Amini was pronounced lifeless days after morality police detained her for allegedly breaching guidelines forcing girls to put on hijabs
Iranian pro-government protesters burn flags of the US, Israel and Britain throughout a rally in opposition to the current anti-government protests in Iran, in Tehran, on 25 September 2022. Iran’s judiciary chief vowed no leniency in opposition to the wave of unrest that has rocked the nation because the dying of younger Kurdish lady Mahsa Amini within the custody of the morality police. Picture: AFP
PARIS – Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday accused arch-foes the United States and Israel of fomenting the wave of nationwide unrest sparked by outrage over the dying of Mahsa Amini.
“I say clearly that these riots and the insecurity were engineered by America and the occupying, false Zionist regime, as well as their paid agents, with the help of some traitorous Iranians abroad,” the Islamic republic’s leader mentioned.
Amini, 22, was pronounced lifeless on September 16, days after the infamous morality police detained the Kurdish Iranian for allegedly breaching guidelines forcing girls to put on hijab headscarves and modest garments.
Anger over Amini’s dying has sparked the largest wave of protests to rock the Islamic republic in nearly three years, with safety forces in Tehran cracking down on a whole bunch of college college students on Sunday evening.
The United States on Monday mentioned it was “alarmed and appalled by reports of security authorities responding to university students’ peaceful protests with violence and mass arrests”, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned.
In his first public feedback since Amini’s dying, 83-year-old Khamenei burdened that police should “stand up to criminals”.
“The death of the young woman broke our hearts,” mentioned Khamenei. “But what is not normal is that some people, without proof or an investigation, have made the streets dangerous, burned the Koran, removed hijabs from veiled women and set fire to mosques and cars”.
Khamenei added that “this is not about hijab in Iran”, and that “many Iranian women who don’t observe the hijab perfectly are among the steadfast supporters of the Islamic republic.”
‘INCREDIBLE’ COURAGE
Concern grew over a night-time crackdown on college students at Tehran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology the place, native media reported, riot police carrying metal pellet weapons used tear fuel and paintball weapons in opposition to a whole bunch of scholars.
“Woman, life, liberty” the scholars shouted, in addition to “students prefer death to humiliation”, Mehr information company reported.
Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights posted movies apparently displaying police on bikes chasing college students working by means of an underground automobile park and taking away detainees, their heads coated in black fabric baggage.
In one clip, which IHR mentioned was taken at a Tehran metro station, a crowd may be heard chanting: “Don’t be afraid! Don’t be afraid! We are all together!”
In response to the college protests, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned that the braveness of the Iranians was “incredible”, and that “the regime’s brute force is an expression of sheer fear of the power of education and freedom.”
Protests had been additionally reported at different universities, together with within the central metropolis of Isfahan.
Iran has repeatedly accused exterior forces of stoking the protests and final week mentioned 9 international nationals — together with from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland — had been arrested.
‘Help me’
The mother and father of Italian lady Alessia Piperno, 30, from Rome, mentioned they’d misplaced contact together with her after chatting with her on Wednesday — her birthday — however then acquired a telephone name on Sunday.
“I’m fine but there are people here who say they have been inside for months and for no reason,” she informed them, based on Il Messaggero, Rome’s each day newspaper. “I fear I won’t be let out again. Help me.”
Italy’s international ministry has up to now made no touch upon the id of the Italian held.
Canada, in the meantime, mentioned it had imposed new sanctions in opposition to Iran over its “gross human rights violations”, particularly citing “the egregious actions committed by Iran’s so-called ‘Morality Police'”.
At least 92 protesters have been killed up to now within the Mahsa Amini rallies, mentioned IHR, which has been working to evaluate the dying toll regardless of web outages and blocks on WhatsApp, Instagram and different on-line companies.
Amnesty International mentioned earlier it had confirmed 53 deaths, after Iran’s semi-official Fars information company mentioned final week that “around 60” folks had died.
The chief of riot police in Marivan, Kurdistan province, died of his wounds Sunday after being shot throughout “riots”, state tv mentioned — the twelfth dying reported among the many safety forces since September 16.
An extra 41 folks died in clashes Friday in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, IHR reported earlier, citing native sources.
Those protests had been sparked by accusations a police chief within the area had raped a teenage woman of the Baluch Sunni minority, the rights group mentioned.
