Iran confronted worldwide criticism on Tuesday over the death of a girl held by its morality police, which ignited three days of protests, together with clashes with safety forces within the capital and different unrest that claimed not less than three lives.
The U.N. human rights workplace known as for an investigation. The United States, which is attempting to revive the 2015 nuclear take care of Iran, known as on the Islamic Republic to finish its “systemic persecution” of ladies. Italy additionally condemned her death.
Iranian officers dismissed the criticism as politically motivated and accused unnamed overseas international locations of fomenting the unrest.
Separately, an Iranian official mentioned three folks had been killed by unnamed armed teams within the Kurdish area of the nation the place the protests started, the primary official affirmation of deaths linked to the unrest.
The semiofficial Fars news company reported that round 300 protesters had gathered in downtown Tehran on Tuesday, chanting “Death to the dictator.” AP reporters later noticed a heavy deployment of police within the space, in addition to torched trash bins and rocks strewn throughout some intersections. The governor of Tehran province, Mohsen Mansouri, accused overseas embassies of fanning the protests and mentioned three overseas nationals had been arrested. He didn’t specify the nationality of the embassies or the detainees.
The U.N. physique mentioned Iran’s morality police have expanded their patrols in current months, concentrating on ladies for not correctly sporting the Islamic headband, often called hijab. It mentioned verified movies present ladies being slapped within the face, struck with batons and thrown into police vans for sporting the hijab too loosely.
An identical patrol detained 22-year-old Mahsa Amini final Tuesday, taking her to a police station the place she collapsed. She died three days later. Iranian police have denied mistreating Amini and say she died of a coronary heart assault. Authorities say they’re investigating the incident.
“Mahsa Amini’s tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment should be promptly, impartially and successfully investigated by an unbiased competent authority,” mentioned Nada Al-Nashif, the performing U.N. excessive commissioner for human rights.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Amini “needs to be alive immediately.”
“Instead, the United States and the Iranian folks mourn her. We name on the Iranian authorities to finish its systemic persecution of ladies and to permit peaceable protest,” he tweeted.
Italy’s Foreign Ministry known as for “the perpetrators of this cowardly act” to be held to account, saying “violence in opposition to harmless folks, particularly ladies and women, can by no means be tolerated.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian rejected the criticism, accusing the U.S. of “shedding crocodile tears.”“An investigation was ordered into (the) tragic death of Mahsa, who, as (the) President mentioned, was similar to our personal daughters,” he tweeted. “To Iran, human rights are of inherent worth — not like those that see it (as) a device in opposition to adversaries.
”Iranian police launched closed-circuit video footage final week purportedly displaying the second Amini collapsed. But her household says she had no historical past of coronary heart hassle.
Amjad Amini, her father, instructed an Iranian news website that witnesses noticed her being shoved right into a police automotive.
“I requested for entry to (movies) from cameras contained in the automotive in addition to courtyard of the police station, however they gave no reply,” he mentioned. He additionally accused the police of not transferring her to the hospital promptly sufficient, saying she might have been resuscitated.
He mentioned that when he arrived on the hospital he was not allowed to view the physique, however managed to get a glimpse of bruising on her foot.
Authorities then pressured him to bury her at night time, apparently to cut back the chance of protests, however Amini mentioned the household satisfied them to allow them to bury her at 8 a.m. as a substitute. Amini, who was Kurdish, was buried Saturday in her house metropolis of Saqez in western Iran. Protests erupted there after her funeral and police fired tear fuel to disperse demonstrators on Saturday and Sunday. Several protesters had been arrested.
The governor of Iran’s Kurdistan province, Esmail Zarei Kousha, instructed Fars that three folks had been killed by unnamed armed teams, linking the violence to the unrest.
He didn’t determine the victims, however mentioned one was killed within the city of Divandarreh by a weapon not utilized by Iranian safety forces. He mentioned the second physique was present in a automotive close to Saqez and that the third killing was “fully” suspicious.
The province has seen previous violence between Iranian safety forces and Kurdish separatists.The protests unfold to Tehran and different cities on Monday. A news website affiliated with state TV mentioned 22 folks had been arrested at a protest within the northern metropolis of Rasht.
State TV confirmed footage of protests on Monday, together with pictures of two police automobiles with their home windows smashed. It mentioned the protesters torched two motorbikes as effectively, and that they burned Iranian flags in Kurdish areas and Tehran.
The state-run broadcaster blamed the unrest on overseas international locations and exiled opposition teams, accusing them of utilizing Amini’s death as a pretext for extra financial sanctions.
Iran has seen waves of protests in recent times, primarily over a long-running financial disaster exacerbated by Western sanctions linked to the nation’s nuclear program. Authorities have managed to quash the protests by pressure.