Conservative women take to Iran protests for Amini

 The death of Mahsa Amini spurred nationwide protests, which were Friday joined by women wearing black in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province. 

One of the primary chants of the protest movement that began in mid-September was displayed on banners held by dozens of women as they marched through the streets of the provincial capital Zahedan in online videos. 

In footage shared on Twitter, women wearing the body-covering chador shout, "Onwards to revolution, whether with hijab or without it." 

Since Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish descent, died after being detained in Tehran for allegedly violating the nation's dress code, women-led protests have swept the country. 

According to Iran Human Rights, a non-governmental organization with offices in Oslo, security forces have murdered at least 448 demonstrators, with the highest death toll being in Sistan-Baluchistan on Iran's southeast border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam described the demonstrations by women in Zahedan, where men have been taking to the streets after Friday prayers for more than two months, as "it is indeed unique." 

He declared, "The continuing demonstrations in Iran represent the start of a revolution of dignity." 

Women and minorities, who have been regarded as second-class citizens for more than 40 years, are empowered by these protests to take to the streets and demand their basic human rights. 

According to Amiry-Moghaddam, Baluchi women were among the "most persecuted" in Iran, and their protests were the best organized since protests began to spread throughout the nation. 

Activists recorded video of the several men who returned to the streets on Friday, saying, "We don't want a child-killing government." In a video released by IHR, security personnel can be seen firing bird bullets and using tear gas on male demonstrators in Taftan, Sistan-Baluchistan. 

A well-known Sunni preacher said that demonstrators should not be subject to the death penalty. A prominent Sunni critic in the Shiite-ruled nation, Molavi Abdolhamid, said that the conservative judiciary was wrong to accuse demonstrators of "moharebeh," which carries the death penalty and means "warring against God." 

According to Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Canada has imposed further sanctions against Iran because of its denial of rights for women and girls and its crackdown on peaceful demonstrations. 

The most recent sanctions target five businesses and four people who, according to Ottawa, are involved in Iran's "systematic human rights breaches" and other activities that "threaten international peace and security." 

Canada, she continued, "won't watch helplessly while the regime's human rights abuses against the Iranian people grow in scope and severity."