New Delhi: The nationwide anti-hijab protests in Iran — sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by Tehran’s morality police — entered the sixth day Wednesday.
According to reports, at least three civilians and one police assistant have died, and four Iranian police officers were injured in the violence that followed the protests.
Police have resorted to tear gas to disperse crowds of up to 1,000 people at several places and arrested many protesters across Tehran and Shiraz, the official IRNA news agency said.
Several foreign nationals participating in the protests in Tehran have also been arrested, amid the Iranian government’s suspicion that overseas intelligence services are involved in the country’s ongoing unrest.
Governor-General of Tehran Province, Mohsen Mansouri, has reportedly said that the “footprints of foreign embassies and services are obviously clear”.
Amini died Friday after being arrested by Iran’s morality police or the Gasht-e-Ershad for allegedly violating hijab rules. While Iranian authorities have claimed that she died of a heart attack, activists and protesters maintain she was beaten by police officers while in detention, causing serious injuries that ultimately led to her death.
In a video posted on social media Tuesday, a woman protester in Kerman could be seen sitting on top of a utility box in the city’s main square and cutting her hair in protest.
Unprecedented scenes in Iran: woman sits on top of utility box and cuts her hair in main square in Kerman to protest death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the morality police. People clap their hands and chant “Death to the dictator.” #مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/2oyuKV80Ac
— Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari) September 20, 2022
Another video shows a young Iranian woman taking off her headscarf and walking along the edge of a fountain in Tehran and chopping her hair.
Young Iranian woman has taken off her headscarf, and is walking around a square with a fountain in Tehran as she cuts her hair with scissors.
Drivers honk in support of the woman’s act of defiance and bravery. #Mahsa_Amini pic.twitter.com/UapfgfwCiO
— Holly Dagres (@hdagres) September 20, 2022
Chants of “death to dictator” and “death to Khamenei” also continued to be raised by protesters. On Tuesday night, videos surfacing online showed two men climbing a municipality building in Sari, the capital of northern Mazandaran province, and tearing down posters of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as a massive crowd below cheered on.
‘Saqqez is not alone’
Three days ago, protesters in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran’s Kurdistan province, had torn down a banner of late Iranian military commander and head of the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, according to local reports.
Soleimani was assassinated in January 2020 by the Trump administration in the US.
Other chants and slogans such as “Saqqez is not alone” have also become popular among protesters, referencing the protests in the city of Saqqez, the hometown of Amini.
Women protesters continued to remove and set fire to their headscarves in public. Removing one’s hijab in public is a punishable crime in Iran which could include arrest, a prison sentence, flogging or a fine.
Also read: ‘Women fighting against hijab in Islamic countries’: Karnataka cites Iran to back its case in SC