Iran: At least 108 dead in anti-government protests, “international community must respond”
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – At least 108 people have now been killed in Iran’s nationwide anti-government protests, triggered by the death in custody of 22-year old Mahsa Amini following her arrest by hijab police last month, the Times of Israel (TOI) reported Wednesday.
Largely led by Iranian women outraged that Amini died after being arrested for wearing her hijab incorrectly, the protests began on September 16 and have developed into wholesale opposition to the repressive Islamic regimes which have controlled Iran since 1979.
Among those keeping track of the death toll is the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization: the group has specifically condemned the government crackdown on protests in Sanandaj, the capital of Amini’s home province of Kurdistan in Iran’s west, TOI reports.
“The international community must prevent further killings in Kurdistan by issuing an immediate response,” IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said in a statement Wednesday. “The city of Sanandaj in Kurdistan province has witnessed widespread protests and bloody crackdowns in the past three days.”
According to IHR, at least another 93 people were killed in clashes with Iranian security forces in the city of Zahedan in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, where fresh protests broke out on September 30 after a teenage girl was raped by a police commander in the area, TOI reports.
