Iranian women burn their headscarves during a rally against the death of Iranian Mahsa Amini in Bern, Switzerland, Sept. 27, 2022. (Photo |AP)
Iranian students protested Tuesday at multiple universities, defying a bloody crackdown as tensions mount on the eve of planned ceremonies marking 40 days since Mahsa Amini's death.
"A student may die but will not accept humiliation," they chanted at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, in an online video verified by AFP.
The 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin died three days after being taken into custody by the notorious morality police on September 13 while visiting Tehran with her younger brother.
Wednesday marks 40 days since Amini's death and the end of the traditional mourning period in Iran.
Activists said the statement was made under pressure and that tributes were nonetheless expected at Amini's grave.
Online videos showed students protesting Tuesday at Beheshti University and the Khaje Nasir Toosi University of Technology, both in Tehran, as well as Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, in Khuzestan province.
"Students of the Sadr high school in Tehran have been attacked, strip-searched and beaten up," said the 1500tasvir social media channel.
"Parents later protested in front of the school. Security forces attacked the neighbourhood and shot at people's houses," it added.
"The death of a student in this confrontation is strongly denied," a ministry spokesman said, quoted by Iran's ISNA news agency.
Such reports have fuelled further anger over the crackdown that the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights said, in an updated toll Tuesday, had cost the lives of at least 141 protesters.
Deadly unrest has hit especially Amini's western home province of Kurdistan -- but also Zahedan in the far southeast, where IHR said 93 people were killed in demonstrations that erupted on September 30 over the reported rape of a teenage girl by a police commander.
Despite what rights group Amnesty International has called an "unrelenting brutal crackdown", young women and men were again seen protesting in online videos on Tuesday.
Students heckled the spokesman for ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi as he addressed Tehran's Khaje Nasir University, in a video published by the reformist paper Hammihan.
Teachers observed a strike around the country Sunday and Monday over the crackdown, and another work stoppage was said to be under way in Kurdistan on Tuesday.
There has also been a campaign of mass arrests of protesters and their supporters, including academics, journalists and even pop stars.
State media said Tuesday more than 210 people were charged in connection with the protests in Kurdistan, Qazvin and Ispahan.
