Anger at funerals spark new Iran protests

Funerals for young Iranians, including a small boy who families say were killed in a state crackdown, sparked a new wave of anti-regime protests yesterday in the Islamic republic.

Iran’s clerical leadership under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is facing its biggest challenge since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in the now two months of protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.

The authorities have responded with a crackdown that according to a rights group has left 342 dead, half a dozen already sentenced to death and thousands more arrested.

The turbulence also comes with intense attention on the response of Iran’s team at the football World Cup in Qatar, which is due to play its first match against England on Monday.

Huge turnout

Scores flocked to the southwestern city of Izeh for the funeral of Kian Pirfalak, aged nine, according to pictures published by Iran’s ISNA news agency.

His mother told the funeral ceremony that Kian was shot on Wednesday by the security forces although Iranian officials have insisted he was killed in a “terrorist” attack carried out by an extremist group.

“Hear it from me myself on how the shooting happened, so they can’t say it was by terrorists because they’re lying,” his mother told the funeral according to a video posted by the 1500tasvir monitor. “Maybe they thought we wanted to shoot or something and they peppered the car with bullets ... Plainclothes forces shot my child. That is it.”