Iran protesters call for 3-day strike, protests planned

Protesters in Iran called on Sunday a three-day strike this week as they seek to maintain pressure on authorities over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

Protesters in Iran called on Sunday a three-day strike this week as they seek to maintain pressure on authorities over the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, with protests planned on the day President Ebrahim Raisi is due to address students in Tehran.

Raisi is expected to visit Tehran University on Wednesday, celebrated in Iran as Student Day.

To coincide with Student Day, protesters are calling for strikes by merchants and a rally towards Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square, according to individual posts shared on Twitter by accounts unverified by Reuters.

They have also called for three days of boycotting any economic activity starting on Monday.

Similar calls for strike action and mass mobilization have in past weeks resulted in an escalation in the unrest which has swept the country – some of the biggest anti-government protests since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution

The activist HRANA news agency said 470 protesters had been killed as of Saturday, including 64 minors. It said 18,210 demonstrators were arrested and 61 members of the security forces were killed.

Iran’s Interior Ministry state security council said on Saturday the death toll was 200, according to the judiciary’s news agency Mizan.

The nationwide protests began after Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, died in the custody of Iran’s morality police on Sept. 16, after she was detained for violating the hijab restrictions governing how women dress.