Nina Shahkarami, 16, is one of at least 24 juveniles killed by Iran’s security forces since September 20

UPDATES: “Freedom, Freedom, Freedom” — Iran’s Hijab-Amini Protests Defy Regime Repression

EA on BBC: A Beginner’s Guide to Iran’s Hijab-Amini Protests

“Nothing to Lose”: The Schoolgirls at the Forefront of Iran’s Hijab-Amini Protests

Iran’s Hijab Protests Challenge Legitimacy of A Weakened Regime

UPDATE 1655 GMT:

A demonstration in Dezful in southwest Iran tonight, with marchers asking bystanders to join:

UPDATE 1248 GMT:

Protests are reported on Saturday at universities across Iran.

In Tabriz:

In Tehran:

Male students cheer women candidates defying gender segregation to enter a cafe at Sharif University in Tehran:

In Yazd:

At Jondishapur University in Ahwaz:

Students at Tehran University sing “Baraye” (For Woman, Life, Liberty):

UPDATE 1244 GMT:

All workers of the Khuzestan National Steel Company in western Iran are reportedly on strike.

UPDATE 0840 GMT:

The Iranian human rights organization HRANA says more than 250 people have been killed and more than 12,450 arrests during five weeks of nationwide protests.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran reports that 3,000 people have been arrested in Tehran Province, 835 of whom are still detained.

UPDATE 1155 GMT:

A hacking collective claimed to have identified members of the “morality police” squad that arrested Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody sparked protests across Iran.

They name the commanders as Captain Enayatollah Rafiei, 52. The other members are Sergeant Ali Khoshnamvand, 27; Parastou Safari, 36; and Fatemeh Ghorban-Hosseini, 27.

UPDATE 0824 GMT:

Iran’s leading Sunni cleric, Molavi Abdulhamid, has criticized the Iranian regime for the mass killing of worshippers and protests in Zahedan in southeast Iran on September 30.

Iranian security forces fired from rooftops on a Friday prayer site outside a mosque and on demonstrators outside a police station, killing at least 66 people. More civilians were slain in the following days, taking the toll to more than 90.

Abdulhamid, the Friday Prayer leader of Zahedan, said:

For what crime were they killed? Officials, the country’s managers, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader who commands all armed forces are all responsible before God.

Protests after Friday prayers marked the three-week anniversary of the mass killing. Marchers chanted, “Death to the Dictator” and “Death to Basijis”.

Sistan and Baluchestan Province police chief Ahmad Taheri said 57 demonstrators were arrested, claimed they threw rocks and attacked banks.

Video of Friday’s demonstration:

UPDATE, OCT. 22:

A snapshot of the ongoing defiance over compulsory hijab and the repression of Iran’s protests….

UPDATE 1435 GMT:

BBC Persian reports that professional climber Elnaz Rekabi, having been forced to make false statements on State TV about her decision not to wear a hijab during the Asian Championships in South Korea, is under house arrest.

Iran’s Mountaineering Federation threatened to confiscate the property of Rekabi’s family if she did not publicly deny her lack of head covering was intentional.

UPDATE, OCT 21:

Canada’s Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly says democracies have a “moral obligation” to help the “incredibly brave” women protesting in Iran.

Joly told a meeting of 14 colleagues:

As women foreign ministers we have a responsibility to help amplify the voices of women in Iran. As women leaders from around the world, we can make a powerful statement of support for women’s rights in Iran, and by extension, women’s rights everywhere.

Young women, in particular, are challenging Iran’s repression and structural gender inequality. They’re doing so at great risk. The women of Iran are speaking clearly. No longer will they tolerate the regime’s vision of the role of women in society or how women should dress and behave.

UPDATE 1529 GMT:

Footage of Mahsa Amini — whose death in police custody sparked nationwide protests — singing a song by the famous Iranian artist Googoosh:

UPDATE 1525 GMT:

Students at Razi University in Kermanshah in western Iran protest the presence of a cleric, prompting him to leave the area.

UPDATE 0932 GMT:

Elnaz Rekabi, the climber who competed without a head covering in the Asian Championships in South Korea, was photographed on Wednesday wearing a hoodie — but no hijab — alongside Iran’s Sport Minister.

After she was hailed as a hero on her return to Terhan, Rekabi was again forced to say on State TV that her lack of a head covering was because of “poor scheduling”. However, social media users saw resistance in her choice of attire for the publicity photo.

