Death Toll Rises as Iran Protests Enter Fourth Week

A human rights group said nearly 200 people had been killed by police as nationwide protests against the Iranian regime enter their fourth week.


Summary

A human rights group said nearly 200 people had been killed by police as nationwide protests against the Iranian regime enter their fourth week.

  • The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights said at least 185 people, including at least 19 children, had been killed in the protests as of Saturday.
  • The nationwide protests began after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody after her arrest for showing a lock of her hair in public, which is a crime in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
  • Iranian security forces fired on protesters in two northwestern cities on Saturday and at least two people were killed.
  • The leaderless protest movement is made up of women and young people and has spread the length and breadth of the largest Middle Eastern country.
  • The U.S. State Department said Friday the Biden administration would be coordinating with other Western powers on its response to Iran’s “bloody crackdown.”

 

reporting from the left side of the aisle

 

  • The Guardian reported that Iranian security forces were filmed arresting schoolchildren on school grounds in Iranian Kurdistan.
  • CNN shared footage of the moment when an Iranian state broadcast was apparently hacked during its Saturday nightly news program.
  • NBC News reported a new vector of protests – schoolgirls defying authority – is stymying the regime response as young people realize the movement is becoming “a struggle for the future.”

 

 

  • The Telegraph urged Western governments to support the protesters instead of appeasing the ayatollahs by rejecting a revived Iran nuclear deal.
  • The Wall Street Journal said the protests’ longevity and iconic gesture – women removing their government-mandated hijabs in public – has made them “more durable than previous challenges to Tehran’s leaders and could pose a continuing threat.”
  • National Review noted the Iran Human Rights report said protesters had been killed in 17 of Iran’s 31 provinces, including 90 deaths in the city of Zahedan alone during a protest over the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl by the city’s police chief.

 


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© Dominic Moore, 2022