Protests over the death of Mahsa Amini have entered their fourth week and the bloody crackdown on protesters continues.
Over the last week, students have joined the nationwide protests, and the teachers support them.
While violent confrontation and suppression of protesters continues, the protests witnessed since last week have been steered by female students and school girls joining the uprising with the slogan “Women, Life, Liberty” inside schools and on the streets of cities across the nation.
Videos show female school students removing pictures of Khomeini and Khamenei from classroom walls and books. Many female students took off their scarves and chanted slogans against the government in street marches, protesting against the mandatory hijab.
In a video that went viral on Monday, October 3, Gohardasht (Karaj) school girls en masse, without hijab, kicked out the general director of education from their school, an unprecedented act.
These students’ protests continue in some cities.
On Thursday, October 6, female students took off their masks and came to the street in Arak, and while writing slogans on the wall, chanted the slogan “Women, Life, Liberty.”
The killing of young Iranians Nika Shakarami, Sarina Esmailzadeh, Parsa Rezadost, and several other students during the recent protests have resulted in widespread solidarity and attention to the protests, including support from students and teachers alike.
The recent student protests have led to the closure of many schools.
Hossein Ashtari, the commander of the police force, by repeating the government narratives of “enemies” and that “closing schools and universities is for the benefit of the enemies,” urged parents of the students to ask their children not to close the classrooms.
On Thursday, October 6, the Kurdistan Teachers’ Association in Iran published a statement regarding the repression of students:
“Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a student of yesterday, a symbol of today’s woman, and the symbol of the freedom of the citizens of Iran, was killed so oppressively and unjustly that it pained the conscience of every person. It brought back the bitter memory of ISIS in the eyes of the world.”
“The result of this brazen crime” in the eyes of the public made students who envision such a fate for their future not endure and protest,” the statement added.
The Kurdistan Teachers’ Union also warned the government to be tolerant of the students of “today and yesterday” and not to use violence:
“If the security forces do not hesitate to protect the lives of Iranian students, for us teachers, the life and future of our students is everything, and the lowest price to save it is our lives. Be aware that if even a single hair is missing from a student’s head or if you arrest a student, we teachers will come to the street with our students and in the street.”
The protests against the government’s murder of Mahsa started on Friday, September 16, after the medical team at Tehran’s Kasra hospital pronounced Mahsa dead, shaping the first protests in front of Kasra hospital in Tehran. Protests continued after Mahsa’s funeral in her hometown of Saqqez when mourners organized a peaceful rally outside the city’s governor’s office. Security forces outside the office responded to protestors with tear gas and opened fire. Now the protest has spread in nearly all of Iran’s 31 provinces.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died after falling into a coma following her detention by morality police enforcing hijab in Tehran.
