Iranian protesters ignore Revolutionary Guards order
Iranian protesters rallied again on Sunday, defying an order by the powerful Revolutionary Guards to stop the demonstrations – now in their seventh week – sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini. Students gathered overnight and on Sunday across Iran, even after Major General Hossein Salami, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had warned demonstrators: "Do not come to the streets!" Amini, 22, died in custody on September 16 after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of Iran's strict dress rules for women, triggering a wave of unrest and a state response on the "riots" that Amnesty International calls a "brutal crackdown". Security forces on Sunday fired gunshots and tear gas at a gathering of students in the flashpoint western city of Sanandaj, where videos showed billowing clouds of smoke amid chants of "freedom", the Norway-based Hengaw organisation reported. It also posted a video with the sound of echoing gunfire, and of a 12-year-old girl wailing with her bloody arm peppered with metal pellets, in reports AFP could not independently verify. Security forces have struggled to contain the protests, which started with women taking to the streets and burning their hijab headscarves and which have evolved into a broader campaign to end the Islamic republic founded in 1979. Students had protested on Saturday at campuses in Tehran, Kerman in the country's south, and the western city of Kermanshah, among others, online videos showed. "Each person getting killed is followed by a thousand people!" protesters shouted at the funeral of a demonstrator on Saturday in Arak, southwest of Tehran, footage published by the 1500tasvir social media channel showed, adding that the crowd was later dispersed with tear gas. Demonstrations on Sunday were reported in multiple universities including the capital as well as in Mazandaran and Mashhad, where Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said crowds chanted "Death to the dictator". IHR said on Friday that at least 160 protesters, including more than two dozen children, had been killed since protests began. (AFP)