Punches, kicks and live ammunition: In Iran, security forces use massive violence against demonstrators. During protests at Sharif University in Tehran, students and professors are targeted by the police.
According to local media reports, security forces in the Iranian capital Tehran used violence against students. After protests, several professors from the renowned Sharif University were also beaten, the Iranian newspaper “Emtedad” reported on Telegram. Police and security forces cordoned off the campus. Shots are said to have been fired. According to a tweet by journalist Sima Sabet, students were also attacked in Science and Technology.
Since the beginning of the nationwide protests in Iran, students at numerous universities have demonstrated against the leadership of the Islamic Republic and its repressive course. The authorities then canceled lectures in many cities. The demonstrations were triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini a good two weeks ago.
The moral police had arrested her because of her alleged “un-Islamic outfit”. What happened to Amini after that is unclear. The woman fell into a coma and died in a hospital on September 16. Critics accuse the morality police of using violence; the police deny it. Since the young woman’s death, thousands of people have been demonstrating across the country against the repressive course taken by the government and security forces, as well as against the Islamic system.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had pledged her support to the anti-government demonstrators in Iran. “We’re watching. We’re on your side,” said the Greens politician in Hanover during a campaign appearance before the state elections in Lower Saxony. Foreign policy options are sometimes limited, she acknowledged. “But we can look. We can be the voice of these women.”
Baerbock reiterated her statement that the case belongs before the UN Human Rights Council and called for further sanctions. At the European level, she is promoting “targeted sanctions” in Brussels that are intended to hit those “who are responsible for these crimes, those who arbitrarily shoot at demonstrations,” said the minister. “We will continue to put that on the international agenda when it’s no longer the most important and strongest hashtag on Twitter. Because that’s what matters in times like this: that you look even when it’s no longer in the headlines,” she promised.
