Iran admits children arrested in crackdown on nationwide protests — report

Iran acknowledges for the first time that children were among those arrested in recent weeks as part of a sweeping crackdown on nationwide protests, The New York Times reports.

The report cites statements made by Farshad Ebrahimpour, the deputy chairman of Iran’s parliamentary education commission, to the semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency that a “number” of students under 18 were detained, though he did not specify how many or how long they would remain in custody.

According to The New York Times, rights groups monitoring the unrest say at least 300 children and adolescents have been arrested.

Iran’s National Security Council last week put the official death toll at 3,117, while the opposition-affiliated Iranian news site Iran International puts the number at over 36,000.

An Iranian teachers’ union condemned what it described as the “killing of students and teachers” and the “securitization of education,” calling for the immediate release of detainees, The New York Times reports. Some children have not been heard from since their arrest, the union said.