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UPDATE, OCT 20:

Using interviews with a prisoner, a relative of an inmate, and four rights activists, Reuters reconstructs last Saturday’s violence and fire at Tehran’s Evin Prison that killed at least eight detainees.

Tension was raised two days earlier by the arrival of a riot police unit which patrolled the corridors, shouting “God is Greatest” and banging batons on cell doors.

Prisoners finally reacted by shouting for the fall of the Supreme Leader. “Then we heard shots and chants of ‘Death to Khamenei’ by prisoners in other wards,” said an inmate inside Ward 8, used mainly for prisoners convicted of financial crimes.

Prisoners and rights activists fear the actual death toll is far higher. They note dozens of injured, many of them severely hurt.

Prison officials, the Interior Ministry, and judiciary officials did not respond to requests for comment.

UPDATE 0831 GMT:

Protests in Ahwaz in southwest Iran on Tuesday night:

UPDATE 0828 GMT:

A scene from Iran’s capital….

UPDATE 0823 GMT:

The mother of political prisoner Sattar Beheshti, killed in detention in 2012, joins the protests against compulsory hijab.

UPDATE 0810 GMT:

Students at Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabai University protested as a regime official visited on Tuesday.

State outlet IRNA said about 90 students gathered outside the Law Faculty, chanting “inappropriate and immoral slogans”, as regime spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi addressed a conference inside. It claimed the official later “appeared among the protesting students…and talked with them”.

Bahadori-Jahromi told the conference, “Countries are willing to pay from their own pockets to start Persian-language media, while they do not know Persian at all and want to put pressure on us.”

UPDATE, OCT 19:

Elnaz Rekabi, who dared to compete in the Asian Climbing Championships in South Korea without a headscarf, has received a rapturous welcome on her return to Tehran.

Large crowds gathered early Wednesday at Imam Khomeini International Airport, chanting Rekabi’s name and calling her a hero.

The reception defied an Instagram post, in Rekabi’s name, which apologized and said the appearance without hijab was due to “poor scheduling” (see below).

Rekabi walked into the terminals, wearing a black baseball cap and a black hoodie covering her hair. She received flowers from a bystander.

She then repeated the Instagram statement, “Because I was busy putting on my shoes and my gear, it caused me to forget to put on my hijab and then I went to compete.”

Outside the airport, she entered a van and was driven through the cheering crowd.

UPDATE 1034 GMT:

The BBC’s report on the tightly-controlled narrative on Iran State media over the protests and the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

UPDATE 1024 GMT:

Elnaz Rekabi has apparently been forced to renounce her decision to compete without hijab at the Asian Climbing Championships in South Korea.

Posting on Instagram, she said of the absence of head covering: “Due to poor scheduling and my being called unpredictably to climb, there was an unintentional problem with my attire.”

“I apologize for causing concerns.” she wrote.

Rekabi said she is on her way back to Iran with the rest of the team.

UPDATE, OCT 18:

Concern is growing for Elnaz Rekabi, who dared to compete in the Asian Climbing Championships in South Korea without wearing hijab.

Rekabi’s friends said she had been out of contact since Sunday. “Well-informed sources” said passport and mobile phone have been confiscated.

BBC Persian journalist Reza Rahimpour posted on Monday night that the climber was put on a plane to Tehran, two days earlier than the planned departure from Seoul. She had been taken to the Iranian Embassy so her return had little scrutiny.

The Iranian Embassy insisted that Rekabi left Seoul early Tuesday “with the other members of the Team”, rejecting “all the fake, false news and disinformation” about her circumstances. It posted a photo of Rekabi, head covered, at the competition.

Rekabi is believed to be only the second Iranian female athlete since 1979 to compete without hijab. In 2019, boxer Sadaf Khadem remained in France after her bout as Iranian authorities reportedly issued a warrant for her arrest.

UPDATE 0958 GMT:

Protests continue in Ardebil in northwest Iran, where a high school girl was killed by security forces last week.

UPDATE 0943 GMT:

Iran’s judiciary has raised the death toll from Saturday night’s fire and gunfire in Tehran’s Evin Prison (see below) to eight.

The judiciary said the prisoners died of smoke inhalation.

UPDATE 0857 GMT:

Another incident of violence by security forces:

UPDATE, OCT 17:

Deepa Parent speaks with Iranian journalists amid the regime’s detention of 28 reporters during the protests over compulsory hijab and the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

The home of Tehran-based journalist “Aferin” was raided two weeks ago. The reporter says, “I have neither protested nor shared a post on my social media ever since we heard about the death of Jina [Amini]. The only reason they suspended me is that I liked some posts on Twitter.”

