More than two weeks after Mahsa Amini’s death, the protest movement in Iran continues, even if the information is difficult to filter. Demonstrations took place at several universities on Saturday, October 1st. “Students demonstrated in universities on Saturday to denounce the police crackdown on the protesters,” Iran’s Fars News Agency said.
One of those rallies in Tehran led to “clashes” and protesters were arrested, says Fars, who did not detail the location of the other demonstrations or the crowd.
Several verified videos circulated on social media showing dozens of protesters at universities, particularly in Tehran and Mashhad, on Saturday and in Saqez, the city where Mahsa Amini was from, on Friday. “The city is drowned in blood, but our teachers are silent!” protesters chanted in front of Karaj University west of Tehran, according to a video released by the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights.
For its part, the Khayan newspaper said its headquarters in Tehran was attacked by “rioters” on Saturday. Khayan, the country’s main ultra-conservative daily newspaper, took a stand against the protesters, calling them “enemy mercenaries”. He accuses “thugs” associated with the protest movement of having “thrown Molotov cocktails at the partially damaged building” and trying to break in “while insulting and shouting at the newspaper”.
Iran Human Rights has recorded at least 92 deaths since the protest movement began on September 16, according to a new report released on Sunday. The Fars agency claims about 60 people were killed. According to an official record, more than 1,200 demonstrators were arrested.
Iran Human Rights also lists 41 deaths in a demonstration Friday in the city of Zahedan. If the NGO links this rally to the rest of the movement sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, the protesters in Zahedan were protesting the rape of a 15-year-old girl by a local police chief. According to Iranian media, five members of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s secret service, were also killed at this rally.
Rallies in support of the Iranian movement were organized on Saturday in more than 150 cities around the world, including New York, Rome, Madrid, London, Lisbon, Athens and Tokyo. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver (Canada). More than 1,000 demonstrators were present in Berlin (Germany) and 2,000 in Brussels (Belgium). A march will be organized on Sunday in Paris at the request of several artists, including the comics author Marjane Satrapi.