Infuriated by the protests, Iran continues its wrath on its youth

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A 14-year-old girl was locked up in an adult prison with drug offenders. A 16-year-old boy who was taken into custody had his nose broken after he was thrashed by security officers. A 13-year-old girl was physically assaulted by plainclothes militia who raided her school.

A brutal crackdown by authorities in Iran who have been trying to quell protests calling for social freedom and political change in the country over the past two months has taken a terrible toll on the country’s youth, according to lawyers and rights activists familiar with the matter. have put. ,

Youth, including teenage girls and boys, have been at the center of demonstrations and clashes with security forces in the streets and on university campuses and high schools. Iranian officials have stated that the average age of the protesters is 15 years old.

Some were beaten and detained, others were shot dead in the streets, or beaten in the custody of security services, and the lives of countless others were disrupted as authorities attempted to crack down on dissent. I raided the schools.

According to interviews with lawyers and rights activists in Iran, as well as two dozen people, including parents, relatives and teenagers living in the country, authorities have asked thousands of minors, under the age of 18, to take part in the protests. targeted. Rights groups say at least 50 minors have been killed.

The lawyers and several individuals interviewed for this article asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.

According to the United Nations, youths are being targeted amid widespread crackdowns on protesters, in which 14,000 people have been arrested. On Sunday, state media said an unidentified man had been sentenced to death for setting fire to a government building.

But rights groups say the Islamic republic is showing its anger at its youth in a way not seen during other protests that have rocked the country in the past two decades. A largely women-led nationwide insurgency following the death of 22-year-old woman in custody, Mahsa Amini, has seen daily protests in cities across the country calling for an end to the regime of hardline clerics. morality police in september

Kazem Gharibabadi, the secretary general of Iran’s High Human Rights Council, did not respond to questions about the government’s action against the young protesters.

The anger and resolve of this generation seems to have taken the country’s rulers by surprise, with senior officials acknowledging that the government and the youth – tech-savvy and users of social media – “don’t understand each other’s language.” ,” Izzatullah Zargami, as Minister of Cultural Heritage, said in a speech to the students of the university.

The government has responded to youth uprisings with the same tactics it deploys against adults: shooting and lynching some; arresting other people and dumping them in detention cells with adult prisoners; and questioning and bullying children and their families, according to rights groups, parents and lawyers.

The 14-year-old girl, detained along with drug offenders, went missing after attending a protest in the religious city of Qom and flaunting her hair in defiance of Iran’s mandatory hijab rule. He was released on bail and was told that he now had a criminal file and should be prosecuted. A 16-year-old boy with a broken nose led a protest in the northwestern city of Tabriz, where crowds chanted “death to the dictator”.

“What makes these protests different is that children are more clearly present, showing a bold determination to defy the establishment and fight for a better future for themselves,” said Diana Eltahwi, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa. display.” “And they are using all means of repression to crack down on them.”

Amnesty International said it had documented 33 cases of minors killed in the rebellion, but the actual number is likely higher. Iran-focused rights groups and teachers’ union say the number is closer to 50.

The United Nations said last week that 14,000 people had been arrested in Iran over the past eight weeks, and lawyers and rights activists estimate that between 500 and 1,000 minors are currently in detention and it is unclear how many adults remain in prisons. How many more juveniles are locked up in detention facilities.

According to lawyers and rights activists, children in juvenile detention facilities undergo behavioral therapy under the supervision of a cleric and a psychologist, who tell children that they have sinned and must own up to their wrongdoing. Lawyers said that in many cases children have been prescribed psychiatric drugs after resisting behavioral treatment.

in an audio message shared with new York Times Hossein Raisi, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer, said the government issued a confidential order demanding that all cases involving children “should be handled by security and intelligence experts,” a security official said. The official said: “The condition of the children is extremely critical, the cases are coming to the fore gradually.”