Photojournalist Yalda Moaiery said she was beaten and arrested on September 19, three days after Amini died, while covering protests in Tehran.

She described the “horrible” conditions in Qarchak women’s prison, southeast of Tehran, as “horrible”, with more than 100 women crammed into a tight space: “There are only three bathrooms…and prison authorities prescribe many tranquilizers for the prisoners.”

“Reza”, a journalist based in Karaj northwest of Tehran, was arrested for sharing a post on social media:

I was fired on Monday and sent home. My editor informed me that they were taking this [decision] because I defamed the regime, and therefore defamed my publication. After much discussion, they have reinstated me, but I am suspended and expected to stay home and work until further instructions – it is a form of house arrest….

I am writing what they’re asking me to write. They’re trying to push stories of how all the news about the protests is untrue. I am in survival mode, so I continue to write what they tell me to.

UPDATE 1419 GMT:

Iranian State media says at least four people were killed during the blaze and gunfire in Tehran’s Evin Prison on Saturday night (see 0659 GMT).

Another 61 people were injured, four critically.

UPDATE 1254 GMT:

Scenes from protests on Sunday:

UPDATE 0659 GMT:

A fire broke out at Tehran’s Evin Prison on Saturday night. State media said eight people were injured in the prison, where many political prisoners are held.

The outlet of Iran’s judiciary, Mizan Online, said the blaze started “following a fight between several detainees”. Police were called in to quell the disturbance, and the fire extinguished.

Gunshots were reported as flames reached into the sky. Families gathered outside the prison to get news of relatives.

Attorney Jared Genser said US-Iranian national Siamak Namazi, held in Evin for more than seven years, is safe. Namazi was returned to the prison last week after a temporary furlough, accompanying the release of his 85-year-old father Baquer for medical treatment abroad.

Niloufar Hamedi, one of at least 28 journalists seized by the regime since September 16, has also called to say she is safe. Hamedi was imprisoned after reporting the hospitalization and death of Mahsa Amini, the catalyst for the current protests.

UPDATE, OCT 16:

Protests continued across Iran continued on Saturday despite a heavy security presence and the Iranian regime’s clampdown on the Internet.

Demonstrations were reported in Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, Mashhad, Ilam, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Gilan, Ardabil, Hamedan, Shahin Shahr, Rasht, and Marivan.

In Ardabil in northwest Iran, demonstrators rallied over the killing of yet another juvenile — at least the 24th since September 20 — by security forces.

In Shiraz, women removed their headscarves and shouted “Women, Life, Freedom” as a crowd applauded. At Tehran’s Shariati Technical and Vocational College, the slogan was “Guns, Tanks, Fireworks, the Mullahs Must Get Lost”. Video showed women in Isfahan chanting “Death to Khamenei!”

In Karaj near Tehran, riot police charged a group of women, trying to push at least one into a vehicle. Men were also detained.

Students at several universities defied an order to return to class and joined rallies.

UPDATE 1102 GMT:

Backing the campaign of Iran’s women for rights and security, Barack Obama says his Presidency should have done more to support the mass demonstrations in 2009 over the disputed Presidential election.

UPDATE 1058 GMT:

Iran State TV is caught out by dissent from a prominent religious singer:

UPDATE 1054 GMT:

Fearing calls for nationwide protests on Saturday, Iran’s officials have again restricted the Internet.

UPDATE 1049 GMT:

Iran authorities continue to restrict filmmakers, preventing Mani Haghighi from presenting his film at the London Film Festival.

Several filmmakers have been detained since July. Last week Mostafa al-Ahmed was given a sentence of 6 years and 4 months.

UPDATES, OCT 15:

The New York Times provides further information on the mass killing of civilians by Iranian security forces in Zahedan in southeast Iran on September 30.

Firing from rooftops, the security forces killed at least 66 people, including 10 civilians. They included worshippers performing Friday prayers outside a mosque and protesters outside a police station.

The Times spoke with 10 residents from Zahedan, including witnesses and activists; family members of the victims; and a medic who helped treat more than 150 injured people.

“It was a massacre I had only seen in movies,” said Jamshid, 28, a worshiper, “They started shooting as people still had their heads bowed in prayer.”

He said young men threw themselves in front of children and older people to shield them: “People had nowhere to go.”

