Iranian security services continued their brutal crackdown on anti-hijab demonstrators today firing into crowds of protesters and firing tear gas at them.
An Iranian human rights group said that security forces were shooting at protesters in two Kurdish cities.
“Security forces are shooting at the protesters in Sanandaj and Saqqez,” said the group Hengaw.
It said riot police were also using tear gas.
More than 150 people have been killed, hundreds injured and thousands arrested by security forces since last month’s death in custody of Mahsa, a young woman from Saqez who had been arrested for “inappropriate attire” after a lock of hair escaped from her head covering.
Meanwhile France and the Netherlands have both told their foreign nationals living in Iran to leave as soon as possible as the violence escalates.
The British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has advised UK citizens not to travel to Iran.
In a statement earlier this week they said: “There is a significantly high risk that British nationals could be arbitrarily arrested, questioned or detained in Iran, whether or not you are a British-Iranian dual national.”
On Friday the grieving mother of a 16-year-old Iranian girl has said her daughter was killed by blows to her head as part of the brutal crackdown on anti-hijab protests across the country.
Nasreen Shakarami has disputed official claims her daughter Nika fell to her death from a high building.
She also said authorities kept the tragic teenager’s death a secret for nine days and then snatched her body from a morgue to bury her in a remote area against the family’s wishes.
Nika has become the latest icon of the protests, which were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa.
Nika had been detained her for allegedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code too.
Since then young women have defiantly torn off and waved their headscarves as they led the protests, which have called for the overthrow of the Iranian regime, and have been backed by demonstrations throughout the Western world including in the UK.
In an interview on Friday British Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was released by the regime and returned to the UK having been held for six years said “the world cannot turn a blind eye to Iran” and the UK government “must act” over human rights abuses.
She and husband Richard, who campaigned for her release, attended a rally in central London last week with Iranian women living in the UK to protest against the regime.
