Protests spread to 15 cities across Iran overnight over the death of the young woman Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police, state media has reported.
Four Iranian police officers were injured and one “police assistant” died from injuries yesterday in the southern city of Shiraz following violent protests, the official IRNA news agency has reported.
“On Tuesday evening, some people clashed with police officers and as a result one of the police assistants was killed. In this incident, four other police officers were injured in Shiraz,” IRNA said.
Fifteen protesters were arrested in Shiraz yesterday, according to an official quoted by IRNA.
In the fifth night of street rallies, police used tear gas and made arrests to disperse crowds of up to 1,000 people.
Demonstrators blockaded streets, hurled stones at security forces, set fire to police vehicles and garbage bins, and chanted anti-government slogans, it added.
Public anger has flared since authorities announced the death of the 22-year-old on Friday, after her arrest by the morality police responsible for enforcing a strict dress code for women.
Ms Amini had fallen into a coma after being detained for wearing a hijab headscarf in an “improper” way, state media has reported.
In the demonstrations, many Iranian women have taken off their headscarves in protest.
Rallies were held overnight in the capital Tehran and other major cities, including Mashhad in the northeast, Tabriz in the northwest, Rasht in the north, Isfahan in the centre and Shiraz in the south, IRNA reported.
Ismail Zarei Koosha, the governor of Kurdistan – Ms Amini’s home province where the protests started – said yesterday that three people had been killed during protests in the province, without specifying when.
Ms Amini’s death and Iran’s response to the protests have sparked condemnations from the United Nations, United States, France and other countries.
Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani late yesterday condemned what he called “foreign interventionist positions”.
“It is regrettable that some countries try to take advantage of an incident under investigation as an opportunity to pursue their political goals and desires against the government and people of Iran,” he said.
Internet may be disrupted in Iran for ‘security reasons’
Access to internet in Iran may bedisrupted due to “security reasons”, the minister of communications was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency, amid widespread protests following the death of Ms Amini.
“Due to security issues and the debates going on currently in the country, restrictions to the internet may be decided and applied by the security apparatus, but overall we have not had any bandwidth reduction,” Issa Zarepour said.
Source » rte