Protests in Iran reach schools and disrupt classes

Protests for women’s rights in Iran, sparked after the death of young Mahsa Amini, have reached classrooms across the country. Photos and videos of demonstrations held in educational institutions circulated on social media this Tuesday (4).

In one of them, at least six veiled girls give the middle finger to the portrait of the two supreme leaders who have led the regime since the Revolution – Ayatollah Khomeini, who died in 1989, and the current Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian law mandates the use of the hijab, the Islamic headscarf, by women aged 9 and over.

Other records published on Twitter show dozens of girls confronting the country’s authorities and protesting in the courtyard of a school, with chants of “we don’t want an Islamic Republic” and “death to the dictator”. One of the demonstrations reportedly took place in the city of Karaj, home to 1.6 million people, but the location of all of them could not be independently verified.

Since the beginning of the protests, usually led by women, a cry of Kurdish origin has become the watchword: “Women, life and freedom”. Triggered by the death of Kurdish Mahsa Amini, 22, in the custody of Iran’s moral police for allegedly not wearing a hijab in Tehran, the acts are the biggest show of opposition to the regime in years, with many calling for an end to the regime in place since 1979.

The number of victims in the repression of the demonstrations is uncertain. While state TV last week confirmed the deaths of 41 people, including members of the security forces, the most up-to-date count by the NGO Human Rights of Iran is 133 deaths. About 1,500 people have already been arrested.

According to the British newspaper The Guardian, students protested on Monday (3) against the mass arrests in Tehran. The day before, hundreds of students from a university in the capital were arrested. According to the local Mehr news agency, police used tear gas and paintball guns with non-lethal steel bullets to contain the approximately 200 university students. Many were injured, according to images and videos posted on social media.

“Sharif University has become a prison and Evin prison has become a university,” they shouted. The institution has since suspended classes.

The repression coordinated by the Iranian regime, according to the Guardian, was also criticized by a newspaper aligned with Tehran. In an editorial, the newspaper Jomhuri Eslami argued that “neither foreign enemies nor domestic opposition can drive cities into a state of revolt without a background of discontent.” According to the publication, “denial of this fact will not help [o regime]”.

The position disputes the arguments of Khamenei, who in a speech on Monday claimed that the acts are behind foreign forces aimed at destabilizing Iran. Major Western powers have announced in recent days the expansion of the series of sanctions against the country.

On Tuesday, the French government said the European Union was considering freezing the assets of Iranian officials involved in the crackdown on protesters and banning their travel to the continent. Since 2013, no Iranians have been added to the bloc’s sanctions list – in the wake of negotiations on a nuclear deal.

Speaking to the French Parliament, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said the new measures could hit authorities who send their children to live in Western countries. Diplomats say the measures must be ratified at an EU meeting on 17 October.

In the second, Canada also announced new sanctions against Iran, which build on existing ones. The government targeted 25 individuals and nine entities, including officials from the Revolutionary Guard, intelligence and security ministries and moral police. US President Joe Biden said in a statement that he was “seriously concerned” by reports of intensified crackdowns and promised a swift response.