World

Iran protests continue despite crackdown

Students protest in Canada. Sept. 2022. Screenshot from Reuters video.

Clashes between protesters and security forces continued across Iran on Tuesday as social media videos showed tanks being transported to Kurdish areas that have been the focal point of a crackdown on protests over Mahsa Amini’s death, Reuters reported.

Protests calling for the fall of the clerical establishment have swept Iran since Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, died on Sept. 16 while being held by police for “inappropriate attire.”

Iranian authorities have used force to suppress the biggest wave of dissent since 2019.

According to rights groups, at least 185 people, including 19 minors, have been killed, hundreds injured and thousands have been arrested by security forces. The Iranian government says more than 20 security forces have been killed.

Authorities in Iran have said they will investigate civilian deaths.

Energy installations in southwestern Iran were hit by strikes for a second day on Tuesday, with workers protesting at the Abadan oil refinery, Kangan and the Bushehr petrochemical plant, according to the widely followed Tavsir1500 Twitter account quoted by Reuters.

Videos posted on the account showed a few dozen workers chanting “Death to the dictator,” referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A regional official said on Tuesday that the workers at the Assaluye plant were angered by a dispute over wages and were not protesting over Amini’s death.