An Iranian girl in middle school was beaten to death after police discovered a torn-up photo of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini in one of her schoolbooks, according to Haalvsh, a local news outlet in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province.
The girl, identified as Parmis Hamnava, was at her school in Iranshahr, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, when security forces entered to search the students’ books, discovering the ripped-up photo in Hamnava’s textbook. According to Haalvsh, security forces severely beaten Hamnava in front of the other students, and she died in the hospital from her injuries. According to reports, the incident occurred last week.
Before handing over Hamnava’s body to them to bury, the security forces allegedly forced her family and teachers to promise not to speak to the press about the incident.
The report was rejected by the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency, which claimed that there was no such student in the Iranian education system and that no students were killed in Iranshahr.
During the six weeks of large-scale protests that have swept Iran, Iranian forces have violently suppressed protesters in Sistan and Baluchestan, particularly in Zahedan, located north of Iranshahr. In recent weeks, Iranian forces are said to have killed dozens of protesters in Zahedan.
Several teenagers have been killed as a result of the protests, with multiple reports of teenage protesters being severely beaten or even killed by security forces across Iran.
On Monday, students across Iran protested as Iran indicted over a thousand protesters, with many already receiving prison sentences or even the death penalty. The arrested protesters were charged with assaulting security forces and setting fire to public property.
Many students also received text messages informing them that they had been expelled or suspended from their universities for participating in protests, and that they were not permitted to enter university property. On Monday, a number of student protests featured anti-suspension slogans and signs.
“If students are suspended, the university will close,” students at Tehran’s Amirkabir University of Technology chanted in a video shared on social media.
In video shared online, students at Beheshti University can be heard chanting “Freedom, freedom, freedom.”
On Sunday, female students at Tehran’s Al-Zahra University chanted, “I will kill, I will kill, whoever killed my sister.”
Funerals and the 40th day of mourning were also observed by family and friends for a number of protesters, including one named Irfan Khazai and a 16-year-old named Sarina Saedi. According to footage shared by the 1500tasvir account, protesters chanted “death to the dictator” at Khazai’s grave.
According to footage shared by the Hengaw Human Rights Organization, protesters at Saedi’s grave chanted, “Kurdistan, Kurdistan, the graveyard of fascists.”
On Saturday, IRGC commander-in-chief Hossein Salami issued a warning that “today is the end of the riots” and advised students not to take to the streets.
Salami blamed the riots on the United States and Israel, claiming that they were influencing protesting students.
Canada imposed new sanctions on Iran on Monday, marking the fourth package of sanctions imposed for alleged human rights violations in that country, according to the foreign ministry.
The latest sanctions target four individuals and two entities, including senior officials and Iran’s Law Enforcement Forces, which Canada accused of participating in the suppression and arrest of unarmed protesters, according to the statement.
