Female students chant ‘get lost’ at Iranian president on campus

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Female students in Tehran chanted “get lost”, according to activists, as the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, visited their university campus on Saturday and condemned protesters enraged by the death of a young woman in custody.

As nationwide demonstrations that have rocked Iran entered a fourth week, Raisi addressed professors and students at Alzahra University in Tehran, reciting a poem that equated “rioters” to flies.

“They imagine they can achieve their evil goals in universities,” state TV reported him saying. “Unbeknownst to them, our students and professors are alert and will not allow the enemy to realise their evil goals.”

A video posted on Twitter by the activist account 1500tasvir showed what it said were female students chanting “Raisi get lost” and “Mullahs get lost” as the president visited their campus.

An Iranian state coroner’s report denied that Mahsa Amini had died due to blows to the head and limbs while in morality police custody and instead linked her death to pre-existing medical conditions, state media said on Friday.

The death of 22-year-old Amini, an Iranian Kurd, has ignited nationwide demonstrations, marking the biggest challenge to Iran’s clerical leaders in years.

Women have removed their veils in defiance of the clerical establishment while furious crowds called for the downfall of supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

After a call for mass demonstrations on Saturday, security forces shot at protesters and used teargas in the Kurdish cities of Sanandaj and Saqez, according to the Iranian human rights group Hengaw.

In Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province in north-west Iran, one man lay dead in his car while a woman screamed “shameless”, according to Hengaw.

One of the schools in Saqez’s main square was filled with schoolgirls chanting “woman, life, freedom”, it reported.

Amini was arrested in Tehran on 13 September for “inappropriate attire” and died three days later.

Rights groups say more than 150 people have been killed, hundreds injured and thousands arrested by security forces confronting protests over Amini’s death.

Hengaw said on Saturday that Iranian security forces had launched crackdowns in two Kurdish cities.

“Security forces are shooting at the protesters in Sanandaj and Saqez,” the group said. It said riot police were also using teargas.

The widely followed 1500tasvir Twitter account also reported shooting at protesters in the two north-western Kurdish cities.

A university student who was on his way to join protests in Tehran said he was not afraid of being arrested or even killed.

“They can kill us, arrest us but we will not remain silent any more,” said the student, who asked to remain anonymous, to Reuters. “Our classmates are in jail. How can we remain silent?”

Widespread strikes are taking place in the cities of Saqez, Divandareh, Mahabad and Sanandaj, said Hengaw.

The government has described the protests as a plot by Iran’s enemies including the US, accusing armed dissidents – among others – of violence in which at least 20 security personnel have been reported killed.