 and 23had died overnight in West Azerbaijan province.
Hengaw also reported that some 450 people had been injured and nearly 500 arrested, figures that could not be verified with an independent source.
– "Yes to freedom!" –
Some protesters defied authorities by removing their hijabs and setting them on fire, or cutting their hair in the crowd, according to video footage that went viral on social media.
"No to the veil, no to the turban, yes to freedom and equality!", protesters in Tehran shouted. The protests generated a wave of international solidarity and demonstrations of support were organized in other cities such as New York or Istanbul.
Protesters threw stones at security forces and set fire to police vehicles and containers, the official IRNA news agency reported, reporting rallies in cities including Mashhad, Tabriz, Isfahan and Shiraz.
Internet access was restricted. according to monitoring group Netblocks.
Amini’s death and the Iranian security forces’ response to the protests sparked international outcry and were condemned fornations unitedthe United States, France and other countries.
On the sidelines of the General Assembly ofnations unitedin New York, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told AFP that "Iranian leaders should note that the people are unhappy with the direction they have taken. There’s another path they could take".
But the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, an ultra-conservative, accused the West in New York of having a "double standards" on women’s rights.
As Raisi told the UN General Assembly, Westerners only have their attention focused on "on one side and not on all"alluding to the deaths of indigenous women in Canada and Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories.
– "tremendous impact" –
These are the largest protests in Iran since those that occurred in November 2019 due to the increase in fuel prices
Some demonstrations that suppose a "tremendous impact, a crisis in society" Iranianindicated the expert on the Islamic Republic David Rigoulet-Roze, of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs.
"It is difficult to know what the outcome will be, but there is a disconnect between the authorities, with their DNA from the 1979 Islamic revolution, and an increasingly secularized society."he explained.
"What is being called into question is a whole social project. And the authorities are showing doubts about how to act against this movement"he added.
