DUBAI, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Female students in Tehran chanted “get lost” as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited its university campus on Saturday and condemned protesters enraged by the death of a young woman in custody, they showed videos on social networks.
Raisi addressed teachers and students at Alzahra University in Tehran, reciting a poem likening the “rioters” to flies, as demonstrations across the country entered their fourth week.
“They imagine they can achieve their evil goals in universities,” state television reported. “Unbeknownst to us, our students and teachers are alert and will not allow the enemy to achieve their evil goals.”
Register now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister
A video posted on Twitter by the activist website 1500tasvir showed what it said were students chanting “Raisi es perden” and “Mullahs es perden” as the president visited their campus. Another social media video showed students chanting, “We don’t want a corrupt guest,” referring to Raisi.
Reuters could not immediately verify the videos.
An Iranian state coroner’s report denied that Mahsa Amini, 22, had died from blows to the head and limbs while in police custody and linked her death to pre-existing medical conditions, they state media said on Friday.
Amini, an Iranian Kurd, was arrested in Tehran on September 13 for wearing “inappropriate clothing” and died three days later.
His death has sparked demonstrations across the country, marking the biggest challenge to Iran’s clerical leaders in years.
Women have removed their veils in defiance of the clerical establishment as angry crowds called for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The government has described the protests as a plot by Iran’s enemies, including the United States, accusing armed dissidents – among others – of violence in which at least 20 members of Iran’s security forces have been reported killed. safety
Rights groups say more than 185 people have been killed, hundreds injured and thousands detained by security forces in response to the protests.
Following a call for mass demonstrations on Saturday, security forces fired on demonstrators and used tear gas in the Kurdish towns of Sanandaj and Saqez, according to the Iranian human rights group Hengaw.
In Sanandaj, the capital of northwestern Kurdistan province, a man was left dead in his car as a woman screamed “shamelessly”, according to Hengaw, who said security forces had shot him after he honked his horn at sign of protest
But a senior police official repeated the security forces’ claim that no live bullets were used and that the man had been killed by “counter-revolutionaries” (armed dissidents), state news agency IRNA reported.
A video shared on social media showed a young woman lying unconscious on the ground after she was apparently shot in the northeastern city of Mashhad. Protesters rallied around him to help.
The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights said on its website that at least 185 people, including at least 19 children, had been killed in the protests. The highest number of killings occurred in the restive Sistan-Baluchistan province with half of the deaths recorded, he said.
State television showed footage of Ayatollah Khamenei during its main afternoon newscast, with the broadcast briefly interrupted in an apparent hack with his image engulfed in flames, alongside the slogan “Rise and join us” and web addresses of the Edalate Ali hacker group. Read more
The group hacked security cameras last year and exposed the abuse of prisoners at a prison that held mostly political prisoners.
CALL THE UNIT
After a weekly meeting, President Raisi and the head of the judiciary and speaker of Iran’s parliament called for unity.
“Currently, Iranian society needs the unity of all its strata regardless of language, religion and ethnicity to overcome the hostility and division spread by anti-Iranians,” they said in a statement carried by state media. .
A social media video showed protesters marching in the northern city of Babol, and multiple posts said security forces had surrounded students demonstrating on a university campus.
Hengaw also carried a video of emergency personnel trying to revive a person and said a protester had died after being shot in the abdomen by security forces in Sanandaj. Reuters could not verify the video.
One of the schools in Saqez’s town square was filled with girls chanting “woman, life, freedom,” Hengaw reported.
The widely followed Twitter account 1500tasvir also reported shootings of protesters in the two northwestern Kurdish cities.
A university student who was going to join the protests in Tehran said he was not afraid of being arrested or even killed.
“They can kill us, arrest us but we will not be silent any more. Our comrades are in prison. How can we be silent?” the student, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters.
State media downplayed the protests across Tehran, reporting “limited” demonstrations in dozens of areas. One said many traders in the bazaar had closed their shops fearing damage from the riots, and denied there was a strike.
Internet watchdog NetBlocks said the internet had been cut again in Sanadaj amid protests in Kurdish areas.
Register now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister
Reporting from the Dubai newsroom; Written by Michael Georgy Editing by Ros Russell and Nick Macfie
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.