New Delhi: Another schoolgirl is said to have been killed by Iranian security forces after being beaten in her classroom for refusing to sing a pro-regime song when her school was raided last week. The incident sparked new protests across the country this weekend.
According to the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, Asra Panahi, 16, died on October 13 after security forces raided the Shahed Girls High School in Ardabil and demanded that a group of girls sing an anthem praising Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. When they refused, security forces beat the students, resulting in the hospitalisation of several girls and the arrest of others. Panahi reportedly died in a hospital on Friday as a result of injuries sustained at the school, a report by the Guardian stated.
Iranian officials denied that its security forces were to blame, and after her death sparked nationwide outrage, a man identified as her uncle appeared on state television channels, claiming she died from a congenital heart condition.
Schoolgirls have emerged as a powerful force after videos of students waving their hijabs in the air, tearing down pictures of Iran’s supreme leaders, and chanting anti-regime slogans in support of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who died in August after being detained by Iran’s morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly.
Last week, Iranian authorities launched a series of raids on schools across the country, with officers reportedly forcing their way into classrooms, violently arresting schoolgirls and pushing them into waiting cars, and firing teargas into school buildings. Iran’s teachers’ union condemned the “brutal and inhumane” raids and demanded the resignation of Education Minister Yousef Nouri in a statement issued on Sunday, reported News18.
The news of Panahi’s death prompted schoolgirls across the country to organise and participate in protests over the weekend.
As of October 17, 215 people, including 27 children, had been killed in nationwide protests, according to the most recent report from the Iran Human Rights group.
