A video released by anonymous users on October 26 show the last moments of Shirin Alizadeh, an Iranian mother who sits on the passenger side of a car and films protests on a street in the city of Salman Shahr, capital of Abbasabad county, Iran, in October 2022. The woman is killed by gunshots fired by security forces of Islamic Republic of Iran.
In the video, Shirin Alizadeh can be heard saying, “Don’t let them hit the car. They are shooting in the air.” Then she excitedly adds: “She was hit. They shot the girl.” Her last sentence is: “They killed her, the girl was killed.” Finally, she is hit and her phone falls.
The human rights group Hengaw said police shot dead a male protester in Mahabad and another in Sanandaj. The BBC has not verified this.
Widespread unrest has rocked Iran since Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini died in police custody 40 days ago.
A cemetery near Kharamabad was also a flashpoint for Thursday’s protests.
Demonstrators gathered at the cemetery to mourn another young woman, Nika Shakarami, who disappeared soon after Amini’s death and has become another symbol of the protest movement.
Videos from Kharamabad showed protesters chanting anti-state slogans including “down with the dictator”, a reference to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
Overnight, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in major cities, as well as other places where demonstrations had subsided recently.
It is the most serious challenge to the Islamic republic since its inception.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has seen protests before. But not like this.
The authorities are still trying to dismiss and discredit them as “rioters influenced by foreigners”.
It’s hard to square that with extraordinary images of teenage schoolgirls rejecting obligatory headscarves, of women of all ages walking bare-headed in public spaces.
It’s hard, too, to see Iran returning to days where so-called morality police can police women’s dress the way they’ve done for decades.