TEHRAN, Iran– Iranian state television said the death toll from hijab protests over the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody had risen to more than two dozen, without providing further details, as unrest continued.
An anchor on Iranian state television suggested the death toll from mass protests could be as high as 26 on Thursday, but did not elaborate or say how he arrived at that figure.
“26 people and police officers present at the scene of these events, totaling around 32 lost their lives,” the presenter said, adding that official statistics would be released later.
Iran Human Rights (IHR), an Oslo-based NGO, said it had counted at least 31 civilians dead.
Iranians have gathered “to achieve their basic rights and human dignity … and the government is responding to their peaceful protest with bullets,” said its director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
Security forces fired birdshot and metal pellets at the crowds and deployed tear gas and water cannons, Amnesty International and other rights groups said. Demonstrators threw stones at them, torched police cars and chanted anti-government slogans, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The demonstrations in Iran began as an emotional outpouring over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly violating a strictly enforced dress code.
Police say she died of a heart attack and was not abused, but her family has disputed that.