Protests in Iran continue. UNICEF is concerned about the imprisonment of young people. The country’s education minister said they should be “reformed in psychiatric centres”.
The demonstrations began four weeks ago after the death of the young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of the morality police on September 16. The 22-year-old should not have worn the hijab properly.
Despite the fact that security forces have shot and killed many protesters, the uprising continues. It is largely driven by young adults, some in their early teens. Women are at the fore.
On Wednesday, new demonstrations against the regime witnessed. Pictures and videos of demonstrations in several places in the country have been posted on social media.
Witnesses reported that the protests, which began at midday on Wednesday, led to a massive deployment of riot police and plainclothes police across Tehran. There have also been major disruptions affecting mobile internet services, NTB writes.
worried about teens
It is not known how many have been arrested so far. United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF It is deeply concerned by reports of killing, wounding and arresting of children and young people.
According to the Oslo-based Iranian Human Rights Organization, at least 201 people lost their lives in the riots. 23 people under the age of 18 were killed.
The head of the organization, Mahmoud Al-Amri Moghadam, says that many schoolchildren have been arrested in the streets and schools over the past week. He points to videos on social media where security forces crack down on young people.
At the moment, it is very difficult to verify what is really happening on the streets of Iran. The internet has been blocked in the capital, Tehran, among other places. The media are subject to heavy censorship and are not allowed to do so.
NetBlocks believes that disruptions to the Internet today also limit the flow of information. It is an organization that oversees cybersecurity and Internet governance.
to be “rehabilitated”
In an interview with the Iranian newspaper Sharqily Iran’s Minister of Education, Yousef Nouri, has denied that detained schoolchildren are being put in prison. Instead, he says, they are sent to so-called psychological centers where they are taught and “reformed,” so they can go back to school afterwards.
Students must be rehabilitated before they can return to society. This is to prevent them from becoming antisocial people, Nouri tells the newspaper.
He adds that the number of students arrested is not that many, but he cannot give an exact number.
Information from Nouri has not been confirmed by other sources. It is not known how this could happen.
Mahmoud Ameri Moghadam of the Oslo-based Iranian Human Rights Organization says he has heard that children are being subjected to this. But they know very little about what is actually happening to children in these institutions. However, he is very worried.
– I hope that countries like Norway can respond to this. After all, we’re talking about kids, little girls who don’t want to wear a headscarf, Amiri Moghadam tells Aftenposten.
It’s only been days since Aftenposten wrote about 16-year-old Nika Shakarami. She disappeared during the demonstrations. Ten days later, the family received a phone call. Shakarami was in the morgue of one of the detention centers in the Iranian capital.
demand punishment
In his first reaction to the protests in Iran, the country’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, described the whole thing as a planned uprising. he is They demanded that teenagers be punished who participated in the protests.
Khamenei further said that teens who take to the streets because they incite them to what they see online will learn from their mistakes through punishment.
in Twitter message On Wednesday afternoon, Khamenei wrote in English that not everyone should be punished, but that “cultural work” was needed.
The morality police are back!
Despite the threats, witnesses reported demonstrations in Tehran on Wednesday. At least 30 women must have participated in one of them. They took off their headscarves singing “Death to the Dictator!” , according to NTB.
Passing cars fired support shots despite the warnings of the security forces. Witnesses said other women simply stopped wearing their headscarves in silent protest.
According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), dozens were arrested during riots outside the Iranian Bar Association in Tehran. At least three of them were lawyers. They are said to have cried “Lawyers support the people”, and the more familiar battle cry: “Women, life, freedom.”
Wednesday’s videos were also said to show demonstrations in Baharestan, southeast of the city of Isfahan, as well as in the southern city of Shiraz and Rasht city north of the Caspian Sea.
In many cities, all shops were closed. On social media, people are encouraged to continue the demonstrations.
When Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the so-called morality police, The morality police withdrew from the streets for a while.
The videos now show that they are back. According to the photos, they are arresting women who are not veiled.
travel recommended
Wednesday Advised the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs They all travel to Iran. The reason is that they believe that the security situation in the country has worsened.
“In addition, there have been several cases of arbitrary imprisonment of foreigners, with long-term consequences for those involved,” the State Department wrote.
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