Iranian security forces search and arrest school children

Day 23 of protests: Iranian security forces, according to The Guardian, arrested schoolgirls inside their educational facilities in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday morning. 

Schoolgirls have become the number one target of Iran's security agencies as anti-government protests entered their fourth week on Sunday. Security forces stormed girls' schools in several cities on Sunday, according to reports. 

In addition, images obtained by IranWire show how many of the security elements came to the schools in vehicles, many of which did not even have licence plates. The footage also shows police officers checking students' mobile phones to see if they had participated in the protests. In one video, students are seen outside the school chanting "Women, life, freedom", while members of the security forces check students' phones inside the school. Officers confiscated some phones and took some students to the police station.  Girls from all over the country are joining the protests, which is also provoking clashes with teachers. Despite the threat of arrest, videos shared on social media show how the students are persisting with their protests.

Policewomen stormed a girls' high school in the central city of Zanjan on Sunday. "We were all shocked," one of the students who was at the school told IranWire. "We were sitting in our classroom when the principal opened the door, accompanied by four policemen." "They started searching us and took our phones. Then they asked us to take off our headscarves. It looked like they were looking for some specific girls. I don't know why, but they told students with long hair to cut it shorter. I love my hair, I don't want to cut it. They warned us not to participate in the protests, or they wouldn't let us go back to school," she said.  

The force with which security agencies are intervening is being severe. On Saturday night, police used firearms to subdue protesters, resulting in the deaths of at least four people from gunshot wounds. According to reports from Iran, on Sunday night, during public protests in the Mosk neighbourhood of Marivan, a protesting citizen was shot dead by the forces of repression.

Over the weekend, a large number of images of protest rallies forming in schools across the country have been released. Earlier, some officials had threatened students, however, Mehdi Kazemi, deputy minister of the Ministry of Education, said that no students had been expelled for participating in the protests. 

Meanwhile, knowledgeable sources confirm the arrest of students participating in the rallies. One of the students from Hazrat Masoumeh High School in Hesarak Karaj informed IranWire that security forces have arrested several students from this high school. He said that students from this high school were detained at night when intelligence forces went to their houses.  IranWire added that law enforcement and uniformed forces stormed the Afarinesh Girls' Conservatory on the Tehran campus on Sunday to "arrest the protesting students", although, in the end, the families of the students of this conservatory clashed with security forces and prevented the arrest of their children.

Despite internet restrictions designed to prevent gatherings and prevent images of the repression from being published, protesters have found new ways to get their message across and share images with the outside world. There has been a global condemnation of the regime's brutal repression.  

Four weeks on, the protests have left at least 185 people dead including 19 children in nationwide protests across Iran. The highest number of killings occurred in the provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan with half the number recorded, Iran Human Rights said on Saturday. Germany's foreign minister has called on the EU to impose sanctions on Iran's regime to mediate and seek a solution to the protests as soon as possible.