«Iran is collapsing,» said Javaid Rehman, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights to Iran, as protests continue to rage across Iran.
«The level of repression and authoritarianism and brutality that is taking place in Iran cannot go on—something will have to give,» Javaid Rehman, whose duties include monitoring and investigating human rights violations in Iran and reporting to the U.N. General Assembly on the human rights situation there, said. «Otherwise, there is a real risk that the people will rise and it will be beyond the control of the Iranian authorities.»
Demonstrations throughout the country have gathered momentum following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been arrested by morality police in Tehran on September 13 for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code for women.
The reports that she had been beaten with a baton contrasted with the authorities’ explanation that she had suffered a heart attack three days later—an explanation that was deemed implausible by most.
Anger expressed in protests at her funeral in her home city of Saqqez in Kurdistan province has swelled and morphed nationally into demands for freedoms and an overthrow of the state.
Videos show women defiantly setting their headscarves on fire and cutting their hair in public to chants of «Woman, life, freedom» and «Death to the dictator» in reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
There has also been anger directed at President Ebrahim Raisi, who since he took office in 2021, has increased policing of the dress code for women. Human rights groups say Raisi should be held accountable for the executions of 30,000 detained leftists in 1988 while chief prospector of the Tehran revolutionary court, although he has denied involvement.
