Iran protests: 15-year-old dies after being beaten by security forces

Created: 2022-10-20Updated: 2022-10-20 8:26 p.m

By: Stephanie Munk

Iran's supreme leader brutally suppresses protests following Mahsa Amini's death.

But there seems to be resistance within the management team.

News ticker.

• Cracks

  within the

  Iranian leadership

  ?

  The first politicians oppose Khamenei.

• Iran

  as a

  surveillance state

  : Regime probably relies on sophisticated systems based on the model of China.

• This

  news ticker on the protests and current developments in Iran

  is constantly updated.

Update from October 20, 8:20 p.m

.: According to an Iranian teachers’ union, a 15-year-old student in Iran died as a result of beatings by security forces.

Asra Panahi died on October 13 after "plainclothes officers" "attacked" a high school in the northwestern city of Ardabil, according to a statement from the Coordinating Council of Teachers' Unions.

Ardabil is considered the center of the protests triggered by the death of the young Kurd Mahsa Amini in mid-September.

According to the teachers' union, the students in Ardabil had been taken to an "ideological event".

According to the union, some of them chanted “slogans against discrimination and inequality” and were “exposed to violence and insults by women in civilian clothes and women with veils”.

After returning to school, they were beaten again.

Asra Panahi then died in the hospital, and another student was in a coma after the beating, the union said.

But there are other accounts of the cause of death: State television later aired an interview with the girl's uncle, in which he said his niece died of heart failure.

The website Didban Iran quoted Ardabil MP Kasem Mousavi in ​​a report as saying the 15-year-old had "committed suicide by swallowing pills".

Protests in Iran continue, like here in the capital Tehran on October 19.

© IMAGO/Stringer

Cracks within the Iranian leadership?

The first politicians oppose Khamenei.

Tehran - Iran is experiencing turbulent times: Since the 22-year-old student Mahsa Amini was apparently tortured to death by the Iranian moral police because she did not wear a headscarf, the protests against the regime have not stopped.

But the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, does not want to make any concessions on the hijab requirement for Iranian women and is brutally suppressing the protests.

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However, cracks within the Iranian leadership seem to be showing.

This shot comes with an analysis by the Institute for the Study of Law (ISW) and the US think tank Critical Threats Project.

The Iranian ex-commander Hossein Alaei has now expressed sympathy for some of the protesters' demands and has suggested that the moral police be abolished, it is said.

Some moderate and progressive Iranian politicians followed his example and in turn proposed reforms to accommodate the demonstrators.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at a meeting with members of the country's political elite.

© KHAMENEI.IR/AFP

Iran protests: supreme leader with tough position - resistance programmed within the regime?

However, Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei has so far shown no willingness to comply with calls for easing the hijab requirement.

Instead, in his recent speeches, he took a very tough stance on the protesters.

The analysts are certain that not all members of the regime would follow this line in the long term.

Ex-General Alaei, who is now calling for the abolition of the vice squad, attracted attention as early as 2012 through statements critical of the government, it is said.

At that time he criticized Khamenei for his suppression of the green movement in Iran, but was then silenced by a home visit by the military.

Iran protests: regime relies on sophisticated surveillance techniques - role model: China

The analysis also states that Iran is now relying on the state-of-the-art techniques of the surveillance state.

report

, the regime is using drones and surveillance cameras to monitor the current protests, as well as data from delivery services to identify and track protesters.

Iran is emulating China's example here.

The regime uses artificial intelligence, facial recognition and the national intranet to monitor dissidents and maintain control.