IRAN Iran, women at the forefront of the protests over the murder of Mahsa Amini. Victims and arrests

The wave of protests after the death of the young woman at the hands of the “moral police” does not subside. Irna speaks of a deceased “auxiliary” and four officers injured in the clashes; at least three victims among the protesters. The supreme leader sends a fidelísimo to the family to offer his condolences; protesters shout “death to dictator” Khamenei.

Tehran () – The fifth day of protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, at the hands of the morality police, who arrested her because she did not wear the hijab correctly, the mandatory veil. The name of the young woman fills social networks, the hashtag #mahsa_amini is one of the most reproduced on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, where videos of clashes and demonstrations multiply and it has become a symbol of the fight for freedom and rights, written even on the walls of houses, the subway and stations.

The official agency Irna speaks of demonstrations in more than 15 cities, with traffic cuts, burning of garbage containers and police vehicles, stones used as projectiles, slogans and confrontations. The agents respond with tear gas and arrests in Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz, Rasht, Ispahan and Kish, where the main street protests were concentrated.

The Norwegian-based Kurdish-Iranian activist group Hengaw speaks of at least three confirmed victims among protesters in Divandareh, Saqqez and Dehglan. More than 220 people were injured and at least 250 people were arrested in the Kurdish region alone, where workers crossed arms in a general strike on September 19. Irna responded by accusing the protesters of violence, responsible for injuring four policemen and the death of “an auxiliary” in the southern city of Shiraz.

It is feared that the authorities are waiting for a serious accident or any pretext to attack and bloodily repress the demonstrations in the streets, the most massive since the vast 2019 protest against fuel prices. But there is a substantial difference with respect to what happened three years ago: today the great protagonists are women, in the front row to denounce the violence and repression of which they are victims, such as the obligation to wear the veil, the heritage of a culture radical Muslim and a patriarchal society. Videos of young people and non-young people taking off their veils -and in some cases setting them on fire- are multiplying on social networks as a challenge to the dictates of the authorities and the laws of the Islamic Republic on the subject of the hijab, a symbol of oppression

What triggered the violence, a symptom of a social unrest that fuels the flames of the protest, was the death of Mahsa Amini after being arrested by the moral police on September 13 in Tehran, where he was on vacation. She was arrested for “inappropriate dress” and taken to a barracks, from which she emerged a few hours later in a coma. Officials speak of “heart attack” and “previous illnesses,” but the same radiological studies show deep head injuries consistent with violent beatings. Death occurred three days later, on September 16, but the young woman never regained consciousness.

The incident again raises the issue of certain Sharia-inspired regulations in the Islamic Republic, such as the obligation to wear a veil and a strict dress code that includes dresses below the knee and prohibits tight pants, jeans and the bright colors. In order to “control” the observance of these rules, often resorting to violence with the collaboration of the Basij militias, there are brigades of morality police that tour the cities aboard minivans, often in mixed teams of men and women. The need for these brigades was the subject of debate during the 2009 presidential elections (which were also the scene of post-election violence and repression) and reformist candidates called for their dissolution. However, no action was taken in this regard and they continue to act – and attack – with total impunity.

For his part, in an attempt to curb the discontent, the supreme guide Ali Khamenei sent one of his loyalists to the victim’s family to offer the condolences of the institutions, but that was not enough to mitigate the protest, which resulted in in slogans and chants that chanted “death to the dictator” (Khamenei) and “woman, life, freedom”. In an attempt to contain the expansion and spread of the revolt, the government has blocked several times, although in vain, the services of communication and internet in Tehran and in several areas of the Kurdish province.

The United States, France (President Macron met with his counterpart Raisi during the talks on the nuclear negotiations in New York) and the United Nations have spoken out in this regard with firm words of condemnation. Accusations that were rejected by the recipient of Tehran, who through the mouth of the Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani described as “shameful” the “instrumentalization for political purposes” by some countries, of what he calls an “accident”.