Iran: More than 200 dead in protests - but new hope is burgeoning
Created: 10/13/2022 10:49 am
By: Tim Vincent Dicke
The death toll is rising in the protests in Iran.
Meanwhile, cracks are beginning to appear in the political elite.
The news ticker.
More than 200 people are killed in the protests in Iran.
New hope is burgeoning: an Iranian politician wants to review compulsory headscarves.
Conspiracy theory: Khamenei blames the US and Israel for the protests.
Tehran – The number of victims continues to rise in the protests critical of the regime in Iran.
According to the Oslo-based human rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR), 201 people have been killed in the demonstrations so far.
According to the information, 23 minors are among the dead.
The organization's director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, urged the world not to simply let the crackdown happen.
The level of brutality is particularly high in Kurdish areas.
"The international community must prevent further killings in Kurdistan through an immediate reaction," said the human rights activist.
Protests in Iran: "Death to the dictator" shouts
In the northwestern province of Kurdistan, numerous people took to the streets again on Wednesday (October 12).
According to several human rights organizations, the security forces in the provincial capital, Sanadaj, are cracking down on the demonstrators.
The 22-year-old Kurd Mahsa Amini, whose death triggered the wave of protests, came from Sanadaj.
In Tehran, female students took to the streets without headscarves and chanted "Death to the dictator," according to
video verified by
AFP news agency.
As the Iranian news agency
Isna
reported, a large number of police forces were deployed in the capital.
During the protests in Iran, security forces sometimes shoot live ammunition at demonstrators.
© UGC/AFP
Pupils were arrested last week, IHR reported.
Videos circulating on social media confirm security forces cracking down on protests at schools and universities.
"Children have the right to protest and the United Nations has a duty to defend children's rights in Iran by putting pressure on the Islamic Republic," said IHR chief Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
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Iran protests: New hope is burgeoning
Many Iranians take to the streets because of the country's strict dress code: women have to wear a headscarf and long clothes.
The first cracks have now apparently appeared in the political elite on this issue.
A prominent politician showed understanding for the protests.
Ali Larijani, former speaker of the Iranian parliament, called for a review of the criticized hijab law.
"There is a cultural solution for the hijab, it doesn't need decrees and referendums," the politician said in an interview with an Iranian news site.
“The people and young people who take to the streets are our own children.
When a child commits a crime in a family, they try to put them on the right path, society needs more tolerance," added Larijani.
Khamenei blames the US and Israel
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, on the other hand, believes in a "foreign conspiracy" that led to the protests.
"I will say very clearly that this unrest and insecurity was planned by America and the Zionist regime and their collaborators," he said in a recent speech to military officials.
The "violent riots" against those in power came because "someone stirred up insecurity on the streets": "Such actions are not normal, they are unnatural." (tvd / AFP)