Students joined protesters who took to the streets across Iran on Wednesday as protests stemming from the death of Mahsa Amini continued into Day 83.
The protesting students were joined by shopkeepers across the country who have closed their shops and gone on strike in recent days, Iran’s National Council of Resistance reported on Wednesday, as tensions between the Iranian regime and protesters continued to escalate after Amino’s death in September.
Iranian government forces reportedly sealed off many shops across the country in retaliation for joining the merchants’ strike, and protesters reportedly clashed with government forces on Wednesday.
Later Wednesday night, protesters marched in Tehran’s Azadi Square chanting “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to the dictator” despite a heavy presence of Iranian security forces who intermittently opened fire on the crowd with pellet guns.
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Ali Safavi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Iran’s National Council of Resistance, told Fox News Digital that protests and strikes are taking place in about 80 cities nationwide and 40 locations in Tehran.
“It is time for the international community to move beyond words and symbolic sanctions and take concrete steps, including breaking diplomatic ties, expelling the regime’s envoys and recognizing the right of the Iranian people to defend themselves,” said Safavi . . “A misogynistic regime that kills children has no place in the community of civilized nations. Its leaders, including Ali Khamenei and Ebrahim Raisi, must be held to account.”
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Protests, which have sometimes turned deadly, have erupted across Iran and around the world following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died in custody in September after being arrested by the “morality police” for failing to wear the country’s mandatory headscarf required of women.
Human rights groups say security forces have killed at least 448 people and made up to 18,000 arrests. Around 60 children are believed to have been killed by the regime during the protests.
Iran on Thursday carried out what appeared to be the first execution of a protester who had taken part in the uprising.
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Mohsen Shekari, 23, was hanged on Thursday morning after being found guilty by a revolutionary tribunal of “enmity against God”.
An Iranian news outlet known as Mizan, which is linked to Tehran’s judicial system, said the 23-year-old was accused of brandishing a machete, injuring a police officer and blocking road access into Tehran on Sept. 25 with ” the intention to kill and create terror and deprive people of liberty and security”.
Other activists said he was convicted following a “show trial” lacking due process.
Caitlin McFall of Fox News contributed to this report.