Another schoolgirl has reportedly been killed by the Iranian safety providers after she was crushed in her classroom for refusing to sing a pro-regime track when her faculty was raided final week, sparking additional protests throughout the nation this weekend.
According to the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, 16-year-old Asra Panahi died after safety forces raided the Shahed women highschool in Ardabil on 13 October and demanded a gaggle of women sing an anthem that praises Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
When they refused, safety forces beat the pupils, main to a variety of women being taken to hospital and others arrested. On Friday, Panahi reportedly died in hospital of accidents sustained on the faculty.
Iranian officers denied that its safety forces had been accountable and, after her death sparked outrage throughout the nation, a person recognized as her uncle appeared on state TV channels claiming she had died from a congenital coronary heart situation.
Schoolgirls have emerged as a powerful force after movies went viral of school rooms of pupils waving their hijabs within the air, taking down photos of Iran’s supreme leaders and shouting anti-regime slogans in assist of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old girl who died after being detained by Iran’s morality police for not carrying her hijab accurately in August.
The Iranian authorities responded by launching a sequence of raids on colleges throughout the nation final week, with reviews of officers forcing their manner into school rooms, violently arresting schoolgirls and pushing them into ready vehicles, and firing teargas into faculty buildings.
In an announcement posted on Sunday, Iran’s academics’ union condemned the “brutal and inhumane” raids and referred to as for the resignation of the schooling minister, Yousef Nouri.
News of Panahi’s death has additional mobilised schoolgirls throughout the nation to organise and be part of protests over the weekend.
Among them was 16-year-old Naznin*, whose dad and mom had saved her at dwelling for concern that she can be arrested for protesting at her faculty.
“I haven’t been allowed to go to the school because my parents fear for my life. But what has it changed? The regime continues to kill and arrest schoolgirls,” says Naznin.
“What good am I if I simply sit outraged at home? Myself and fellow students across Iran have decided to stand in protest on the streets this week. I’ll do it even if I have to now hide it from my parents.”
19-year-old Nergis* additionally joined the protests, and was hit by rubber bullets in her again and legs. She says Panahi’s death has motivated her and her mates to proceed to protest, regardless of the hazard.
She says what occurred to Panahi – in addition to the deaths of two different schoolgirls, 17-year-old Nika Shahkarami and 16-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh, each by the hands of the Iranian safety forces – has united younger individuals throughout Iran beneath a typical trigger.
“I don’t have a single relative in Ardabil, but with this brutal crackdown on our sisters, who were just 16 years old, they’ve awakened the whole nation,” she says.
“We never knew we were so united – across the Baloch regions as well as the Kurdish regions. The world has heard about Nika, Sarina and Asra, but there are so many other nameless children who we know nothing about.
“It’s not just Asra’s death,” she says. “The Islamic Republic has been killing our people for 40 years, but our voices weren’t heard. Let the world know this is no longer a protest – we are calling for a revolution. Now that you’re all listening to our voices, we will not stop.”
According to the most recent report by the Iran Human Rights group, 215 individuals, together with 27 kids, have been killed within the nationwide protests, as of 17 October.
*Names have been modified
