Mahsa Amini: What we know after 11 days of protests in Iran

The demonstrations after demise of younger girl have continued amid web restrictions imposed for ‘safety causes’.

Iranians protest against Mahsa Amin death
Demonstrators collect round a burning barricade throughout a protest in Tehran on September 19 [AFP]

Tehran, Iran – Protests that erupted in lots of elements of Iran following the demise of a younger girl, Mahsa Amini, entered their eleventh day on Tuesday, at the same time as authorities continued to limit entry to the web.

The 22-year-old was arrested earlier this month within the capital, Tehran, by Iran’s so-called “morality police” for allegedly not following the nation’s gown code for ladies. Authorities stated she later had a stroke whereas in custody and died in a hospital on September 16, three days after falling right into a coma.

Amini’s household, in interviews with native media, have rejected authorities’ claims that she suffered from pre-existing situations and stated she might have been crushed. A state investigation into the reason for her demise is predicted to show up outcomes inside weeks.

Within the meantime, protests that started in Amini’s hometown of Saqqez in Kurdistan province have since unfold to most of Iran’s 31 provinces. Dozens of individuals are believed to have been killed and an unknown quantity arrested. The authorities haven't launched official figures but.

Citing “safety causes”, authorities have imposed extreme web restrictions that ban entry to social media and messaging platforms and turn into extra restricted from the afternoon.

However a whole lot of clips of sporadic protests proceed to return out every day, by which demonstrators may be heard chanting anti-establishment slogans. In some movies, girls are seen burning their hijabs and chopping their hair.

The US, the European Union and human rights organisations have condemned the usage of violence towards protesters. The US has additionally imposed sanctions on the morality police for alleged abuses and violence towards girls and demonstrators.

There have additionally been demonstrations outdoors Iran in assist of the nearly-two week protests, with a variety of worldwide celebrities additionally expressing solidarity.

State response

Inside Iran, there have to date been two state-organised counter-demonstrations to specific assist for the institution.

The authorities have denounced “riots” throughout which public property has been burned. Additionally they say “anti-revolutionary” components guided by international powers are driving these actions.

President Ebrahim Raisi and different high officers have met or spoken on the cellphone with the households of a number of cops and members of the Basij paramilitary forces who've been killed in the course of the protests. These officers additionally obtained state-backed funerals.

In the meantime, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked positions within the Kurdish area of northern Iraq 4 occasions in the course of the previous few days, saying the goal was “terrorist” teams that introduced weapons into the nation to make the most of the protests.

The elite pressure has additionally stated secessionist components have been arrested on Iranian soil and a bomb plot was defused in Tabriz, a metropolis in northwestern Iran.

“We'll hit anti-revolutionaries wherever they're primarily based and turn into a supply of operations towards the Islamic Republic and the nation of Iran,” Abbas Nilforushan, the pressure’s deputy for operations, stated in an interview with state media revealed late on Tuesday.

Native media have reported how intelligence authorities are analysing CCTV digicam footage in areas the place there are protests to arrest “rioters”.

“There's not a giant deal occurring in Iran,” International Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian advised United States media outlet NPR in an interview revealed on Tuesday.

“There's not going to be regime change in Iran. Don’t play with the feelings of the Iranian folks.”

Reactions and arrests

Two revered Muslim leaders have to date commented on the protests.

Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi and Grand Ayatollah Hossein Noori Hamedani stated Iranians, particularly the youth who've featured prominently within the protests, have a proper to protest and officers should hearken to them.

They warned, nevertheless, that protests should not be in such a method that “enemies” of the Islamic Republic can make the most of, and spiritual tenets should not be violated throughout demonstrations.

No less than two famend Iranian celebrities have additionally been making headlines.

Ali Karimi, a former star participant of the nation’s nationwide soccer workforce, has been recurrently posting on his social media in assist of the protests.

Karimi reportedly lives within the United Arab Emirates, so some state-affiliated media have talked about the opportunity of his arrest by way of Interpol for allegedly inciting protests. Officers haven't commented.

There have been experiences that his properties have been confiscated, with photographs on Tuesday displaying a luxurious villa in Lavasan close to Tehran being sealed by the judiciary. However the semi-official Fars information web site stated Karimi had liquidated or transferred his belongings previous to leaving Iran.

Mehran Modiri, a comic and tv persona, has additionally posted a video on-line towards the authorities’ response to the protests.

The semi-official Tasnim information web site reported on Wednesday that Modiri was not within the nation, with out saying how he had left regardless of a judicial order that barred him from exiting.

There have been a number of high-profile arrests because the protests broke out.

Niloufar Hamedi, a reporter with the every day Shargh newspaper, one of many first to report on Amini’s hospitalisation and demise, was arrested in her residence in Tehran final week.

Certainly one of a number of journalists arrested, she is now in solitary confinement on the Evin jail, in line with her husband Mohammad Hossein Ajorlou.

State-affiliated media reported late on Tuesday that Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of late President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has been arrested by intelligence authorities for “inciting rioters to road protests in japanese Tehran”.

Hashemi, who has a historical past of constructing anti-establishment feedback, had beforehand been barred from official political exercise. Semi-official media reported she had additionally been arrested throughout earlier road protests, with out specifying when.

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