At least 76 protesters are said to have been killed by Iranian security forces during 11 days of violence following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.
Amini, 22, from the Iranian Kurdish city of Saqez, was arrested this month in Tehran for “unsuitable attire” by the morality police who enforce the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.
Iran Human Rights (IHR), a Norway-based organisation, accused authorities of killing at least 76 protesters by using disproportionate force and shooting live ammunition into crowds.
“The risk of torture and ill-treatment of protesters is serious and the use of live ammunition against protesters is an international crime,” said IHR’s director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
“The world must defend the Iranian people’s demands for their fundamental rights.”
State media have blamed “rioters” for the deaths and put the number of dead at 41, including security personnel.
Despite the fierce crackdown by authorities, videos posted on Twitter showed demonstrators calling for the fall of the clerical establishment while clashing with security forces in Tehran, Tabriz, Karaj, Qom, Yazd and many other Iranian cities.
State television said police clashed with what it called “rioters” in some cities and fired tear gas to disperse them.
Videos posted on social media from inside Iran showed protesters chanting, “Woman, Life, Liberty”, while women waved and burnt their veils.
Videos on Twitter showed protesters chanting “Death to the dictator”, a reference to Iran’s top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In the Kurdish cities of Sanandaj and Sardasht, riot police fired at protesters, videos on Twitter showed.
“I will kill those who killed my sister,” chants of protesters could be heard in one of the videos from Tehran, while activist Twitter account 1500tasvir said: “The streets have become battlefields.”
To make it difficult for protesters to post videos on social media, authorities have restricted internet access in several provinces, according to Internet blockage observatory NetBlocks on Twitter and sources in Iran.
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It came as Ms Amini’s cousin revealed that she was tortured before dying as she was detained by morality police for wearing a hijab too loosely.
Erfan Mortezaei told Sky News the 22-year-old was shopping in Tehran with relatives when they were confronted by police who “decided her hijab was not correct”.
“In the struggle the police officers pepper-sprayed [her brother] in the face and forced Mahsa into the van and take her to the morality police station,” Mr Mortezaei told the broadcaster in an interview.
Mr Mortezaei said a witness who was in the van told her family she was “tortured and insulted” and she began to lose her vision and fainted at the police station.
He said it took 30 minutes for ambulance workers to reach her and an hour and a half before she got to hospital.
