'Shame on you', Iranian schoolgirls shout and chase the headmaster away

The Iranian protest movement continues despite frantic efforts by Islamic leaders to crush it. Three weeks after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by the vice squad for allegedly wearing her headscarf incorrectly, people are still taking to the streets across Iran. With slogans like ‘Woman, life, freedom’ they demand the abolition of hated Islamic dress codes, more freedom and the fall of the regime. Since the start of the new school year, more and more students and schoolchildren have joined the protesters. A video clip that appeared on Tuesday showed a girls’ school in Karaj, not far from the capital Tehran. Without exception, the girls had taken off their hijab, the obligatory headscarf. Shouting ‘Shame on you’, they chased the male headmaster, allegedly a supporter of the regime, out of the gate. Things are tougher in universities. At the beginning of this week, images appeared on social media from Sharif University in Tehran, one of the most prestigious universities in the country. Police officers on mopeds then chase groups of screaming students into the university parking garage. Shots can be heard in other images of the university building. Rubber bullets and batons “They shoot rubber bullets and beat students with their clubs,” says a young woman who has just graduated from Sharif University. She is now pursuing a master’s degree at a European university, but maintains close contact with her former fellow students in Tehran. “I’m sitting here now while my friends are being arrested. That is very heavy.” Still, the woman finds ways to help her old classmates. As soon as she received their messages about the police raid, she shared their cry for help on Twitter. “After me and other alumni started tweeting about it, people from all over Tehran came to Sharif University to help the students. The solidarity is very great.” Students also refuse to attend lectures at other Iranian universities and protests break out. The regime is doing everything it can to track them down and prosecute them. “They have even installed facial recognition cameras in front of the campus entrance,” said the woman who studied at Sharif University. “At least eight students have already been detained and many of my friends have already been called up by the secret service. That means they will be arrested.” Outside the universities and affluent parts of Iran, the regime fires much faster. It is impossible to say with certainty how many protesters were killed by the regime. The Iranian human rights organization Iran Human Rights (IHR) reports 154 deaths. Most of them belonged to non-Persian minorities. In the southeastern city of Zahedan, where many Baluchs live, 63 people were killed last Friday during protests against the rape of a 15-year-old girl by the local police chief, IHR reports. A grab from a UGC video posted on Twitter on October 4, 2022, shows protesters chanting during a rally outside the engineering building at Ferdowsi University in Iran’s northeastern city of Mashhad. – A wave of unrest has rocked Iran since 22-year-old Amini died on September 16 after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly breaching the country’s strict rules on hijab headscarves and modest clothing. (Photo by UGC / AFP) / Israel OUT – NO Resale – NO Internet / XGTY/RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT AFP – SOURCE: ANONYMOUS – NO MARKETING – NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – NO INTERNET – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS – NO RESALE – NO ARCHIVE -NO ACCESS ISRAEL MEDIA/PERSIAN LANGUAGE TV STATIONS OUTSIDE IRAN/ STRICTLY NO ACCESS BBC PERSIAN/ VOA PERSIAN/ MANOTO-1 TV/ IRAN INTERNATIONAL/RADIO FARDA – AFP EDIT IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CONTENS TOTAL PICTERATIONS / This grab taken from a UGC video on October 3, 2022 shows female students, many without headscarves, pursuing a man out of the gate of their high school and throwing objects on him, while chanting „death to the dictator!”, in Iran’s Karaj . – Iranian judicial authorities have started an investigation into the cause of death of a 17-year-old-girl, who reports say have been killed during protests over the death of Mahsa Amini. A wave of unrest has rocked Iran since the 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman died on September 16 after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly failing to observe the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women. (Photo by UGC / AFP) / Israel OUT – NO Resale – NO Internet / XGTY/RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT AFP – SOURCE: UGC – NO MARKETING – NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – NO INTERNET – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS – NO RESALE – NO ARCHIVE -NO ACCESS ISRAEL MEDIA/PERSIAN LANGUAGE TV STATIONS OUTSIDE IRAN/ STRICTLY NO ACCESS BBC PERSIAN/ VOA PERSIAN/ MANOTO-1 TV/ IRAN INTERNATIONAL/RADIO FARDA – AFP EDIT IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CONTEN DIGITAL PICTERATIONS’S / Videos circulated on social media show the protest of students from Ferdowsi University in Mashhad (left) and students of the Karaj girls’ school (right) Photos AFPO Grim cat and mouse game And yet the protests continue, says 36-year-old Parisa, a housewife from the southern city of Shiraz who does not want her name in the newspaper for fear of reprisals. “In the beginning we protested in the center of the city, but that is now always closed off,” she says by telephone. Since then, a grim cat and mouse game with the police has taken place every night. “Now we go out into the street and search until we can join a group of demonstrators, always in different places.” Parisa saw people being shot before her eyes, she says. Also, in the first week of the protests, she witnessed a woman who was slammed with her head against a stone wall and did not survive. The authorities secretly had her buried overnight. “When I’m back home, scenes like this run through my head again and I often cry.” Anyone who is injured tries to avoid the hospital as much as possible. “The police often wait there to take injured protesters to prison,” says Parisa. As a precaution, many demonstrators also wear a mask on the street to avoid recognition. “We don’t always recognize each other.” protest song Meanwhile, many draw inspiration from a song by one of the country’s most beloved singers, Shervin Hajipour. This song, titled Baraye (Because), consists entirely of fragments about the protest movement that Hajipour picked up from social media. He put it online last week and millions of Iranians listened to it. A few days later, Hajipour was arrested and thrown in jail. He was released on bail on Tuesday. The song can now be heard everywhere. “The secondary school in Tehran where my nephew attends was closed because students had sung it in class,” says an Iranian, who lives in the Netherlands but wishes to remain anonymous. How the protests will develop is difficult to predict. The regime will not be inclined to make concessions and has previously shown that it is prepared to step up repression until the protests are quelled. This was also the case during the mass demonstrations of 2019, in which at least many hundreds of people were killed. “But more violence leads to more protests,” says the woman who graduated from Sharif University. She therefore expects the demonstrations to continue, although she does not see where that will lead either. “People are talking about a revolution, but at this stage it is very difficult to make predictions. We can hardly make a plan if we have to fear for our safety all the time.” Parisa in the city of Shiraz says the fear is over. The last few weeks she has been shopping without a headscarf. “We have to fight on,” it sounds over the phone. “Otherwise, we’ll end up in a kind of prison. Our lives really need to change, even if we have to die for it.” Also Read: Iran’s Religious Leaders Are Worried Now A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of October 6, 2022