The Revolutionary Guards Corps says six of its members were killed, including regional intelligence chief Col. Ali Mousavi and his deputy, as well as other security personnel. They deny firing on civilians.

But dozens of videos support the witnesses’ testimony that the security forces fired indiscriminately on unarmed protesters and civilians. The residents and activists say security officers were killed, but later during clashes after the mass killing.

The Washington Post adds more testimony. One young man says:

[The security forces] were shooting a lot, and this way and that way, I saw people get shot and fall/ Many people were shot, and they were crawling on the ground toward buses or other cars to hide behind them. I just wanted to find my brother and get out….

[Our friend] was shot twice in the back, only two or three meters away from me. One of the bullets hit near his heart. He was martyred right there.

UPDATE 1625 GMT:

Complementing the Amnesty International report, the BBC has identified 45 victims of security forces during the month-long protests.

Among the victims are young people, women, Kurds, and residents in Sistan and Baluchestan Province in southeast Iran, where 66 people were slain on September 30.

UPDATE 1526 GMT:

An attempt by the Iranian regime to show support from women has ended in embarrassment in less than 24 hours.

The “Women of My Land” billboard featured pictures of prominent women with head coverings. But some of them, such as poet Forough Farokhzad and mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani do not support compulsory hijab. Others — including actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, mountain climber Parvaneh Kazemi, and screenwriter/director Marzieh Boroumand asked for their images to be removed.

The billboard was replaced on Thursday with a simple pro-regime slogan.

UPDATE 1516 GMT:

Encieh Erfani, a cosmologist who studies dark-matter candidate particles, resigned on September 23 from the Physics Department at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences in Zanjan.

She tells Nature magazine:

You are working for the government and you ask yourself: why should I stay in a system that is a brutal dictatorship? I did not want to stay in that system. I could never speak out about it, because of the atmosphere. I could not do anything positive there; I just had to keep silent about everything. Although blood is being shed in the streets, faculty cannot speak out.

Erfani evaluates the difference with these nationwide protests:

Students used to protest for a few days and get arrested and everything would go silent again. You never heard about students going on strike. This is completely new. The other thing is the nature of the slogans the students are shouting. You used to hear calls to release imprisoned students. Now, they are saying: “Death to the Dictator”.

Female students are now removing their hijabs inside the university. You never used to see that in a university in Iran. They are crossing many, many red lines. A few faculty members are resigning: that, too, is completely new. And Iranian scholars outside Iran who have collaborations in Iran and used to stay silent are now supporting those inside.

The physicist concludes:

I was born three years after the 1979 Islamic revolution that brought the present regime to power, and my generation is not supporting the rules of the regime any more. I will just not keep silent. It’s over — enough is enough. I hope that other people will realize that, and not only scholars. Everyone has this responsibility.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Amnesty International details the killing of at least 23 children by Iranian security forces during the month-long protests over compulsory hijab and the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Amnesty provides the names of the juveniles and the circumstances of their murders between September 20 and September 30. The 20 boys were between 11 and 17 years old. Two girls were 16 and one was 17.

Most of the boys were shot with live ammunition; two were shot with metal pellets at close range. The girls and one boy were killed in beatings by security forces.

Amnesty has recorded 144 killings of protesters and bystanders by security forces between September 19 and October 3. The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights said on Wednesday that at least 201 people, including 23 children, have been slain.

Ten of the juveniles were among 66 people killed by security forces in Zahedan, in Sistan and Baluchistan Province in southeast Iran on September 30. The forces fired from rooftops into worshippers outside a mosque and a crowd outside a police station.

At least seven of the slain children in Zahedan were shot in the heart, head, or other vital organs. One was shot in the back of the head.

Two of the slain girls were Nika Shahkarami and Sarina Esmailzadeh, both 16. Authorities said both had jump off rooftops. However, defying regime pressure to stay silent or support the official narrative, Shahkarami’s mother said Nika was severely beaten, with her nose smashed and cheekbone dislocated.

Authorities have tried to cover up other killings as suicides. This prompted a lawyer to post an official, confidential document that Mohammad Reza Sarvari, 14, died from “bleeding and shattered brain tissue” caused by “being hit with a fast-moving projectile”.

Sarvari was killed during protests in Tehran Province on September 21, another day with mass fatalities. Hours earlier, the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces ordered security personnel to “severely confront” protesters, described as “troublemakers and anti-revolutionaries”.