Iran’s leadership holds crisis meeting as protests rage nationwide

Iran’s political leadership has held a crisis meeting as protests across the country gain intensity, unleashed by the death of a woman in custody for failing to follow the Islamic dress code nearly a month ago.

President Ebrahim Raisi, the speaker of parliament and the head of the judiciary took part in the meeting, the presidential office said on Sunday.

They called on the people to preserve national unity and stand against the “hostile plots” of the enemies of the Islamic system, in a joint press statement issued by the presidential office.

Iran has been swept by protests for weeks following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained by the morality police in Tehran for violating the country’s strict dress regulations for women.

On Saturday evening, the protests also reached TV viewers, when two channels of the IRIB state broadcaster were hacked, according to the Shargh newspaper.

News broadcasts on the two channels were briefly interrupted and pictures of some women who had died in the protests were shown, Shargh reported on Sunday.

The hackers also wrote, “Stand up and join us.” The Anonymous collective, which has hacked several Iranian authorities in recent weeks, was said to have been behind the hacking.

The cause of Amini’s death in police custody remains unclear. While critics believe police brutality is to blame, the authorities insist that she died of heart failure.

Since Amini’s death there have been nationwide and international protests against Iran’s leadership and specifically the headscarf mandate.

The security forces have responded with a deadly crackdown, with dozens said to have been killed and many more injured.

Iran’s leadership has blamed the West for the protests, attributing the unrest to a “conspiracy” involving the United States, Israel and “Iranian traitors abroad.”

Protests continued late on Saturday night, witnesses said, with both protesters and security forces increasingly willing to use violence.

The police allegedly not only used tear gas against the demonstrators, but also fired paintball ammunition at them.

The demonstrators reportedly threw Molotov cocktails at the officers and set fire to mobile police stations.

Earlier on Sunday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock strongly criticized the Iranian leadership.

“Anyone who beats up women and girls in the streets, abducts people who want nothing more than to live freely, arbitrarily arrests them, sentences them to death, is on the wrong side of history,” Baerbock told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

She said the European Union would impose entry bans on those responsible for suppressing protests and freeze their assets in the bloc.