Iranian pro-regime students protest outside British embassy in Tehran

Pro-regime protesters in Iran have gathered outside the British embassy in Tehran today to hold a demonstration against what they say is ‘Britain’s support for anti-government protests’.

Images showed loyal supporters of Iran’s government burning the Union Jack and LGBT flags in the streets outside the embassy as they condemned ‘Iranian opposition television stations broadcasting from London’.

Some cards held by the protesters read ‘death to England’ while others even called for a united Ireland, arguing that Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland should merge to become a sovereign state and chastising Britain’s perceived interference in foreign affairs.

It comes as Iranian security forces shot dead a Kurdish man during the nationwide protests over Mahsa Amini’s death in the western city of Mahabad on Thursday, the Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights said.

‘A young Kurdish man was killed by direct fire from Iranian security forces,’ Hengaw, a Norway-based group, said on Twitter. ‘This young man was shot in the forehead.’

Hengaw said government forces had opened fire on people in the Gomrok neighbourhood of Mahabad after one of the city’s police stations was surrounded, while footage circulating on Twitter appeared to show the Mahabad governor’s office billowing smoke after being set on fire by rioters. 

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, died on September 16, three days after her arrest in Tehran by the notorious morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code for women.

Anger flared at her funeral last month and quickly sparked the biggest wave of protests to rock the Islamic republic in almost three years. 

Iranian students condemned what they describe as ‘Britain’s support of anti-government protests in Iran’ as well as supporting the Iranian opposition television stations broadcasting from London amid a protest staged outside Britain’s embassy in Tehran

British and LGBT flags are set alight by protesting students in support of Iran’s government

A man holds a sign reading in English ‘We support Irish Unity’ during a student-led anti-Britain demonstration, condemning the United Kingdom’s support of London-based Iranian opposition TV stations and anti-government protests in Iran, outside the British embassy in Iran’s capital Tehran on October 27, 2022

Iranian pro-government students attend an anti-Britain demonstration in front of the British embassy in Tehran, Iran, 27 October 2022

A pro-government Iranian student holds a sign which reads ‘death to England’ outside the British embassy in Tehran

A huge line of people are seen blocking roads into Saqez, the hometown of Mahsa Amini, yesterday as part of a massive protest to mark 40 days since she died at the hands of Iran’s morality police

People march down the highway toward the Aychi Cemetery, where Mahsa Amini is buried, near Saqez, Iran, in this screengrab taken from a social media video released October 26, 2022

Mahsa Amini, 22, died in police custody after being detained in Tehran by Iranian morality police who believed she was wearing her hijab too loosely

British-Ukrainians protest outside Embassy of The Islamic Republic of Iran as Russian military continues to fly explosive-laden Iranian made drones into critical Ukrainian infrastructure facilities and residential areas

Protesters massed in their thousands in Mahsa Amini’s hometown yesterday to mark 40 days since her death, prompting security forces to fire rounds and tear gas at the crowd. 

Young women have led the charge in daily protests that have endured for more than a month, burning their hijab headscarves and confronting security forces.

‘Death to the dictator,’ mourners chanted at the Aichi cemetery outside Saqez, before many were seen heading to the governor’s office in the city centre yesterday.

Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency confirmed clashes took place between security forces and people taking part in the protests in Saqez.

‘A limited number of those present at Mahsa Amini’s memorial clashed with police forces on the outskirts of Saqez and were dispersed. Following the scattered clashes, internet in Saqez was cut off due to security considerations,’ the agency reported, adding about 10,000 people had gathered.

Thousands more seen making their way in cars, on motorbikes and on foot along a highway, through fields and even across a river, in videos widely shared online by activists and rights groups.

Despite heightened security measures, columns of mourners had poured into Saqez in the western Kurdistan province to pay tribute to Amini at her grave at the end of the traditional mourning period

A sea of cars and people can be seen on the streets in protests to mark the 40th day since Mahsa Amini died at the hands of Iran’s morality police

Young women have led the charge in daily protests that have endured for more than a month, burning their hijab headscarves and confronting security forces

Young women waved their headscarves at a passing cars and chanted anti-regime slogans in one video circulating on social media

Noisily clapping, shouting and honking car horns, mourners packed the highway linking Saqez to the cemetery five miles away, in images reportedly verified by Hengaw. 

‘This year is the year of blood, Seyed Ali will be toppled,’ a group of them chanted in a video verified by AFP, referring to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

‘Kurdistan, Kurdistan, the graveyard of fascists,’ others were heard singing in another video shared by activists on Twitter.

Hengaw said strikes were underway in Saqez as well as Divandarreh, Marivan, Kamyaran and Sanandaj, and in Javanrud and Ravansar in the western province of Kermanshah.

The Norway-based rights group said Iranian football stars Ali Daei and Hamed Lak had travelled to Saqez ‘to take part in the 40th day’ service.

They had been staying at the Kurd Hotel but were ‘taken to the government guesthouse… under guard by the security forces’, it said.

Daei has previously run into trouble with authorities over his online support for the Amini protests.

Kurdistan governor Esmail Zarei-Kousha said the situation in Saqez was calm and dismissed as ‘completely false’ reports that roads into the city had been shut.

‘The enemy and its media… are trying to use the 40-day anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death as a pretext to cause new tensions but fortunately the situation in the province is completely stable,’ he said, quoted by state news agency IRNA.

Iranians protests the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police, in Tehran, Oct. 1, 2022

An unveiled woman standing on top of a vehicle as thousands make their way towards Aichi cemetery in Saqez, Mahsa Amini’s home town in the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, to mark 40 days since her death

Video grabs from UGC images posted on October 26, show Iranian mourners marching towards Aichi cemetery in Saqez, Mahsa Amini’s home town in the western Iranian province of Kurdistan

University students chant at a protest following the police custody death of Mahsa Amini, which has sparked nationwide anti-government demonstrations, at the University in Tehran, Iran in this screengrab from social media video released October 26, 2022

Protests have been ongoing for well over a month in Iran following Amini’s death, with demonstrations also taking place outside Iranian embassies across the world

In this Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, a police motorcycle and a trash bin are burning during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini

Hengaw said most of Saqez was ’empty’ as so many people had left the city to join the ceremony to commemorate Amini.

The social media channel 1500tasvir, which chronicles rights violations by Iran’s security forces, said fresh protests flared elsewhere including at universities in Tehran, Mashhad in Iran’s northeast, and Ahvaz in the southwest.

Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights said the security forces’ crackdown on the Amini protests has claimed the lives of at least 141 demonstrators, in a death toll established on Tuesday.

Amnesty International says the ‘unrelenting brutal crackdown’ has killed at least 23 children, while IHR said at least 29 children have been slain.

More than five weeks after Amini’s death, the demonstrations show no signs of ending. They have been fuelled by public outrage over the crackdown that has claimed the lives of other young women and girls.

Iran’s Forensic Organisation said in a report this month that Amini’s death ‘was not caused by blows to the head and vital organs and limbs of the body’.

But lawyers acting for her family have rejected the findings and called for a re-examination of her death by another commission.

Iran announced sanctions Wednesday targeting individuals and media outlets in the European Union, in retaliation for the bloc’s punitive measures imposed last week on the morality police and other officials over the crackdown.