University and high school students in Iran have continued to defy the restrictions of authorities and security, despite harsh conditions and extreme force used by the Iranian forces.
The students have kept on protesting for more social freedoms in the aftermath of the death of a young Iranian woman in September.
Twenty-two-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being arrested by Iran’s so-called morality police for allegedly wearing her mandatory Islamic headscarf too loosely. She died in hospital several days after being released from police custody.
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi has tried to relieve anger against the country’s theocratic regime, as more people and more youths have joined the protest.
The Iranian authorities were trying to control the protests but the recent disappearance and death of a 17-year-old girl in Tehran, however, has released a renewed outpouring of anger on Iranian social media.
Recently, the country’s troops have tried to stop student demonstrations with tear gas, metal pellets, and in some cases live fire, but more people keep coming.
An escalating crackdown on the press, with dozens of journalists apprehended in the last few weeks, has suppressed most autonomous reporting on delicate issues such as the deaths of protesters.
Director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, Hadi Ghaemi said:
“To call them agents of Israel and America was a very tired rationale that Iran’s supreme leader has used to justify his brutal rules, so many people thought it’s really the last words of a dictator who refuses to acknowledge reality and wants to relate everything to a foreign-based enemy.”
“Europe and US have been very timid in reacting to the events unfolding. And it’s clear to me that they’re trying to gain a political point for their own purposes in the negotiations, toward a nuclear deal, which has been stalled. Let’s remember for nearly two years. There is no rush to sign that deal right now. And give legitimacy to the Islamic Republic.”
Officially, at least 1,500 people have been arrested since protests erupted on 16 September.
