Iran students protest after girls beaten in raid: activists

Young women and schoolgirls have been at the forefront of protests sparked by Amini's death last month

A newspaper with a cover picture of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iranian morality police is seen in Tehran, Iran. File. | Photo Credit: Reuters

Iranian students heckled a top official and chanted anti-government slogans Tuesday, videos showed, a day after security forces were accused of beating schoolgirls amid a crackdown on protests over Mahsa Amini's death.

Security forces were seen firing tear gas after massing outside the Shahid Sadr girls vocational school in Tehran on Monday, in the footage shared by activists on social media.

Young women and schoolgirls have been at the forefront of protests sparked by Amini's death last month, after her arrest for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

"Students of the Sadr high school in Tehran have been attacked, strip searched, and beaten up," said the 1500tasvir social media channel.

At least one student, 16 year-old Sana Soleimani, had been hospitalised, said 1500tasvir, which chronicles rights violations by the Iranian security forces.

"Parents later protested in front of the school. Security forces attacked the neighbourhood and shot at people's houses," it added.

Iran's education ministry said a dispute occurred between schoolgirls and their parents and school staff, after the principal demanded they comply with rules over the use of mobile phones.

"The death of a student in this confrontation is strongly denied," a ministry spokesman said, quoted by Iran's ISNA news agency.

Families could be seen clamouring for information outside the school in the Tehran neighbourhood of Salsabil, in an online video verified by AFP.

Later on at night protesters took to the streets in the same district, shouting anti-government slogans and burning dumpster bins, in other footage that AFP was unable to immediately verify.

Despite a crackdown by the security forces that rights groups say has killed at least 122 protesters, young women and men were again seen protesting in online videos on Tuesday.

"Death to the dictator" and "Death to the Revolutionary Guards", women chanted as they rode escalators in Tehran metro stations, in videos widely shared on Twitter.

Students heckled presidential spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi as he spoke at Tehran's Khaje Nasir University, in a video published by the reformist paper Hammihan.

"Spokesman, get lost!" and "We don't want a corrupt system, we don't want a murderer", they shouted.

Teachers observed a strike around the country on Sunday and Monday over the crackdown, and another strike was said to be underway in Amini's home province of Kurdistan on Tuesday.

Rights group Amnesty International says has cost the lives of at least 23 children, while Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights said Thursday that at least 27 children have been killed.

Children and teachers are among the thousands arrested in the crackdown, IHR added.