Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 25: Ebrahim Raisi, the ultra-conservative president of Iran, has vowed to take ‘decisive action’ against the discontent that has engulfed the nation ever since young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini passed away while in the morality police’s care.
In a phone chat with the relatives of a Basij militiaman slain in the city of Mashhad on Saturday, Raisi called the demonstrations ‘riots’ and advocated decisive action against the opponents of the security and serenity of the country and the people.
According to an official count, at least 41 people have perished, predominantly protestors but also security personnel from the Islamic republic, however human rights organisations claim the actual death toll is much higher.
Since the primarily nighttime demonstrations and street fights that began after Amini’s death on September 16 and later spread to several towns have taken place, hundreds of protesters, reformist activists, and journalists have been detained.
Rights organisations claim that while protesters threw rocks, set fire to police cars, set state buildings on fire, and chanted “death to the tyrant,” security forces opened fire with live ammunition and bird shot.
The largest demonstrations in Iran in almost three years have been led by women, and they have been motivated by outrage over the Islamic Republic’s tightly enforced gender-based clothing code rather than more conventional political or economic issues.
