‘Death to the dictator’ slogan raised in Iran’s anti-hijab protests, 75 killed

TEHRAN, Sep 27 (Agencies): It’s been over 10 days since protests are raging across Iran over the death of 22-year-old Mahasa Amini. Now a rights group has said over 75 people have been killed in the protests amid clashes with security forces. Crowds in the capital city of Tehran shouted ‘death to the dictator’, calling for the end of the over three-decade rule of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Protests over Amini’s death have spread across at least 46 Iranian cities, towns and villages. State TV has suggested that at least 41 protesters and police have been killed since the protests began on Sept. 17. An Associated Press count of official statements by authorities puts the death toll at least 13, with more than 1,200 demonstrators arrested.
The Iranian government has dismissed the latest protests as a foreign plot, rather than an expression of public outrage over the death of a woman detained only because her mandatory headscarf, or hijab, wasn’t to the morality police’s liking.
Pro-government marches in Tehran and other cities echoed the official line, with some marchers chanting “American mercenaries are fighting the religion.”
The government’s decision to restrict Instagram, LinkedIn and WhatsApp — three of the last Western social media apps working in the country — has limited the ability of protesters to organize and share their videos with the outside world.
Instead, only short clips find their way out, including those of security forces firing at protesters and women defiantly cutting off their hair and burning their hijabs. Security forces, including motorcycle-riding volunteers with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, have attacked peaceful demonstrators.
There’s also been footage of apparent demonstrators setting fires, flipping over police cars and fighting back against riot police.
Independent observers such as human rights activists face threats, intimidation and arrest in Iran. Text messages from the government to the public warn of criminal charges for joining demonstrations.