2023-09-16 17:39:03
TEHRAN.- The Iranian authorities This Saturday they prevented the family of Mahsa Amini organized a ceremony to commemorate one year since his death and briefly detained his father, while there were protests in some areas of the country despite the threats and deployment of security forces that arrested protesters, denounced human rights groups in the anniversary of the death of the young woman which unleashed one of the largest waves of protests since the fall of the Shah in 1979.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, died on September 16, 2022 after being arrested for allegedly wearing the veil incorrectly and violating the dress code for women which has been in force since shortly after the 1979 revolution. His family claims that he died from a blow to the head, but the authorities deny this.
His death triggered a wave of protests that lasted weeks and during the mobilizations many women took off their Islamic veils, in a gesture of defiance to this Islamic Republic led by the supreme guide, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mahsa Amini died three days after collapsing in a detention center of Iran’s “morality police”Mahsa Amini’s family
The mobilizations lost momentum over the months, appeased by a repression that caused the death of 551 protesters, among them 68 children and 49 women, according to Iran Human Rights (IHR), and the arrest of more than 22,000 people, according to Amnesty International. Seven men were executed for cases linked to these demonstrations.
Mahsa Amimi’s father, Amjad Amini, He was arrested this Saturday when he left his home in Saqez and was released, but authorities warned him not to hold a commemoration at his daughter’s gravereported three NGOs, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), 1500tasvir and Iran Human Rights (IHR), based in Norway.
The official Iranian news agency IRNA He denied that Amjad Amini had been arrested, but did not say whether he was briefly detained or warned.
Amjad Amini is prevented from leaving his home in Saqez, Amini’s hometown in Kurdistan province, and security agents are stationed outside his house, the organizations added in different publications.
According to social media posts, Amini’s parents had said in a statement earlier this week that, despite government warnings, They would hold a “traditional and religious anniversary ceremony” at their daughter’s grave in Saqez.
This Saturday it was deployed a massive presence of security forces in the majority Kurdish areas of Iran in anticipation of unrest, according to human rights groups. State-affiliated media reported on arrests of several “counterrevolutionaries” and “terrorists” in different Iranian cities and said that security forces had foiled plots to create unrest over illegal demonstrations.
But images on social media showed apparent protests in areas such as Gohardasht, a neighborhood in the city of Karaj west of the capital Tehran, and in the northeastern city of Mashhad.
A video posted on social media and reproduced by human rights organizations showed a group of protesters in Gohardasht chanting “We are a great nation and we will take back Iran,” as drivers honked their horns and shouted encouragement.
However, IRNA said that Amini’s hometown of Saqez was “completely calm” and that calls for an attack on Kurdish areas had failed due to “people’s vigilance and the presence of military and security forces.” .
For his part, the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi met with relatives of security agents killed during the wave of protests.
Activists claim that The repression intensified with the approach of the anniversary, aimed especially at people close to victims of repression, to silence them.
The NGO Human Rights Watch indicated that relatives of at least 36 people murdered or executed were interrogated, detained, persecuted or sentenced to prison over the last month. “The Iranian authorities They try to quell dissent to prevent public commemoration of Mahsa Jina Amini’s death in detention,” said Tara Sepehri Far, HRW’s Iran researcher.
On the other hand, Parliament is processing a bill known as “Support for the culture of hijab and chastity” that calls for much more severe penalties for non-compliance with the dress code.
Sara Hossain, president of the UN mission to investigate the repression in Iran, said the country “is redoubling repression and reprisals against its citizens and that attempts to enact new, more draconian laws that further restrict women’s rights.”
Amnesty International accused Tehran of having committed a “litany of crimes under international law to eradicate any challenge to its iron grip on power” and regretted that no one responsible had been investigated for Amini’s death or the subsequent crackdown.
For its part, the IHR warned that Tehran has intensified hangings for all types of crimes “to sow fear and prevent the outbreak of new demonstrations.”
In a statement on Friday, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, He said that “Mahsa’s story did not end with her brutal death. She inspired a historic movement -Woman, Life, Freedom- that has impacted Iran and influenced people around the world.”
Britain on Friday imposed sanctions on four Iranian officials and the United States said it was sanctioning more than two dozen people and entities linked to Iran’s “violent suppression” of protests.
#Marches #arrests #threats #year #death #sparked #historic #protests