Iranian leaders demand harsh sentences for protesters as protests flare up | Abroad

Students from a dozen universities, including in the northern cities of Rasht and Amol, held protests today. They chanted “death to the dictator,” a reference to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to the activist news agency HRANA, 318 protesters, including 49 minors, were killed in the protests on Saturday. 38 members of the security forces were killed. The demonstrations continued the next day in many cities.

According to human rights group Hengaw, security forces in the Kurdish city of Marivan opened fire on a crowd gathered after Nasrin Ghaderi’s funeral to protest her death. The woman died on Saturday after being severely beaten on the head by security forces during a demonstration in Tehran. A prosecutor told state media that Ghaderi had a heart problem and died of “poisoning”, without going into details.

There has been a lot of unrest in Iran since mid-September after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the vice squad for not properly covering her hair. According to her parents, she died as a result of blows to her head while in custody. A coroner linked her death to past medical conditions.

In the weeks that followed, Iranians across the country took to the streets for women’s rights, freedom and human rights. Hundreds of people have died in clashes with the police, according to human rights groups. Thousands of people have been arrested. Despite warnings from the Revolutionary Guards, the protests continue.

Taraneh Alidoosti, known for her role in the Oscar-winning film The Salesman, continues to openly support protests for women’s rights in her country. She said on Sunday she would not leave Iran and was willing to “pay a price” to defend her rights. Several people from Iran’s film industry have already been arrested for their open support of the protests.