Raisi addressed students at Alzahra University in Tehran, reciting a poem that equated \u2018rioters\u2019 with flies
\nDUBAI
\nFemale students in Tehran chanted \u201cget lost\u201d, according to activists, as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited their university campus on Saturday and condemned protesters enraged by the death of a young woman in custody.
\nAs nationwide demonstrations that have rocked Iran entered a fourth week, Raisi addressed professors and students at Alzahra University in Tehran, reciting a poem that equated \u201crioters\u201d with flies.
\n\u201cThey imagine they can achieve their evil goals in universities,\u201d state TV reported. \u201cUnbeknownst to them, our students and professors are alert and will not allow the enemy to realise their evil goals.\u201d
\nA video posted on Twitter by the activist 1500tasvir website showed what it said were women students chanting \u201cRaisi get lost\u201d and \u201cMullahs get lost\u201d as the president visited their campus.
\nAn Iranian state coroner\u2019s report denied that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini had died due to blows to the head and limbs while in morality police custody and linked her death to pre-existing medical conditions, state media said on Friday.
\nAmini, an Iranian Kurd, was arrested in Tehran on Sept 13 for wearing \u201cinappropriate attire\u201d, and died three days later.
\nHer death has ignited nationwide demonstrations, marking the biggest challenge to Iran\u2019s clerical leaders in years.
\nWomen have removed their veils in defiance of the clerical establishment while furious crowds called for the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
\nThe government has described the protests as a plot by Iran\u2019s enemies including the United States, accusing armed dissidents – among others – of violence in which at least 20 members of the security forces have been reported killed.
\nRights groups say more than 150 people have been killed, hundreds injured and thousands arrested by security forces confronting protests.
\nAfter a call for mass demonstrations on Saturday, security forces shot at protesters and used tear gas in the Kurdish cities of Sanandaj and Saqez, according to the Iranian human rights group Hengaw.
\nIn Sanandaj, capital of the northwestern Kurdistan province, one man lay dead in his car while a woman screamed \u201cshameless\u201d, according to Hengaw, which said he had been shot by security forces after he honked his horn as a sign of protest.
\nBut a senior police official repeated the claim by security forces that they did not use live bullets and that the man had been killed by \u201ccounter-revolutionaries\u201d (armed dissidents), the state news agency IRNA reported.
\n\u2018Woman, life, freedom\u2019
\nHengaw also carried a video of emergency personnel trying to resuscitate a person and said one protester had died after being shot in the abdomen by security forces in Sanandaj. Reuters could not verify the video.
\nOne of the schools in Saqez city\u2019s square was filled with school girls chanting \u201cwoman, life, freedom,\u201d Hengaw reported.
\nThe widely followed 1500tasvir Twitter account also reported shootings at protesters in the two northwestern Kurdish cities.
\nA university student who was on his way to join protests in Tehran said he was not afraid of being arrested or even killed.
\n\u201cThey can kill us, arrest us but we will not remain silent anymore. Our classmates are in jail. How can we remain silent?\u201d the student, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters.
\nWidespread strikes are taking place in the cities of Saqez, Diwandareh, Mahabad and Sanandaj, said Hengaw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Raisi addressed students at Alzahra University in Tehran, reciting a poem that equated \u2018rioters\u2019 with flies DUBAI Female students in Tehran chanted \u201cget lost\u201d, according to activists, as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited their university campus on Saturday and condemned protesters enraged by the death of a young woman in custody. As nationwide demonstrations that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-288273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n