At least 41 people have been killed and more than 1,200 people have been arrested as Iranians protest against the in-custody death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini as of Monday.
Protesters are demanding an end to the compulsory wearing of the Hijab and other violations of women’s rights in Iran. Exact statistics for casualties and arrests are available only to the Iranian government, but state media has offered a glimpse at the fallout of more than 10 days of unrest.
The regime sought to quell the protests by cutting off access to social media in more than a dozen cities in recent days, a move that has precluded the widespread killing of protesters in previous instances of unrest.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has warned protesters that his regime will act “decisively” to end the violence.
IRAN PROTESTS: ARMY VOWS TO ‘CONFRONT ENEMY’
Not all of those injured or killed have been protesters, however. At least five members of Iran’s Basij paramilitary group have also been killed, according to state media. The group is connected to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and has been acting as enforcers.
The unrest has been most severe in Iran’s northeastern region, where much of the nation’s Kurdish minority group resides. Amini was herself Kurdish.
Protests erupted after morality police arrested the young woman for not wearing a Hijab correctly while visiting Tehran. She suffered severe injuries while in custody and later died in a hospital after falling into a coma.
Iranian authorities have allegedly rejected responsibility for Amini’s death, claiming that she simply collapsed while in custody. Amini’s family says they found evidence of beatings on her body when they arrived at the hospital, however.
Amini’s death has led thousands of women to cast off their Hijabs during protest events, with some even burning them in the street.
