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More than 200 people have been killed in the demonstrations, including 23 minors

Iran protests: crackdown intensifies in Kurdistan

Iran protests: state TV hacked during Khamenei speech

Iranian security forces search and arrest school children

Iran opens the door to dialogue as oil workers join protests

Three killed during protests in Iran bring total death toll to 204 since the beginning of demonstrations

AFP/JULIEN DE ROSA - A demonstrator at a rally in support of the Iranian protests in Paris
Margarita Arredondas
Updated: 14/10/22

Almost a month after the murder of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran's morality police, mass protests continue in the country. Likewise, violent repression by the regime's security forces continues. The death toll in the demonstrations now exceeds 200 people, including 23 minors, according to Iran Human Rights.

In recent hours, the Iranian authorities have intensified the crackdown in Amini's home region of Iranian Kurdistan. Tehran has deployed the Basij militia in the area, a brigade under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard that has been at the forefront of the protests since they began last September. 

Witnesses in Sanandaj, the capital of the Kurdish region, told Reuters that Basij members, along with riot police, were attacking and shooting at protesters. According to the sources, hundreds of riot police and Basij forces have been transferred from other provinces to Kurdistan to confront the demonstrators. Also, according to CNN, many of the injured choose not to go to hospitals because, if they do, they will be detained by the police.

According to witnesses, riot police searched houses and arrested minors. "We also have information from Baneh and Saqez. They have arrested dozens of young people, including teenagers," the source added to Reuters. 

The Kurdish human rights organisation Hengaw has reported the deaths of at least four protesters and more than 100 injured, some of them seriously, and the death toll is likely to rise. Hengaw also denounced the numerous arrests - including of underage protesters - during the protests that have taken place in more than 10 Kurdish cities.

Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based organisation Iran Human Rights, called on the international community to "respond immediately" to prevent "more killings in Kurdistan". Regarding the detained minors, Amiry-Moghaddam recalled that children have a "legal right to protest", while the United Nations has "an obligation to defend the rights of children in Iran by putting pressure on the Islamic Republic". 

Hadi Ghaemi, director of the Centre for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), agrees, describing the arrests of minors as "child abductions" by the state. Ghaemi urged US President Joe Biden and "democratic allies in the UN" to act against the regime's violence. He also addressed UNICEF, the UN children's agency. "UNICEF, which has an office in Iran, should trace these defenceless children and return them to their families," he said. 

Security forces have arrested schoolchildren, many of whom have been sent to "psychiatric centres" for "correction", said Education Minister Yousef Nouri, quoted in Iran's Shargh Daily. "They will be returned to schools once the experts have done their work," said Nouri, who said the students "can become anti-social characters". The authorities also arrested three human rights lawyers protesting outside the Tehran Bar Association this week. 

Protests continue across the country and reach across all sectors. Earlier this week a strike of oil and petrochemical workers was called in several parts of Iran, including Abadan and Asalouyeh. As reported by Iran International, the workers threatened to destroy plants and equipment if the authorities did not stop killing civilians.

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