In the system-critical protests that have been going on for weeks after the death of a young woman in Iran, demonstrators used Molotov cocktails in the capital Tehran on Saturday. According to eyewitnesses, they also dropped the petrol bombs on police and security forces near and in front of Tehran University. The state news agency IRNA confirmed petrol bombs against public buildings, but not against the officials.
According to the report, the demonstrators again chanted slogans against the Islamic political elite.
Clashes also broke out again in front of the elite Sharif University on Saturday, it said. The police used tear gas against the demonstrators. Shots are said to have been fired. The clashes led to renewed traffic jams on some of Tehran’s main roads. Motorists are said to have supported the demonstrators with horn concerts and shouted system-critical slogans.
President Ebrahim Raisi visited Al-Sahra University in Tehran on Saturday and spoke again of foreign conspiracy operations against the Islamic Republic. “Even in the universities, the enemies now want to implement their goals,” the cleric claimed. But the Iranian students and professors would ensure that all these conspiracies failed, the president said, according to the Isna news agency. Iran’s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had previously also described the anti-government protests as a foreign conspiracy.
Driver shot in head
A motorist was shot in the head during a demonstration in the western Iranian city of Sanandaj. Officials and critics of the country’s leadership gave conflicting information about the incident on Saturday. According to the local police chief, the man was killed by a demonstrator. According to the Tasnim news agency, the police chief said that the protesters’ claims that the driver had been shot by security forces were unfounded.
Supporters of the protests said on social media that the man in his car honked his horn as a sign of solidarity with the protests and was therefore shot in the head by police. The security forces acted worse than the terrorist group Islamic State, according to some posts. Pictures of the driver who was killed were also shared on social media.
Civil disobedience and “digital revolution”
The protests against the Islamic system will enter their fourth week starting this Saturday. According to observers, they are now being carried out nationwide in the form of civil disobedience. Others also speak of a “digital revolution” because the recorded videos of the protest actions in the country are posted on social media. The demonstrators are reaching millions at home and abroad. This strategy makes it difficult for police and security forces to quell the protests.
After the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in mid-September, numerous people demonstrated in Iran. The security forces also used violence against demonstrators. According to observers, at least dozens of people have been killed in connection with the protests and many more have been injured.
