Iranian security forces opened fire on people at a metro station in Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday as protests over the death of Mahsa Amini entered their third month. Women who weren’t wearing the required headscarves were baton-charged by the authorities. On social media, the force’s action videos have gone viral. According to state media, at least five fatalities were reported in Khuzestan on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, protests intensified
On Tuesday, protesters demanded a three-day demonstration to mark the “Bloody November” demonstrations that took place in 2019 and lasted for two months due to the increase in fuel prices. The protests beginning on November 15, 2019, were the deadliest since the Islamic Republic of Iran rose to power in 1979, with 1,500 protesters being killed. The violence resulted as the commemoration spread to various regions of the nation.
Police started firing on the crowded platform
After protests emerged, police started shooting onto the busy metro station platform. People are seen escaping death in viral videos. People walking toward the exit were seen being trampled as gunshots rang out during the police action at the station, which caused chaos. Another video showed police beating women who were not wearing headscarves while marching through train carriages in civilian clothing.
5 dead in the Khuzestan province
The Tuesday Protests spread to several cities, including Khuzestan, which is home to Iran’s ethnic Arab minority and is bordered by Iraq and the Persian Gulf. According to a report by The Guardian, which cited state media, “a terrorist attack at a market in the city of Izeh in the southwestern province of Khuzestan” on Wednesday left at least five people dead.
Two-month-long protest leaves behind broken families
The protests have continued ever since Amini died, allegedly at the hands of the nation’s morality police.
According to the Oslo-based organization Iran Human Rights, more than 300 people were killed by the nation’s security forces during the two-month-long protests (IHR). The government of Iran disputes the claim that nearly 15,000 people have been detained by Iranian authorities. Five protesters have received death sentences.
Women can be recognized using face recognition technology
The government announced in September that it was working on using face recognition technology to identify women who were breaking the dress code of the nation. The technology will be used to identify “erring women” captured on public transportation security cameras, according to Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, secretary of Iran’s headquarters for promoting virtue and preventing vice.
Death Penalty
Fear grips the nation as a protester against the hijab is given the death penalty. This week, after the nation handed down its first death sentence to an anti-hijab protestor, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) organization appealed to the international community for help and warned of the possibility of “hasty executions without warnings.”
According to Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of IHR, “We fear mass executions unless the political cost of executions increases significantly,” according to The Guardian.
