In a coercive bid to contain the spread of the anti-hijab movement, Iranian security forces yesterday opened fire at the protestors in a Tehran metro station. As the protestors were putting their hijabs on fire in the metro station raising their voice against death of Mahsa Amini who was killed in the custody of the infamous Iranian moral police for not wearing hijab properly; the security forces started firing.
In a video that went viral on social media, one can see Iranian forces opening fire at a crowded metro station where the people are seen running for their lives. The video footage also shows people falling and being trampled upon in rush.
After the death of 22 years’ Amini, the protests against the clerical rule of Iran have spread across the country. As per the reports of the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights group already 300 protestors had been killed by the state. The reports also say that at least 15000 people have been arrested. However, Iran government has denied the numbers.
In the recent past several videos from the embattled country popped up in the social media and took it to storm. One of them from a south-western Iranian city Eqlif shows the protestors fighting pro-regime Basij militia. The chants of ‘Hit the Bastards’ in the video is accompanied by the footage of men and women throwing bricks and stones at the militia.
This November the protesters have also called for a three days’ nationwide protests remembering the 2019 Aban movement in November against the exorbitant fuel prices. The movement also led to hundreds of deaths.
Meanwhile in a shocking move an Iranian court has sentenced one protester to death for setting fire to the public building “disturbing public order and conspiracy to commit crime against national security”.
The country has hardly seen such a widespread movement since the days of Shah regime when it had been overthrown to install Ayatollah Khomeini as the supreme leader of the country in 1979. Since Khomeini came to power, there have been several instances of Iranian cultural activists, filmmakers being arrested. Jafar Panahi, one of the finest filmmakers of Iran has recently been sentenced to six years’ jail for raising voice against the regressive government.
