Iran rights group says 185 killed, including 19 kids, in protests crackdown
Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization says some 20 security forces members also dead in wave of demonstrations now in fourth week
At least 185 people, including 19 children, have been killed in protests across Iran since mid-September, according to an Oslo-based human rights group tracking the state crackdown on demonstrators.
Protests erupted on September 17 after the burial of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died in the custody of Iran’s feared morality police. Amini had been detained for an alleged violation of strict Islamic dress codes for women.
Since then, protests spread across the country and have been met by a fierce crackdown, in which dozens are estimated to have been killed and hundreds arrested. The protests — the most sustained in Iran in years — are now entering their fourth week and appear to pose a serious challenge to the country’s theocratic leaders.
“At least 185 people, including at least 19 children, have been killed in the nationwide protests across Iran. The highest number of killings occurred in Sistan and Baluchistan province with half the recorded number,” the Norway-based Iran Human Rights said on Saturday, in a statement cited by Reuters.
Some 20 members of Iran’s various security forces and armed groups have also died in this timeframe, according to the groups.
On Sunday, videos on Iranian social media appeared to show students staging a protest on the campus of al-Zahra University in Tehran, a day after students chanted against Iran’s president during a visit there.
The Guardian reported Sunday that schoolchildren are also being arrested on school premises, citing social media reports from inside Iran.
Video footage referenced by The Guardian and Reuters showed hundreds of high school girls and university students participating in a protest on Sunday as security forces used teargas, clubs, and reported live ammunition, the rights groups said.
Protests erupted in cities across Iran also on Saturday. In Tehran’s bazaar, traditionally a stronghold of Iran’s rulers, a crowd set fire to a police kiosk. Later that evening, anti-government marches drew a large crowd in the capital’s central Naziabad area, social media posts showed.
Also on Saturday, hackers disrupted an Iranian state broadcaster’s leading news program with a message supporting anti-regime protests.
The news program was broadcasting an appearance by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, then abruptly cut to a screen with photos of young women and girls who have been killed during the protests.
Among the images was a photo of Amini, 22, whose death last month ignited the furious uprising against the regime.
Above the photos was an image of Khamenei with crosshairs centered on his forehead. Protesters have regularly chanted “Death to the dictator” and called for regime change.
A hacking group called Edalat-e Ali claimed responsibility for the disruption. The group hacked into the Iranian state broadcaster’s website and posted an opposition message on the page earlier this year, Iran International reported.
Meanwhile, Iranian officials have wielded state media to blame unrest on foreign powers.
Khamenei said last week that the “riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees.”
The protests over Amini’s death have tapped into a deep well of grievances in Iran, including the country’s surging prices, high unemployment, social restrictions and political repression. Demonstrations have continued in Tehran and far-flung provinces even as authorities have restricted internet access to the outside world and blocked social media apps.
Last Thursday, EU lawmakers approved a resolution calling for sanctions against those responsible for the death of Amini and the subsequent crackdown.
Germany, along with fellow EU member France, is among the nations that are part of a 2015 agreement with Iran to address concerns over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and have been attempting to revive the deal.
Talks on the deal have languished but if it’s reinstated, the agreement would provide sanctions relief that would help strengthen the Iranian government.
Germany’s foreign minister called on Sunday for European Union entry bans and asset freezes against Iranian officials involved in the crackdown.
“Those who beat up women and girls on the street, carry off people who want nothing other than to live freely, arrest them arbitrarily and sentence them to death stand on the wrong side of history,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was quoted as telling Sunday’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
“We will ensure that the EU imposes entry bans on those responsible for this brutal repression and freezes their assets in the EU,” she added. “We say to people in Iran: We stand and remain by your side.”
Baerbock didn’t name any specific individuals or organizations.
