Widespread anti-government protests erupted in September after the death of young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by morality police for allegedly violating the strict dress code imposed on women. “We ask the judiciary to deal decisively with the perpetrators of these crimes and with all those who aided the crimes and caused unrest,” 227 lawmakers from Iran’s 290-seat parliament said in a statement, according to state media. The activist news agency HRANA reported that 318 protesters had been killed in the unrest by Saturday, including 49 minors. Thirty-eight members of the security forces had also been killed, he added. State media reported last month that more than 46 security forces, including police, had been killed. Government officials have not provided an estimate of the wider death toll. Iranian leaders have vowed to crack down on protesters they described as rioters, accusing enemies, including the United States, of fomenting the unrest. Protests continued in several cities on Sunday, from Tehran to the central city of Yazd and the northern city of Rast, according to rights groups and videos on social media. A video posted on Twitter showed protesters in southern Tehran after nightfall chanting: “The clerics are perishing.” Reuters could not independently verify the rights groups’ reports, nor the social media posts and material. In the Kurdish city of Marivan, rights group Hengaw said security forces opened fire on a crowd that had gathered after the funeral of another woman, Nasrin Ghaderi, to protest her death. Hengau said Ghaderi died in a coma on Saturday after suffering severe blows to her head from security forces while protesting in Tehran. A prosecutor, quoted by state media, said Ghaderi had a pre-existing heart problem and died of “poisoning”, without elaborating. There was no immediate official comment on the shooting report. Weeks after Amini’s death, the coroner’s report denied that Amini died from blows to the head while in custody, as her parents had claimed, and linked her death to pre-existing medical conditions. Students at a dozen universities, including in the northern cities of Rast and Amol, staged demonstrations on Sunday chanting “death to the dictator,” referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to unverified social media videos. Parisa Hafezi writes. Edited by Andrew Heavens Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