Raisi said Iran’s laws state that minors can only be held in juvenile detention facilities and interrogated by judges who are specially trained and assigned to juvenile courts.

Raisi said Iran is also a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and that its targeting and treatment of children violate its obligations.

In the Kurdish town of Kamyaran, a 16-year-old boy named Mobin was arrested and taken to prison, where he was beaten in an attack that broke his shoulder, according to Rabin Rahmani, a director at the Kurdistan Human Rights Network. , Rahmani said that when the boy was taken to a hospital for X-rays, doctors planning to admit him were turned away by security forces and taken back into custody.

Schools, usually considered a sanctuary for children, have suddenly turned into a battlefield where students are only at risk of attending class.

A police motorcycle burns during a protest against the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by the Islamic republic’s “morality police” in Tehran, Iran. (Wana via Reuters/File photo)

many times There were 23 raids on high schools in cities across Iran, where militias and intelligence agents in plainclothes interrogated, beat and searched students, or where school officials threatened or attacked students.

In one incident, a Tehran elementary school was attacked last month after security forces fired tear gas into its yard during recess because students were chanting anti-government slogans, according to a parent whose third-grade son attended the school. Studies.

“My children are not safe on the streets, and they are no longer safe in school. Every day I die of anxiety until they get home, said Sara, a 50-year-old mother of two teenage girls in Tehran, who asked her not to use her last name. Last week, the school called to inform him that the Basij militia in plain uniform planned to raid the school and would demand access to the students’ phones. Sara did not send her daughters to school for two days.

Her 17-year-old daughter, a senior who asked not to be identified for safety concerns, said she feels “empowered” because every day she joins her classmates in stripping off their hijabs, banging on doors and chanting “women.” is protesting. life, freedom

In Tabriz, a 14-year-old boy named Amir showed signs of trauma at home after he refused to eat and went into self-isolation, his family said. He complained of headache and upset stomach.

Three days later, he told his uncle that his school had been raided by intelligence agents, who had parked a police van in the yard and were about to take the students to jail after finding torn photographs of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. was threatened. , in their schoolbooks or had expressed support for the protest. They checked students’ books and scanned their phones, taking screenshots of photos and social media posts.

“They told Amir that if you tell your parents, we will arrest your father,” his uncle, AB, a mechanical engineer who asked that his last name not be used, told Tabrez by telephone. Told. “They are scaring children because they are afraid of the future and they know that these children will fight for their rights.”

A mother in Shiraz said the principal of Amin Lari High School, where her 14-year-old daughter attends, called the police and the education department after students vandalized framed photographs of revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Raised slogans In the yard When he raided the school, the principal gave him access to surveillance cameras to identify the students who had incited the protest. Sixteen were suspended.

In one of the school’s most high-profile incidents, Basij militia stormed Martyrs High School in the northwestern city of Ardabil last month and beat up students, sending nine to hospital in ambulances. Rights activists said a 15-year-old girl, Asra Panahi, was beaten to death.

But his family members have publicly contested the government line that he committed suicide by swallowing pills, which rights groups say was due to pressure from the authorities.

Yashar Haqqpour, director of the Canada-based Association for the Defense of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran, said: “The families of children killed or arrested are under tremendous pressure and are threatening not to reveal the truth about their cases and to reveal their names.” Huh.” , He said he was in touch with people close to Asra’s family and could confirm that she was killed in the raid. “They think that if they scare the parents, they can control the kids as well.”

According to rights activists and media reports, some children have gone missing from the protests and their families have been unable to locate them. Two brothers, aged 16 and 17, have been missing for more than a month in Zahedan, a city in the country’s southeast that has been the scene of a violent crackdown. In Lahijan, three 15-year-old girls are missing for several days.

“They have never respected or accepted the concept of children’s rights,” said Bahram Rahimi, a founding member of Iran’s Committee for the Defense of Children’s Rights. “Even the most conservative families are outraged by the way children are being targeted.”


With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS

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