A schoolgirl has reportedly been killed by the Iranian security services after she was beaten in her classroom for refusing to sing a pro-regime song when her school was raided by “morality police”, sparking further protests across the country this weekend, The Guardian reports.
The student, 16-year-old Asra Panahi died after security forces raided the Shahed girls high school in Ardabil on 13 October and demanded a group of girls sing an anthem that praises Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
When they refused, security forces beat the pupils, leading to a number of girls being taken to hospital and others arrested. On Friday, Panahi reportedly died in the hospital of injuries sustained at the school, according to the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations.
Iranian officials denied that its security forces were responsible for her death after the news sparked outrage across the country.
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According to the report, a man identified as her uncle appeared on state TV channels claiming she had died from a congenital heart condition.
Panahi’s death comes as Schoolgirls have emerged as a powerful force after videos went viral of classrooms of pupils waving their hijabs in the air, taking down pictures of Iran’s supreme leaders and shouting anti-regime slogans in support of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who died after being detained by Iran’s morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly in August.
Read the full report at The Guardian.
