Demonstrations took place at universities in several Iranian cities on Saturday as part of a protest movement sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in mid-September after she was arrested by Tehran’s vice police, according to Iranian media and human rights organizations.
Demonstrations of solidarity with the protest movement in Iran took place in several cities around the world.
The demonstrations that led to their repression and the clashes that resulted in the death of at least 83 people, according to human rights organizations, began after the announcement of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, three days after her arrest for violating a strict dress code in Iran, which requires women to wear a veil.
Today, Saturday, the Fars news agency reported that “on Saturday at some universities, students staged protests against the behavior of the police in relation to recent demonstrations.”
The agency said that rallies also took place at “Engelab Square” near Tehran University in the center of the capital, “police officers encountered demonstrators chanting slogans and detained some of them.”
The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) posted on its Twitter account a video of protesters at Hawazmi University in Karaj, west of Tehran, shouting: “The city is drowning in blood, but our professors are silent! “, according to the translation. This is stated in the tweet.
The center released other videos of demonstrators at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Mashhad, in the country’s northeast.
Videos verified by Agence France-Presse were circulated on social media showing meetings at various universities, especially in Mashhad and Tehran.
Videos show demonstrators chanting slogans in Farsi as headscarf-less girls are photographed from behind.
Authorities deny any police involvement in the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, and label the protesters “rioters” and “terrorists.” And announced the arrest of hundreds of them.
Human rights organizations and organizations that include Iranian dissidents abroad called for solidarity demonstrations in several cities around the world over the weekend.
Witnesses reported the deployment of special forces at crossroads in Tehran.
According to its organizers, solidarity rallies with the participation of Iranian emigrants were organized outside of Iran today, on Saturday, in more than 150 cities.
About a thousand people gathered in the center of Berlin under the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom”. The demonstrators, most of whom were Iranians, held banners reading “Be our voice” and “Get your moans off my body.”
More than 2,000 people gathered in Brussels as two Iranian women shaved their hair in protest.
Demonstrations were also organized in Rome, Madrid, Athens, Bucharest, London, Lisbon, Warsaw and Tokyo demanding “justice” for Mahsa Amini and condemning the “dictatorship” in Iran.
But in Beirut, Lebanese Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah called Amini’s death a “mysterious incident” and denounced “incitement” against the Iranian regime.
For its part, Amnesty International condemned the “ruthless” crackdown on the protest movement in Iran, especially the use of live ammunition by security forces and the beating and sexual abuse of women.
U.S. Ambassador to Iran Robert Mulley tweeted: “It’s time for Iranian leaders to hear this global call and end the violence against their people.”
NGOs denounce the crackdown by the security forces and the spate of arrests since the protests began.
Iranian news agency Fars reported that about 60 people had been killed since the protests began, while the Oslo-based Organization for Human Rights in Iran said at least 83 people had been killed.
Authorities have also reported arresting more than 1,200 protesters since September 16, and NGOs have also reported detaining activists, lawyers and journalists.
Iran’s former prime minister, now opposition Mir Hossein Mousavi, called on security forces to stop the violence in a message posted Saturday on his close Instagram account, Kalima.
“I want to remind the security forces of their oath to protect our land, Iran, people’s lives, property and people’s rights,” said the former official, who is under house arrest.
“The blood of the oppressed is stronger than the violence of tyrants,” he added.
Iranian authorities accuse the demonstrators of spreading “chaos” and outside forces, including the US, are behind or instigating the protests.
On Friday, authorities announced the arrest of “nine citizens from Germany, Poland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and others.” Tehran indicated that they were arrested “at the scene of the riots or were involved in this case.” The Dutch Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that it had asked Tehran to meet with the Dutch citizen it had detained.
Abroad, opposition media are broadcasting footage of rallies inside Iran. On Friday, London-based Persian-language channel Iran International published videos that AFP could not verify.
In an interview with state television, the police chief of Sistan and Balochistan indicated that three police stations in the province were attacked, without mentioning any injuries. On Saturday, the Tasnim news agency reported that the Sunni insurgent group Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for the attack on the police station.
On Friday, the region’s governor, Hussein Hayabani, said on state television that 19 people, including a Revolutionary Guard colonel, had died in “accidents” in the same province, while the Revolutionary Guards reported the death of another colonel in clashes with “terrorists.”
It was not immediately clear whether these clashes were related to the protests.
These demonstrations are considered the largest in Iran since November 2019, when protests against rising gasoline prices erupted and were violently suppressed.