Anti-hijab stir toll reaches 41 as Iran summons UK, Norway envoys to register protest

Iranian state television has reported as many as 41 deaths in the week-long unrest after the custodial death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. It said that the toll was based on its own count and official figures were yet to be released. Protests have erupted in most of the country’s 31 provinces.

Iran’s ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi has vowed “decisive action” against the wave of unrest that has rocked the country since the death of the 22-year-old, a Kurdish-origin woman.

Raisi labelled the protests “riots” and urged “decisive action against the opponents of the security and peace of the country and the people”, speaking with relatives of a Basij militiaman killed in the city of Mashhad, in a phone call Saturday, his office said as claimed by the AFP.

On the other hand, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it summoned Britain’s ambassador to protest what it described as a hostile atmosphere created by London-based Farsi language media outlets, reported news agency Associated Press. The state-run IRNA news agency reported the ministry also summoned Norway’s ambassador to Iran and strongly protested recent remarks by the president of the Norwegian parliament, Masud Gharahkhani.

According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s website UK ambassador to Iran Simon Shercliff summoned on Saturday and protested that Persian-language media outlets provoked disturbances.

Meanwhile, protests have spread across at least 46 cities, towns and villages in the Islamic Republic. An Associated Press count of official statements by authorities tallied at least 13 dead, with more than 1,200 demonstrators arrested.

As per media reports, clashes between demonstrators and security forces have continued across the country with security guards taking on hard on protestors.

At least three times this week, mobile Internet has been disrupted in the country. Activists say the move is intended to prevent video footage of the violence reaching the world.

According to Time magazine, Amini’s name became an Iranian version of #MeToo on social media platforms — a prompt for ordinary people to post experiences of loss and oppression at the hands of the Islamic Republic, gathered under #MahsaAmini. “For my cousin, whom you imprisoned in 1979 at the age of 16, and in 1988, you informed his mother of his execution,” reads one, according to the international media outlet. It claimed that the hashtag surpassed 80 million mentions on Twitter—many with the slogan “Mahsa you are not dead, your name has become a symbol.” – INDIA NEWS STREAM