Iranians took to the streets for the 12th night in a row in several cities across the country to protest the death of a young woman arrested by moral police, despite a crackdown that has left dozens dead, writes AFP.

Despite international calls for an end to the use of force, the government remained firm in its stance on the protesters, whom it accused of “rebellion” that “undermines security and public property”.

The protests have taken place every night since September 16, when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died in hospital three days after she was arrested in Tehran for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women. cover hair in public.

According to opposition media outside Iran, protests resumed on Tuesday evening in various cities. But activists said internet outages made it difficult to transmit the images.

In a video posted online by the opposition Manoto TV channel, a woman appears without a veil and waves her hands in the air in Tehran’s Narmak district.

In Sanandaj, the capital of the country’s northwestern Kurdistan province, where Mahsa Amini was born, several women can be seen removing veils from their heads while a man burns a banner depicting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the southern city of Shiraz, London-based Iran International Television reported.

The daughter of the former president was arrested

According to the latest report published on Tuesday by Iran’s Fars news agency, “about 60 people have been killed” since September 16. Police said 10 officers were killed, but it was not known if they were among the 60 killed.

The Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported “at least 76 dead” on Monday, including “six women and four children”, saying it had received “videos and death certificates confirming who fired live bullets at the protesters.”

In addition, authorities reported the arrest of more than 1,200 protesters since September 16.

According to public organizations, activists, lawyers and journalists were also arrested.

And on Tuesday, according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim, Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was arrested in Tehran for “inciting protests.”

Women at the forefront of protests in Iran. In several videos released by NGOs and activists, they can be seen removing headscarves, climbing on car roofs or dancing.

Other videos in recent days showed police beating demonstrators with batons and students tearing down large pictures of Ayatollah Khamenei and his predecessor Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

And according to human rights defenders, the police also fired batons and live ammunition at protesters who threw stones, set police cars and public buildings on fire.

Health Minister Bahram Einollahi accused protesters of destroying 72 ambulances. The opposition abroad accuses the authorities of using ambulances to transport security forces.

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Broken connections

To curb the protests, Iranian authorities have blocked access to Instagram and WhatsApp. Internet connection interrupted.

“Internet restrictions remain in place, but some protest videos are streaming,” the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran said.

Iranian authorities have denied any physical contact between morality police and young Mahsa Amini since her arrest in Tehran and say they are awaiting the results of an investigation.

They denounce “foreign conspiracies” behind the protest movement, pointing the finger at the United States.

In a new American response on Tuesday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken condemned “the resort to violence against women in the exercise of what should be a fundamental freedom.”

In addition, new demonstrations in support of Iranian women took place in several countries, including Cyprus, the United States and Austria.

The protests in Iran are the largest of the November 2019 gas price hike protests in Iran, which were brutally suppressed (230 dead according to official figures, over 300 according to Amnesty International).