At least 76 protesters were killed by Iranian security forces during 11 days of unrest resulting from the death of a woman in custody, activists say.
Iran Human Rights (IHR), an organization based in Norway, accused the authorities of using disproportionate force and live bullets to crack down on dissent.
State media estimated the death toll at 41, including several security personnel, and blamed the “rioters”.
Hundreds of people were also arrested, including 20 journalists. “The risk of torture and mistreatment of demonstrators is serious and the use of live bullets against demonstrators is an international crime,” said DIU director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam. “The world must defend the demands of the Iranian people for their basic rights.”
The UN Human Rights Office also expressed its concern at the authorities’ violent response and called on them to respect the right to peaceful protest.
Anti-government demonstrations have spread to more than 80 cities and towns across Iran since Mahsa Amini’s funeral on Sept. 17.
Also read: Iran’s Hijab Laws: Death of Kurdish Woman In Custody Sparks Protest
The 22-year-old Kurdish woman from the northwestern city of Saqez was visiting the capital Tehran on September 13 when she was arrested by vice officers for allegedly violating the strict law requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or Headscarf.
She collapsed after being sent to a detention center for “education” and died in hospital after three days in a coma.
Police said Ms. Amini died of sudden heart failure, but her family has denied it, claiming she was beaten by officers. The protests against the vice squad and the hijab law sparked by his death have quickly become the most serious challenge the Iranian Shia clerical establishment has faced in years.
Videos posted on social media show women defiantly burning their headscarves around bonfires and cutting their hair in public, amid cheers and chants of ‘women, life, freedom’ and ‘death to the dictator’ – a nod to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Protests were reported Monday in Tehran and a number of other cities, including Yazd in the center of the country and Tabriz and Sanandaj in the northwest. Students and teachers from more than 20 universities have also gone on strike and walked out of their classrooms
