Civil disobedience grows as Iran continues to crush protests
Working around the state's internet crackdown, Iranians were resorting to strikes, as women walked without hijabs in public in defiance of the hard-line establishment.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi said the United States was behind recent nationwide protests triggered by the case of Mahsa Amini.
"We should not allow the enemy to weaken our national unity," Raisi asserted in a televised interview, adding that the final results of a forensic probe into the young woman's death in the custody of the morality police were to be released in the coming days.
Iranian authorities and hardline media have been insisting that Amini died of a heart attack and suffered from background health complications. The argument has been repeatedly rejected by her family, who allege that she suffered a fatal brain injury while in detention.
In nearly two weeks of protests, Iran's riot police and pro-government militia, known as Basij, have opened fire on protesters, killing at least 76, according to a tally by the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights. Iranian authorities imposed severe internet restrictions on Sept 21. The outages, according to Iranian users, have only intensified on a daily basis, with one platform blocked after another.
