“The Iranian people with women in front are risking their lives to protest. These people are demanding the most basic freedoms. These women and these men deserve our support,” said a message attached to the video.
Marion Cotillard, Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert and Juliette Binoche, are some of the French film stars who have made their hair shorter in solidarity with Iranian women.
According to AFP, Wednesday was the publication date for the video.
“The Iranian people with their women are risking everything to protest. These people are demanding the absolute utmost freedoms. These men and women deserve our support,” reads a message that was posted to Instagram.
It stated, “It is impossible not decry, again and forever, this terrible repression.”
They are not the only ones in the video. Jane Birkin as well as Charlotte Rampling are also featured.
This follows a day when more than 1000 French film professionals signed an “supporting the revolt of women in Iran” petition.
Protests In Iran
Iran’s nationwide protests began after Mahsa, 22-year-old, was declared dead on September 16, days after the notorious morality cop detained Mahsa for allegedly violating rules requiring women wear modest clothes and hijab.
After her funeral, anger flared and grew to become the most violent wave of protests that Iran has seen in nearly three years. Numerous protestors were shot dead and many others arrested in the crackdown.
Protests also reached schools with Hengaw sharing video footage of schoolgirls protesting at two locations in Amini’s Kurdistan region.
Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said that at least 92 protestors have been killed during the unrest. They stated that the group has been trying to determine the death toll despite the fact that there were internet outages and blockages on Instagram, WhatsApp and other online services.
Iranian schoolgirls protest the death Mahsa Ali, taking off their hijabs to demonstrate and staging rallies against the brutal crackdowns by the security forces.
Amini, 22-year-old, was declared dead after being detained last month by notorious morality officers for allegedly violating the Islamic republic’s strict dress codes for women.
Anger flared at her funeral. It grew to become the biggest wave protests to rock Iran for almost three years, despite the repression by security forces which has seen scores of people killed and hundreds detained.
Students rallied during the weekend and were confronted on Saturday by riot police, who placed them in an underground carpark at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology. They then took them away.
Since then, schoolgirls all over the country have taken up the baton, taking off their hijabs and shouting anti-regime slogans. They also deface images of leaders in the clerical state.
A group of bare-headed girls chant “Death To the dictator”, in reference to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader. They force a principal out of a Karaj school, west of Tehran, in a video that was verified by AFP.
Another group of girls sang, “Woman, Life, Freedom!” They marched through Gohardasht’s Karaj neighbourhood.
“These are extraordinary scenes. These are really extraordinary scenes.
‘Lethal force’
In other footage uploaded online, schoolgirls were also seen leaving the classrooms and joining in protests against detection.
One group of boisterous girls shouted “Get Lost, Basiji”, referring to the paramilitary force. A man stood at a podium in Shiraz’s southern region, and the video was shared by the 1500tasvir social-media channel.
AFP could not independently verify the footage.
On Wednesday, Prosecutor general Mohammad Jafar Montazeri admitted that protestors were schoolgirls.
Montazeri, a representative of ISNA news agency stated that the social media is responsible for the fact that 16 year-olds can be present in these events.
According to IRNA state news agency, Yousef Nouri, Education Minister, said that “the sharp edge of the enemy’s strikes is toward universities and scientific and education environments”.
Iran has taken steps to crack down on the movement’s supporters and has blocked access via social media.
Human Rights Watch New York, which is based in New York, condemned internet shutdowns on Wednesday. It said that 16 protest videos show police and other security forces using excessive or lethal force against protestors in Tehran and other cities.
The rights group released a statement saying that the incidents include “using firearms, like handguns and Kalashnikov–pattern assault rifles”, among others.
Tara Sepehri Far, HRW researcher, said that the crackdown “indicates coordinated action by the government in crushing dissent with cruel disregard of life”.
Iran’s judiciary has denied any link between Nika Shahkarami’s suicide and protests.
Sanctions loom
According to Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based group (IHR), at most 92 protesters were killed in the unrest.
Amnesty International has confirmed 53 dead, but Fars news agency said it was at “around sixty” and HRW claimed the number was “likely substantially higher”. A minimum of 12 security personnel were killed.
While more than 1,000 people were detained, the judiciary reported that at least 620 protesters were released from Tehran provincial jail.
Another 63 people died last week after security forces “bloodily suppressed” a protest over allegations that a regional chief of police had raped the teenage girl belonging to the Baluch Sunni minority in Zahedan. This was near Iran’s southern border with Pakistan.
The crackdown on terrorism has drawn international condemnation.
Tuesday saw the European Union join the United States to warn that it is looking to impose new severe sanctions against Iran in response to the bloody crackdown.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is Iran’s Foreign Ministry. He warned the EU that it can expect “reciprocal” action.
Iran has been accused of inciting unrest by outside forces many times.
On Wednesday, the British ambassador Simon Shercliff was summoned by it to protest against “meddlesome” statements.
The unrest has overshadowed efforts at reviving a 2015 nuclear accord between Iran, major powers and other countries. This deal had been close to being reached in recent months but then stalled again.
However, the White House claimed that “problems with Iran’s behaviour” were not related to efforts to revive nuclear deal.
