Police officers in Iran have beaten a schoolgirl to death.
The girl identified as Parmis Hamnava was beaten with a baton because her book doesn’t have the portrait of the founder of the Islamic Republic.
Dailymail reported that a riot squad stormed the secondary school in the eastern city of Iranshahr last Tuesday to find any trace of schoolgirls’ participation in the nationwide anti-government protests.
Schoolgirls across Iran have joined the nationwide protests in recent days, leading to clashes with teachers and armed security forces, who have arrested some teenage girls they suspect of having taken part in demonstrations.
Halwash news agency and Baloch Activists’ Campaign, which monitor human rights violations in the Balochistan region of Iran, reported the girl’s name as Parmis Hamnava.
She suffered a nosebleed at school after being severely beaten by batons after security forces spotted her books without portraits of the founder of the Islamic Republic. She died a few hours after arriving at the hospital.
Schoolbooks in Iran start with a portrait and a quote from Rohullah Khomeini, the founder of the current regime.
Intelligence agencies later threatened her family and friends not to disclose her death to the media, Halwash reported.
‘Security guards stormed the school last Tuesday and searched the books of all the students, she had ripped pictures of Khomeini, for this crime, and they started beating her in front of other students,’ a source told Halwash.
‘Her nose was bleeding badly, and she was taken to a hospital… She died on Wednesday and was taken to Zahedan for burial,’ it added.
Local officials rejected the reports of her death and blamed ‘enemy media’ for spreading propaganda against the regime.
Iranian authorities have also blamed the media for ‘making up deaths’ for those who have been killed since the unrest began, including at least 32 children.