{"id":105846,"date":"2022-09-22T07:00:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=105846"},"modified":"2022-09-22T07:00:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T12:00:13","slug":"iran-cracks-down-violently-on-nationwide-protests-at-least-6-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2022\/09\/22\/iran-cracks-down-violently-on-nationwide-protests-at-least-6-killed\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Cracks Down Violently on Nationwide Protests; at Least 6 Killed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON\/NEW YORK\/ISTANBUL \u2014 <\/span>Iran is responding with a violent, deadly crackdown to nationwide protests triggered by last week\u2019s death in police custody of a young woman accused of not wearing her hijab properly, with authorities acknowledging at least six people have been killed in several days of unrest.<\/p>\n

In comments published Wednesday, Iranian officials said four people were killed in violent incidents in the northwestern province of Kurdistan while two more were killed in rioting in neighboring Kermanshah province.<\/p>\n

Iranian authorities blamed the violence on counter-revolutionary agents. But London-based rights group Amnesty International said Wednesday it has evidence that Iranian security forces have dispersed mostly peaceful protesters using unlawful methods, such as firing birdshot and other metal pellets, teargas and water cannons, and beating people with batons.<\/p>\n

The Amnesty International report said the group recorded the killings of eight protesters by security forces on Monday and Tuesday, including four in Kurdistan, two in Kermanshah and two in West Azerbaijan province. It said the dead include six men, one woman and one child.<\/p>\n

The rights group said hundreds more people, including children, have been violently arrested and sustained painful injuries from birdshot and other munitions.<\/p>\n

“In some places, some protesters engaged in stone-throwing and damaged police vehicles. This in no way justifies the use of metal pellets, which is prohibited under all circumstances,\u201d Amnesty International added.<\/p>\n

Kurdistan province had been the home of 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who died in Tehran on September 16, three days after morality police arrested her for allegedly exposing too much of her hair in public as she visited the Iranian capital.<\/p>\n

Amini fell into a coma shortly after being detained with other women at a Tehran police station and later died at a hospital, according to her family and the hospital. Her family accused authorities of physically assaulting her, but police denied mistreatment and said without sharing evidence that she had suffered a heart attack. Relatives said Amini had no history of serious medical problems.<\/p>\n

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A combination photo showing Mehsa Amini while alive and one purporting to show her on a ventilator has been circulating on social media.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Public protests against Amini\u2019s death began last Friday in several parts of Iran and spread rapidly to other areas this week, reaching 23 of Iran\u2019s 31 provinces as of Wednesday, according to social media videos posted by Iranian citizen journalists and compiled by VOA Persian.<\/p>\n

Those provinces include Alborz, East Azerbaijan, Fars, Gilan, Golestan, Hamedan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Isfahan, Kerman, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Markazi, Mazandaran, Qazvin, Qom, Razavi Khorasan, Semnan, South Khorasan, Tehran, West Azerbaijan, Yazd and Zanjan.<\/p>\n

VOA cannot independently verify the circumstances of the protests seen in the videos because it is barred from reporting inside Iran.<\/p>\n

Some of the social media videos contained footage of apparent anti-government protests by Iranian students in five universities on Wednesday, four of them in Tehran. They include the Iranian capital\u2019s Allameh Tabataba’i University, Alzahra University, Islamic Azad University\u2019s Science and Research Branch and University of Tehran, and Semnan University.<\/p>\n

The sharing of such images via social media became harder for Iranians on Wednesday, as access to the popular American app Instagram was disrupted.<\/p>\n

London-based internet monitoring group NetBlocks tweeted that Instagram access has been restricted on all major internet providers in Iran. It noted that the app, owned by U.S. company Meta, was one of the last available social media platforms in the country.<\/p>\n

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