Protests continue despite lethal police violence in Iran over the killing of Jina (Mahsa) Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died last week of injuries she suffered after her arrest over allegedly breaking the Islamic Republic’s hijab rules.
The Iranian government sent Revolutionary Guards and special forces to quell protests in the Iranian Kurdish cities of Saqqez, Amini’s hometown, and Sanandaj over the weekend, injuring dozens of people and arresting at least 13.
At least four people were killed and 10 injured after police opened fire on the thousands of people who took the streets in Diwander, a district in Iran’s Kurdistan province, Mezopotamya News Agency reported on Monday.
But the heavy-handed response has failed to stem the anger at the young woman’s death. Demonstrations have continued in Iran’s Kurdish western region and spread to other provinces, with demonstrations held in many universities across the country, ANF news reported.
Protesters also remained out overnight from Monday to block the streets of the Iranian capital city of Tehran, Yeni Yaşam newspaper reported.
Mahsa Amini’nin İran rejimi tarafından katledilmesinin ardından eylemler sürüyor. Dün gece boyunca halk sokaklardan çekilmedi, bugün ise Tahran’da caddeler kapatılarak eylemler sürüyor#MahsaAmini https://t.co/i4YbSzCPbR pic.twitter.com/XWRehSoBNt
— Yeni Yaşam Gazetesi (@yeniyasamgazete) September 20, 2022
Meanwhile, general strikes have been called in numerous majority-Kurdish areas across western Iran, including Saqqez, Sanandaj, Oshnavieh, Marivan, Diwander and Mahabad, Gazete Duvar reported.
And, the anger has spread as far as Sweden, where hundreds of people took to the streets in the capital city of Stockholm in response to the East Kurdistan Woman Society’s call to protest against Amini’s killing.
Jina Amini was detained on 13 September outside a metro station in Tehran. She died in hospital last Friday, after days in a coma.
The Iranian authorities say the young woman died of a heart attack brought on by underlying health conditions, but Amini’s family says she was in good health and eye witnesses said they saw her being beaten in a police van.
