Iran College students, Shopkeepers Go on Strike as Protest Motion Maintains Power

”Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, we’re all collectively,” protesters chanted Saturday at Tehran College.

They had been amongst college students at a dozen giant universities gathering outdoors the lecture rooms for strikes, protests and sit-ins, based on movies posted by the Free Union of Iran Staff, the principle umbrella of unbiased commerce unions, and “1,500 Photos,” an Instagram account gathering movies of the protests.

Police in Tehran responded through the use of tear fuel and beating among the protesters, witnesses stated.

At Tehran’s Islamic Azad College, the place college students protested, authorities fired bullets into the air to disperse the scholars, who ran away, witnesses stated. Authorities closed the college and deployed safety brokers round it.

Hundreds of scholars gathered within the city of Karaj simply outdoors of Tehran. “College students would somewhat die than stay in humiliation,” a few of them chanted, based on footage posted by a instructor and union activist.

Greater than 52 folks have been killed, based on human-rights group Amnesty Worldwide, and 1000’s injured and arrested in a sweeping crackdown since protests broke out following the demise of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 in police custody for allegedly violating the nation’s strict Islamic costume code.

Shopkeepers stayed closed all through giant cities within the Kurdish-dominated northwest, the place Ms. Amini was from, with movies posted by unions and human-rights teams exhibiting lengthy rows of shops with their shutters down.

Shopkeepers additionally went on strike in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan, the place at the least 19 folks had been killed in Iran on Friday throughout antigovernment protests in a southeastern province that’s dwelling to the Baloch ethnic minority.

At the least 4 safety officers, together with a senior intelligence officer, died after they had been attacked by gunfire in the course of the protests, the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated in a press launch.

Verified movies present wounded protesters being carried Friday away from the demonstrations in Zahedan the place gunshots may very well be heard. The footage was confirmed as genuine by Storyful, which is owned by Information Corp, the mum or dad firm of The Wall Road Journal.

The Tasnim information company, which is near safety businesses, stated safety brokers had been pressured to return hearth in self protection.

Iranian officers have denounced the Zahedan assault because the work of terrorists. Extra broadly, the federal government stated it had the precise to reply forcefully to demonstrations that had turn into riot-like in current days.

In Tehran, retailers had been open, and employees didn’t heed requires a normal strike.

—David S. Cloud contributed to this text.

Write to Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com