Iran: Hospital and university dormitory targeted by security forces
As protests in Iran entered their seventh week, Iranian security forces targeted a hospital and a university dormitory in the west of the country Friday night.
The Islamic Republic has been rocked by a wave of protests since September 16, following the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amin, three days after he was arrested by morality police in Tehran. The strict dress code of the Islamic Republic, especially the introduction of veiling for women.
The initial slogan “woman, life, freedom” was added to the open slogans against the Islamic Republic, which was founded in 1979, no matter how severely repressed during the demonstrations.
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Protesters chanted “Death to the Dictator” during a traditional 40-day mourning ceremony for one of their own in Divandarreh, Kurdistan Province, where Mahsa Amin is from.
According to human rights groups, 28-year-old Mohsen Mohammadi died on September 19 after being shot by riot police during a protest in Diwandarreh yesterday. He died after arriving at Kovsar Hospital in Sanandaj, the capital of Iranian Kurdistan.
On Friday evening, security forces opened fire on dozens of protesters who gathered outside the same hospital to “protect” an injured protester threatened with detention by authorities, the Hengaw human rights group said on Twitter.
“Repressive forces opened fire on people gathered in front of Kowsar hospital to protect Ashkan Mrvati,” the Norway-based group wrote.
“These forces are trying to arrest the injured Ashkan Mrvati,” Hengau added, posting a photo of the protester lying on a stretcher.
On October 10, 2022, during a demonstration condemning the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died while in the custody of a deputy police officer in Tehran, a motorcycle from Basij, an Iranian paramilitary group, was set on fire. (Credit: AP Photo/ Middle East Images)
Protests continue
According to the same source, security forces later fired on a “dormitory for medical students” near Kowsar hospital.
A video posted online, confirmed by AFP, shows dozens of policemen arriving on motorbikes before opening fire on the residence of the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences.
According to videos widely circulated on social networks, several academics demonstrated on Saturday in various cities of Iran, including the capital Tehran, Kerman (southeast) and Kermanshah (northwest).
According to Hengwan, security forces opened fire on a protest of female students in Kermanshah, and said two of them were in critical condition.
According to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights NGO (IHR), at least 160 people have died as a result of the repression of protests that began with the death of Mahsa Amini, including about 20 children.
On September 30, 93 people were killed in the protests that started after the rape of a young girl attributed to the police in the city of Zahedan in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), protesters in Zahedan on Friday came under automatic fire after the weekly Friday prayers.
Protesters sing after the funeral of Mahsa Amin (right), who died after being arrested by mock police on September 17, 2022, in the Iranian city of Saghez. (Screenshot: Courtesy Twitter)
According to information compiled by AFP, at least 20 members of the security forces were killed during the protests over the death of Mahsa Ami, and another 8 during the protests in Zahedan.
On Friday, IHR director Mahmoud Amiry-Moghaddam called on the UN to “increase diplomatic pressure on Iran and establish an investigative mechanism to arrest those responsible for the repression.” “The risk of massacre is real and the UN must ensure that it does not happen. ยป
Iranian leaders, in turn, continued to point fingers at Iran’s “enemies”.
In a joint statement Friday, the Intelligence Ministry and the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, accused the Central Intelligence Agency, the US intelligence agency and its “allies from Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia” of a “conspiracy” against the Islamic Republic.
Crowds chanted “riots” during the funeral of 15 victims of an attack on a Shiite shrine by the Islamic State group in Shiraz (south) on Saturday, referring to the demonstrations that began after the deaths. Mahsa Amini.
