In an unprecedented display of support for the protests rocking the nation, Iranian schoolgirls have been yelling against clerical authorities and waving their hijabs in the air.
Videos verified by the BBC showed demonstrations inside schoolyards and on the streets of several cities.
They echoed the wider unrest sparked by the death last month of a woman who was detained for breaking the hijab law.
In Karaj, girls reportedly forced an education official out of their school.
Footage posted on social media on Monday showed them shouting “shame on you” and throwing what appear to be empty water bottles at the man until he retreats through a gate.
Protesting students, chasing away an #Iranian official from their school, shouting: Shame on you…October 3rd… #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/eFmRhvaN2H
— Rana Rahimpour (@ranarahimpour) October 3, 2022
In another video from Karaj, which is just to the west of the capital Tehran, students are heard shouting: “If we don’t unite, they will kill us one by one.”
In the southern city of Shiraz on Monday, dozens of schoolgirls blocked traffic on the main road while waving their headscarves in the air and shouting “death to the dictator” – a reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters.
Iranian schoolgirls remove their head coverings and chant “mullahs must go away” today, on day 18 of protests over the death of #MahsaAmini in morality police custody for “improper hijab” amid mass arrests of activists and an internet shutdown.#مهسا_امینیpic.twitter.com/a01ILrgOlS
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) October 3, 2022
In a march in Gohardasht, Karaj, schoolgirls remove their head coverings today chanting “death to the dictator” while cars sounds horns in support.
It’s hard to put into context just how unprecedented these scenes are in Iran.#مهسا_امینی #MahsaAminipic.twitter.com/xxMatcVA7u
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) October 3, 2022
Further protests by schoolgirls were reported on Tuesday in Karaj, Tehran, and the north-western cities of Saqez and Sanandaj.
A number of students were also photographed standing in their classrooms with their heads uncovered.
Some were raising their middle fingers – an obscene gesture – at portraits of Ayatollah Khamenei and the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
