In Iran, minors victims of repression

More than a month after the start of the uprising in Iran, the repression is reaching fiercer levels day by day. Monday, October 17, the death of Asra Panahi, a 16-year-old high school student who died under the beatings of security forces in her school, has been confirmed by the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Union Associations in Ardabil, a city not far from the Caspian Sea, in the northwest of the country. In the same place, another high school girl is now in a coma.

The facts took place in Shahed High School on October 12, according to the Council’s Telegram channel. Some employees of the establishment forced the high school girls to go to a pro-regime demonstration, without authorization from the parents. Among the teenagers, some, very indignant, then began to chant slogans against sexist discrimination in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Iranian reformist daily Hammihan explains that some of these young girls have taken off their headscarves to protest against their obligatory wearing. The police in civilian clothes intervened, insulting and beating the high school girls, chasing them to the inside of their establishment, causing a movement of panic among the students. “One of them, Asra Panahi, unfortunately died from beatings after being transferred to a hospital in the city. Others have been arrested. There is no clear information on their number.says the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Union Associations.

A video published the same day shows the tense atmosphere in front of the Shahed establishment where some parents had gone to protect their children. “Death to the Dictator”, shouted the high school girls. The mayor and the deputy of Ardabil denied everything, saying that Asra Panahi had committed suicide, while at the same time the government media published two videos of the girl’s uncle explaining that she was died of a heart problem. The semi-official agency Fars, close to the Revolutionary Guards, the country’s ideological army involved in the repression, for its part puts forward the thesis of” a cerebral vascular accident “.

“Even in primary schools”

The death of Asra Panahi under the blows of the security forces is a first in Iran since September 16. That day, Mahsa Amini, 22, succumbed to the outcome of his police custody for a veil “badly worn”. Since then, Iran has been shaken by an unprecedented uprising. According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, at least 240 people were killed in the crackdown that followed.

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