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The Iranian Armed Forces announced this Friday, September 23, that they are ready to intervene in the protests that are shaking Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old girl who died after being arrested by the Moral Police for not wearing the hijab. correctly”. Tehran insists that social rejection is motivated by foreign governments, while the world demands justice and demands respect for women’s rights.
A death that shakes Iran and generates a social explosion.
Just one week after Mahsa Amini’s death was confirmed, the protests intensify, but so does the repression.
The Army of the Islamic Republic warned in a statement, this Friday, September 23, that it is willing to intervene in the demonstrations that are spreading through different cities.
“We are ready to help our Police colleagues,” the Armed Forces said.
In Iranian territory, responding to mobilizations is not usually the responsibility of the military institution. That function is reserved for the Revolutionary Guard.
Far from questioning the suspicious circumstances of the death of the 22-year-old girl and focusing on the investigations, the authorities insist on pointing out that the demonstrations are an alleged conspiracy directed from abroad to affect the Iranian government.
The young woman died on September 16 after spending three days in a coma. On Tuesday, September 13, when she was walking through the streets of Tehran, she was arrested by the Morale Police, for wearing the mandatory veil “too low and without covering her head”.
Although the officers assured that she would only be transferred to a “re-education” class, two hours later she was transferred in an ambulance from the police station where she was being held to a hospital. She went into cardiac arrest and arrived brain dead. The family and thousands of people denounce that he would have been the victim of a brutal beating.
This is not the first time that women have been violated in the country for not complying with strict dress codes.
But according to Tehran, the social rejection of the alleged crime responds to “desperate actions of the enemy’s diabolical strategy to weaken the Islamic regime (…) The Armed Forces will never allow the enemy to damage the ideals of Imam Khomeini,” the note added.
In this sense, the Army also warned that due to what it considers the proliferation of “anti-revolutionary movements” it will allow the prosecution of “illegal meetings.”
Pro-government marches call for the execution of those protesting Amini
Demonstrations organized by the state to counter anti-government protests throughout the country began this Friday in several cities in the country.
Supporters of the Ebrahim Raisi Administration even call for the execution of the “rioters”, referring to those demonstrating for the death of Mahsa Amini. A show of support for the authorities facing the largest demonstrations in years.
Government supporters waved flags, branded anti-government protesters “soldiers of Israel” and shouted “death to America” and “death to Israel,” common slogans used by the country’s clerical rulers to try to drum up support.
Iranian authorities fear a resurgence of protests that erupted in 2019 over rising gasoline prices, the bloodiest in the Islamic Republic’s history in which around 1,500 people lost their lives.
At least 17 deaths and 288 detainees leave the protests in Iran
The outrage over Amini’s death continues unabated and authorities have meanwhile detained at least 288 protesters, according to state media reports.
In the most recent unrest, protesters in Tehran and other cities torched police stations and vehicles. At least 17 activists have died.
The scenes of women cutting their hair and burning their hijabs while chanting “Freedom!” they fuel a broader political debate about the role of religious restrictions in a nation, questions that have plagued the Islamic Republic since its founding in 1979.
The protests have also become an open challenge to the government. The chants have been scathing, with some even chanting “death to the dictator!” and “the mullahs must go!”, a title used in some Muslim communities to refer to certain religious.
Amnesty International accuses the security forces of beating protesters with batons and firing metal pellets at close range, as released videos show.
Amid the unrest, the University of Tehran announced that it will hold classes online for the next week.
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry warns citizens not to join “illegal” demonstrations and threatens to prosecute them.
But the chaos continues and the protests show no signs of abating.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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