Another teenager was killed by Iranian security forces after she tore pictures of the Islamic Republic’s founder out of her textbooks.
On Tuesday, a riot squad barged into a secondary school in Iranshahr, an eastern city, in an attempt to uncover any evidence of student involvement in the widespread anti-government demonstrations.
Iranian schoolgirls have recently joined the country’s rallies, sparking fights with teachers and armed security personnel, who have detained several young females they believe to have participated in the demonstrations.
Parmis Hamnava is the name of the girl, according to Halwash News Agency and Baloch Activists’ Campaign, organizations that keep an eye out for human rights abuses in Iran’s Balochistan province.
After security personnel discovered her books lacked images of the Islamic Republic’s founder, they brutally beat her, causing a nosebleed in school. A few hours after getting to the hospital, she passed away.
The present Iranian government’s founder, Rohullah Khomeini, is shown and quoted at the beginning of each textbook.
Later, according to Halwash, intelligence agents intimidated her friends and relatives not to notify the public about her death.
According to a source who spoke to Halwash, “Security officers raided the school last Tuesday and inspected the books of every student; she had torn images of Khomeini, for this offence, and they began beating her in front of other students.”
“She was transported to a hospital because her nose was severely bleeding…” She passed away on Wednesday and was buried in Zahedan,’ it continued.
Local authorities denied the claims of her death and accused “enemy media” of spreading disinformation against the government.
At least 32 children have been murdered since the uprising started, and Iranian officials have accused the media of “making up fatalities” for them.
The province of Sistan and Balochistan’s Iranshar has recently seen bloody conflicts.
The Sistan and Baluchistan province’s capital, Zahedan, was the site of a bloody crackdown on September 30 that was termed Zahedan’s Black Friday and resulted in the deaths of 92 people, including 12 children.
The assassination of Mahsa Amini by Iranian troops in September served as the catalyst for the demonstrations. Days of irate protests followed her passing, and they continued when a police officer was accused of raping a 15-year-old girl.
In Zahedan, two police officers were dismissed last week.
One of Iran’s poorest provinces, Sistan and Baluchistan is home to a Baluch minority said to number up to 2 million people. Iran is mostly a Shia nation.
Mahsa Amini, 22, died on September 16 while being held by Tehran’s renowned “morality” police, setting off a wave of public outrage against Iran’s religious establishment throughout the country.
At least 253 people, including 34 children, have died in the mostly peaceful rallies that have been the target of a ferocious response by security forces.
Schoolgirls reportedly present a significant threat to Tehran’s political establishment. As youngsters join the largest protests in Iran since 2019 and cry for their freedom, security and intelligence authorities are now debating ways to repress them.
Despite the strong Revolutionary Guards’ command to put an end to the protests, which are now in their seventh week, Iranian protestors marched once again on Sunday.
Hossein Salami, the strong Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ commander, told demonstrators that Saturday will be their last day on the streets.
Salami stated, “We warn the young and those who were duped that this is the final day of the rioting and that they should stay off the streets.”
However, despite Major General Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warning protesters, “Do not come to the streets,” students assembled overnight and on Sunday throughout Iran.
An assembly of students in the key western city of Sanandaj on Sunday was attacked by security forces with gunfire and tear gas, according to reports from the Norwegian-based Hengaw organization. Videos showed billowing clouds of smoke and protesters chanting “freedom.”
In addition, the website published a video of a 12-year-old girl waving her bleeding arm as it was being pelted with metal shards, according to claims AFP was unable to independently confirm.
Security forces have had difficulty controlling the demonstrations, which began when women took to the streets and set fire to their hijab headscarves and have now grown into a larger movement to overthrow the Islamic republic that was established in 1979.