On Monday, Iran accused the United States of trying to destabilize the country by taking advantage of demonstrations sparked by the demise of a woman in police custody. Iran also warned that this action would not go unanswered, as the most significant unrest since 2019 exhibited no signs of subsiding.
Iran has been shaken by nationwide protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman. Mahsa Amini died after being detained by morality police who were imposing the Islamic Republic’s tight restrictions on women’s dress.
Thread:
1/. As the death toll rises to 41 today, four women you should know who were deliberately and unlawfully killed in Iran when protesting gender apartheid and the killing of #Masha_Amini:Hadis Najafi, aged 20, shot six times when security forces opened fire on her. pic.twitter.com/ZjbOTo3Zq3
— Omid Djalili (@omid9) September 26, 2022
The situation has been roundly criticized throughout the world. Iran claimed that the United States was providing support to rioters and was working to undermine the stability of the Islamic Republic.
Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was quoted in a statement sent to Nour news, which is linked with a top security organization, saying, “Washington is always trying to destabilize Iran’s stability and security, but it has been unsuccessful.”
On his Instagram page, Kanaani accused the representatives of the United States and some European countries of misusing a terrible tragedy in endorsement of “rioters” and ignoring “the presence of millions of people in the streets and squares of the country in support of the system.”
The anti-government protests are the strongest to push the country since protests in 2019 over fuel costs. Reuters reported that 1,500 people were murdered in a clampdown on protesters during those demonstrations, making it the deadliest bout of internal turmoil in the history of the Islamic Republic.
According to state TV, the most recent round of disturbance, which began on September 17, has resulted in the deaths of at least 41 individuals.
In a statement that was shared on social media on Sunday, a major Iranian teachers union called for teachers and students to organize the first nationwide strike since the unrest started on Monday and Wednesday.
Women have been at the forefront of the demonstrations, tearing off their headscarves and waving them in the air.
In dissent of Iran’s conservative Islamic dress code, the sister of a man who was killed in the anti-government protests, Javad Heydari, can be seen in a video cutting her hair on his grave. The video is circulating on social media. Reuters was unable to determine whether or not the footage was legitimate.
In an effort to alleviate the tension, the state has scheduled rallies for the community.
Analysts believe that the leaders of Iran are not in immediate danger despite the fact that the protests over Amini’s death pose a significant challenge to the government. This is because Iran’s elite security forces have successfully put down protests in the past.
Iran has pointed the finger of blame at armed Iranian Kurdish dissidents for their role in the ongoing turmoil across the country, notably in the northwest of the country, which is home to the majority of Iran’s estimated 10 million Kurds.
According to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards conducted an artillery and UAV attack on Iranian militant opposition positions in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.