Another teenager was slain 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 schoolgirl participation 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 some 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, organisations that keep an eye out for human rights abuses in Iran’s Balochistan province.
She allegedly suffered severe beatings with batons after security personnel noticed that her books lacked images of the founder of the Islamic Republic. She allegedly passed away shortly after getting to the hospital.
The present Iranian government’s founder, Rohullah Khomeini, is portrayed and quoted at the beginning of each textbook.
Later, according to Halwash, intelligence agents threatened her friends and family not to tell the public about her passing.
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 started 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 about the government.
At least 32 children have been killed since the uprising started, and Iranian authorities have accused the media of “making up deaths” for them.
The province of Sistan and Balochistan’s Iranshar has recently experienced bloody conflicts.
The Sistan and Baluchistan province’s capital, Zahedan, was the scene 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 killing of Mahsa Amini by Iranian troops in September served as the catalyst for the protests. Days of irate protests followed her passing, and they continued after 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 thought 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 clerical establishment across the country.
At least 253 people, including 34 children, have died in the largely 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 powerful Revolutionary Guards’ command to put an end to the protests, which are now in their seventh week, Iranian protestors marched once more on Sunday.
Hossein Salami, the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ commander, warned demonstrators that Saturday will be their final day on the streets.
Salami said, “We warn the youth and those who were duped that this is the last day of the rioting and that they should stay off the streets.”
However, despite Major General Hossein Salami, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warning protesters, “Do not come to the streets,” students assembled overnight and on Sunday across 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 organisation. 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 while it was being pelted with metal shards, according to reports AFP was unable to independently confirm.