31 KILLED IN IRAN CRACKDOWN ON ANTI-HIJAB PROTESTS

 

At least 31 civilians have been killed in an Iranian security forces crackdown on protests that erupted after the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, according to an NGO.

According to an Oslo-based NGO, protests took place in over 30 cities and other urban centres over the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the morality police. During protests, security forces opened fire at protesters, injuring many people.

Iran Human Rights (IHR) director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said in a statement, "The people of Iran have come to the streets to achieve their fundamental rights and human dignity. However, the government is responding to their peaceful protest with bullets.”

IHR said that 11 people were killed on Wednesday night in the town of Amol in the northern Mazandaran province, and six people were killed in Babol in the same province. The major northeastern city of Tabriz also saw its first death in the protests.

Earlier, Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Norwegian-registered organization monitoring rights violations in Iran, said that 15 people had been killed in Kurdistan province during the protests. The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said that five people were shot by the security forces during demonstrations in Iran's Kurdish region.

The UN's Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nada Al-Nashif, issued a statement on Tuesday and called for an independent investigation.

 Mahsa Amini died in Tehran, the capital of Iran, after being arrested by Iran's morality police. Human rights activists accused the morality police of beating the woman to death. They said that the morality police beat the woman because her Hijab was loose and it did not cover her hair.

After Amini's funeral ceremony on Saturday, security forces fired tear gas on protesters in Saqqez, the hometown of Amini. However, it did not stop protesters from continuing their protests.