For the second day in a row, tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets across the country on Thursday to remember a young woman killed by security forces during a protest movement calling for an end to clericalism. showed no sign of abating, and once again security forces opened fire on the crowd, according to witnesses and video.
Video has shown Riot police attack and open fire during a memorial service in a rural cemetery near the northwestern town of Visian for 16-year-old Nika Shakarami, who was killed during a street protest in Tehran on last month, where women burned their headscarves make her a national symbol of defiance.
“We are all Nika, fight and we will fight back,” chanted those attending the ceremony as they hurled stones at security forces firing at them, the video showed. Women standing around her grave, one covered with flowers and a black cloth, cutting their hair and burning their headscarves, another video showed.
“My dear Nika, I am deeply saddened by your loss and heartbroken for your dreams,” her mother Nassrin Shakarami said in a statement. speech at the memorial ceremony, calling his daughter a martyr. Others cried, hugging Nika’s pictures, and sing a war glorification.
As protests aimed at ending Iran’s clerical dictatorship enter their sixth week, memorial services have taken place, marking a 40-day period of mourning for those killed.
On Wednesday, tens of thousands of Iranians remember Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old young man who died in September first sparked the protests. She died after being detained by the ethics police in Tehran for allegedly violating the country’s hijab law, which requires women to cover their hair and wear loose robes.
On Thursday, the crowd marked 40 days since Nika’s death. If Miss Amini’s death sparked the uprising, the killing of Nika and the others fueled it.
More on protests in Iran
The ceremonies appear to have stimulated protesters once again and given new impetus to a movement, led by women and youth.
According to Iran’s Committee for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, the government’s heavy-handed crackdown – at least 28 children and young people have been killed – has failed to stop the protests.
But Iranian officials have so far shown no sign of giving in to protesters’ demands for change and have blamed the unrest on foreign enemies, and the death toll is continuing to rise.
In the northwestern province of Kurdistan on Thursday, thousands of attend the funeral of a young man, Ismail Mowloudi, killed by security forces a day earlier during a protest in the city of Mahabad. They clapped and sang and chanted, “Kurdistan will bury the fascists,” video showed.
Following his funeral, protesters and security forces clashed outside the governor’s office, according to videos and official Iranian media reporting that security forces stopped the crowd. trying to take over the government building.
Videos posted on social media and Kurdish and Persian news agencies showed the entrance to the governor’s office on fire, a bank on fire and windows of nearby businesses smashed.
According to an activist working with the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, Rebin Rahmani, at least three protesters were killed in Mahabad on Thursday, with the situation in the city remaining tense into the evening.
“There are a lot of government troops in the city. There is no internet in the city. Some government places were burned by protesters,” Rahmani said.
Loud gunfire can be heard on some videos showing security forces assaulting protesters on the street.
Across Iranian cities on Thursday, including in the capital Tehran, protesters chanted “freedom” and “death to the dictator,” and security forces beat them, threw tear gas and opened fire on them, videos and media reports show.
According to Hengaw, a Kurdish rights group based in Norway, clashes also broke out in the northwestern Iranian city of Baneh, where two protesters were killed.
In Tehran, a group of young women with naked hair sitting on the sidewalk faced to a line of riot police. In a subway station, dozens of women Videos chanting “Women, Life, Freedom” are displayed.
In Tehran and the city of Isfahan, doctors were holding peaceful protests outside the medical offices of the provincial government when security forces attacked and beat them with batons, according to reports and videos. . Fifteen doctors were arrested in Tehran.
Officials blamed protesters for destabilizing the country and paving the way for a shooting attack on Wednesday at a mosque in downtown Shiraz that left 15 people dead, including 15 two children, and was captured by the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist group.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered condolences to those killed in the mosque attack.
“Each of us has a responsibility to confront the igniting enemies and traitors, including the ignorant and the manipulated,” he said.
According to Russian media report.
Sangar Khaleel contribution report.
