Iran Rights Groups Report Rising Child Death Toll In Protests
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights said on Wednesday it had confirmed the deaths of 201 people since Sept. 16.
(Bloomberg) -- A rights group monitoring the protests in Iran said it had confirmed the deaths of at least 201 people since demonstrations started last month, while a charity inside the country said at least 28 children had been killed in the unrest.
Protests have continued to grip many parts of Iran, according to unverified videos shared on social media, despite a deadly crackdown by security forces. Videos shared on social media on Wednesday purportedly showed gatherings in the cities of Shiraz, Sari, Mashhad, Kerman and various neighborhoods in Tehran, including at two universities in the capital. None of the videos can be verified by Bloomberg News.
The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights said on Wednesday it had confirmed the deaths of 201 people since Sept. 16 -- when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody -- including of 23 children, according to a statement on its website. It said scores of schoolchildren had been arrested for protesting and for publicly criticizing the leaders of the Islamic Republic in social media posts of videos and pictures from their classrooms.
The Tehran-based Children’s Rights Protection Society said in a statement on Monday that 28 children had been killed in the protests, with the largest number in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The unrest has emerged as one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic and its theocratic leadership since its founding after the 1979 revolution.
Young Iranians, including teenagers, university students and schoolchildren, have been heavily involved in the demonstrations. The deaths of more young women and teenagers who took part in the protests have helped fuel further anger and dissent.
Since Saturday, there have been scores of social media reports of violence and a major crackdown by security forces in Iran’s western province of Kurdistan, where Amini was from.
Violence appears to be concentrated in the province’s capital Sanandaj, which the Norwegian-registered Hengaw Human Rights Organization said earlier this week was under a “full-on military attack.” According to Hengaw, at least 32 people have been killed in Kurdistan province since protests started.
Videos shared on Twitter by Hengaw, purportedly from Sanandaj, show convoys of military pickup trucks holding uniformed personnel passing through one of the city’s street. Kurdistan and Sistan-Baluchestan are both home to ethnic and religious minorities that have complained of state marginalization and poverty for decades.
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