Women sent to calm protests
Iran has sent female special forces on to its streets for the first time in an effort to quell mass protests over the death of a young woman who was allegedly beaten by the country’s morality police.
The elite commando unit was deployed with photographers to catch protest ringleaders as human rights groups said the death toll from the unrest had risen to 31.
The death last week of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was allegedly beaten for wearing improper dress before falling into a coma, has led to demonstrations across the country.
Failing to wear a headscarf has been illegal in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Col Heydari, the leader of the special forces unit, confirmed on Thursday that the female troops were being deployed at public protests for the first time.
When asked by reporters if the presence of female soldiers would only fuel the unrest, he said: “The arrival of our women’s police force is to bring peace. I’m sorry to see other women in these protests carrying out illegal actions that are inconsistent with social rules.”
He was challenged over Iranian forces attacking female demonstrators, and insisted: “There is a way to protest. There is a law and the Iranian state has clear rules on what is allowed. The temporary protest that we see here is an illegal act.”
The announcement came as Iran reduced access to the internet after more video footage emerged which showed running street battles between protesters and security forces in the streets of Tehran and other cities.
In one clip protesters tip over what seem to be security vehicles, while in another they appear to overpower an officer armed with a Taser.
In the restive province of Kurdistan, 10 demonstrators — including a 15-year-old boy — were killed in clashes with riot police, according to a local human rights group.
Iran also arrested prominent women’s rights activists in the holy city of Mashad, where demonstrators took over a police station and set it on fire.
The home of Mansoureh Mousavi, a feminist writer, was raided by security forces and she was detained, and Fatemeh Sepehri, a female activist who has called for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, to step down, was arrested on charges of “spreading propaganda by the order of foreign powers”.
Yesterday, Christiane Amanpour, a senior CNN reporter, revealed she had cancelled an interview with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi after aides insisted she wore a headscarf, even though the interview was taking place in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Raisi has dismissed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s treatment of women, claiming that the female population has “voluntarily chosen to wear the hijab”.