WASHINGTON — International rights activists tell VOA that their counterparts in Iran are preparing to mark Saturday’s first anniversary of the death in police custody of women’s rights icon Mahsa Amini with new protests in defiance of Tehran’s preemptive crackdown on peaceful dissent.
Amini was a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who was arrested by the Islamist nation’s morality police in Tehran last September for allegedly not wearing her hijab in accordance with Islamist rules. She died in custody three days later.
Her death, following what witnesses said was a physical assault perpetrated by authorities, triggered months of mostly peaceful nationwide protests that posed the greatest challenge yet to the 44-year rule of Iran’s ruling Shiite clerics.
“Iranian women have told us that they will continue the fight despite the government’s futile attempts to silence them,” said Skylar Thompson, global advocacy director for U.S.-based nonprofit group Human Rights Activists in Iran.
“I don’t believe the Iranian government’s preemptive arrests, fueled by a fear of Iranians returning to the street, are going to preempt renewed protests,” added Thompson while speaking on VOA’s Flashpoint Iran podcast this week.
Source : VOA News