WOMEN RISE UP AGAINST OPPRESSION
TEHRAN: Three people have been killed during protests in Iran over the death of a woman who was arrested by the “morality police” for wearing an “improper” hijab.
Public anger has grown in Iran since the death of 22year-old Mahsa Amini last week after her arrest by the police unit responsible for enforcing a strict dress code for women only.
Large crowds gathered in the town of Sari, north of Tehran, and cheered as women set their hijabs alight in defiant acts of protest, while several hundred protesters in Tehran, including some women who took off their headscarves, were dispersed by “police using batons and tear gas”, according to Fars news agency.
Tear gas was also used on some 500 protesters in Amini’s home province of Kurdistan, some smashing car windows and torching rubbish bins, reports said.
Kurdistan governor Ismail Zarei Koosha said on Tuesday three people had been killed during the protests in the province, blaming the deaths on “a plot by the enemy”.
“One of the citizens of the city of Divandarreh was killed with a type of military weapon that none of the ranks of the armed forces uses,” he said.
He said another person was killed in the city of Saghez and “left near a hospital in a car”.
He did not give any details about the third death or say when the killings occurred.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative paid a visit to Amini’s family at their home, Tasnim news agency said.
“I assured the family … all institutions will take action to defend the violated rights of Miss Amini and none of their rights will be ignored,” the representative said.