PARIS — Iranians took to the streets Tuesday after
organizers of protests over
Mahsa Amini’s death called for demonstrations
marking three years since a lethal crackdown on unrest sparked by a fuel price
hike.
اضافة اعلان
The call to commemorate those slain in the 2019
crackdown gave new momentum to the protests that erupted following the death of
22-year-old Amini on September 16, after her arrest for allegedly flouting the
strict dress code for women.
Shops were shuttered in Tehran’s famed Grand Bazaar
and its neighborhood of Tehranpars, according to online videos verified by AFP.
Iran’s Mehr news agency reported that most of the
bazaar’s shops were closed or closing, but quoted one merchant as saying they
had shut after people who chanted slogans “threatened to burn our stores”.
The
UN Human Rights Office called on Iran to
immediately release thousands of people arrested for taking part in peaceful
demonstrations.
“Instead of opening space for dialogue on legitimate
grievances, the authorities are responding to unprecedented protests with
increasing harshness,” spokesman Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva.
In Tehran, the din of honking car horns reverberated
as protesters blocked a major roundabout at Sanat Square and yelled “Freedom,
freedom”, according to online videos verified by AFP.
People later poured onto the streets of other
cities, including Bandar Abbas and Shiraz, where women were seen peacefully
waving their headscarves above their heads.
‘Year of blood’
“This year is the year of
blood, Seyed Ali will be toppled,” a large crowd chanted outside a Tehran metro
station, in a video verified by AFP, referring to Iran’s supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Workers downed tools and university students
boycotted classes in Amini’s home province of Kurdistan, in western Iran, said
the Oslo-based Hengaw human rights group.
In the province’s flashpoint city of Sanandaj,
protesters were seen burning tyres in a street and chanting anti-government
slogans, in other online footage.
“Woman, life, freedom” and “Man, homeland,
prosperity,” chanted male and female students at Islamic Azad University in the
northwestern city of Tabriz, in a video published by the 1500tasvir social
media channel.
The call for
protests on Tuesday is to mark the third anniversary of the start of “Bloody
Aban” — or Bloody November — when a surprise overnight fuel price hike sparked
bloody street violence that lasted for days.
Amnesty International said at least 304 people were
killed, but a tribunal in London this year by various rights groups said expert
evidence suggested the toll was likely far more, possibly as high as 1,515.
On Tuesday, in a video shared by activists, students
at Tehran’s Khajeh-Nasir university chanted “1,500 people were killed in Aban.”
UN rights session
Oslo-based group Iran Human
Rights on Saturday said that security forces had killed at least 326 people,
including 43 children and 25 women, in the crackdown.
The unrest was fanned by fury over the dress rules
for women but has grown into a broad movement against the theocracy that has
ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
It has shown no sign of abating despite the
authorities’ use of lethal force and a campaign of mass arrests that has snared
activists, journalists and lawyers.
Among them is prominent freedom of speech campaigner
Hossein Ronaghi who, according to Iran’s judiciary, has been taken back to
prison after being hospitalized.
The EU and Britain slapped sanctions on more than 30
senior Iranian officials and organizations over the crackdown.
The EU sanctions targeted Interior Minister
Ahmad Vahidi, the head of Iran’s ground forces Kiyumars Heidari, and four members of
the squad who detained Amini.
Iran, which has accused the US and its allies of
fomenting the unrest, threatened to “respond effectively and forcefully”.
The US also condemned Iran’s cross-border drone and
missile strikes Monday against Iraq-based Kurdish opposition groups, that
Tehran accuses of stoking what it calls the “riots” at home.
The UN Human Rights Council will hold an urgent
session on Iran on November 24, with backers pushing for an international
investigation into the deadly crackdown on the protests.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
