Videos on social media showing Iranian security forces beating protesters have gone viral as anger grows at a widening crackdown with arrests of prominent figures and lawyers aimed at ending weeks of unrest.
Protests ignited by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini on September 16 after her arrest for inappropriate attire have shaken Iran’s clerical establishment with people from all layers of society demanding wholesale political change.
The nationwide demonstrations which have called for the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are posing one of the boldest challenges since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian leaders have blamed the crisis on the United States and other Western powers, a narrative few Iranians believe.
Khamenei said on Wednesday that US officials who support protests are “shameless”, state media reported.
“Those who think the US is an untouchable power are wrong,” Khamenei said. “It is completely vulnerable as seen with current events.”
Defying a harsh warning by the chief of the widely feared elite Revolutionary Guards, Iranians have risked their lives and arrest by remaining in the street despite a bloody crackdown.
One video dated October 22 that went viral on social media showed a dozen riot police beating a man at night on a street in southern Tehran. One of the officers on a motorbike ran him over then another shot him at close range.
Read the article in the Bega District News (AAP).