CNN
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The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, says it remains deeply concerned about reports of children being killedinjured and detained in Iran, it said in a statement on Friday, adding that the reported deaths of children during anti-government protests “must stop.”
“An estimated 50 children have died during public unrest in Iran,” UNICEF said in a statement.
This comes as Unrest in Iran continues for more than two months, and amid growing calls by online protesters and activists for UNICEF, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations to take action on human rights abuses and crimes. cruelty to children traveling by plane in Iran.
Many people told CNN they felt their voices were not being heard. One protester in Iran told CNN: “They’re just saying, hey, Islamic Republic, what you’re doing is terrible. “Yes, everyone knows that is bad. Three-year-olds know it’s bad, but we need to act realistically. Do something. I do not know. I believe they know better than we do what they can do.”
“In Iran, UNICEF remains deeply concerned by reports of children being killed, injured and detained,” the statement read, citing the death of a boy named Kian Pirfalak, one of seven killed. network during Wednesday’s protests in the southwestern city of Izeh. . “This is scary and has to be stopped,” the organization added.
UNICEF reported age of Pirfalak as 10 years old. Iranian state media reported the boy was 9 years old.
The child was traveling in a car on Wednesday with his family when he was shot dead and his father was wounded by a bullet, the boy’s mother told state media in an interview with Tasnim Friday.
According to Iran’s state news agency ISNA, protesters set fire to a seminary at the same time as those shot dead in Izeh in what state media called a “terrorist attack”.
Activists are accusing the Iranian regime of killing Kian and others in Izeh.
The Islamic Republic is facing one of the largest and unprecedented expressions of disagreement in recent history following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman detained by ethics police for accused of not wearing a headscarf properly.
According to an Iranian human rights group, at least 378 people have been killed since the protests began, when the country’s Supreme Leader warned that the protest movement “will inevitably fail”.
The Iranian Human Rights Organization released its estimated death toll on Saturday, adding that the figure includes 47 children killed by security forces.
CNN was unable to independently verify figures on arrests, death tolls, and multiple accounts of those killed due to the Iranian government’s crackdown on independent media and internet shutdowns reducing transparency in communications. on-site reporting. Nor can the media go directly to the government to get their accounts of such cases, unless there is a report in the state media, the government mouthpiece.
Video shared by activist group 1500 Tasvir and others shows a large crowd gathered for Pirfalak’s funeral in his hometown of Izeh on Friday.
Surrounded by mourners, his mother Zeynab Molaeirad was heard singing a children’s song, replacing the lyrics with words against Ayatollah Khamenei and the regime. She then revealed new details about the deadly incident, according to a video shared on social media.
“Hear me out with my own mouth what really happened to Kian,” she told the crowd, “So the regime doesn’t lie and say it’s a terrorist.”
Molaeirad, who was traveling with the family in their car, said people on the street were shouting for the vehicle to turn around and her son had told his father not to worry.
“Kian said, ‘Baba trust the police for once and come back, they’re looking for us,'” she said.
His mother said his father turned the car around and drove towards police. But “because the car windows were rolled up, the police thought we might want to shoot at them,” she said.
“They opened fire on the car.”
Kian’s mother also posted a photo taken with her son in the Instagram post. “My broken flower. Curse to the Islamic Republic,” she wrote.
Human rights groups have accused Iranian authorities of scaring the victim’s family into silence. Iranian authorities are “systematically harassing and threatening victims’ families to conceal the truth” of their deaths, as Amnesty International’s Heba Morayef said in a recent report .
The United Nation United Nations Secretary-General Farhan Haq’s deputy spokesman said on Friday that it was “deeply concerned about the increased violence associated with the popular protests taking place in Iran”.
“We condemn all incidents resulting in death or serious injury, including the shooting in the city of Izeh on November 16, 2022. We are also concerned about the delivery of sentences. death penalty against five unnamed individuals amid the latest protests,” Haq said.
Haq urged the Iranian authorities to respect international human rights law and avoid using excessive force against peaceful protesters.
Despite the UN’s condemnation, Iranians still strongly criticize the global organization and its agencies, arguing that its words are not enough and lack of action against violations. human rights are taking place in Iran.
Stories like Parfalik’s “have made Iranians at home and abroad really demand justice, asking what UNICEF is doing to stop this,” Iranian-American human rights lawyer Gissou Nia said in an interview. interview with CNN’s Isa Soares on Friday.
Nia, who is also director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council went on to say that the UN Human Rights Council will meet in Geneva on Thursday in a special session to address the “human situation”. rights are deteriorating in the Islamic Republic of Iran. ”
“The outcome of that special session will likely be an investigative mechanism or some kind of independent body that can collect, keep, and analyze evidence of what is happening here for the sake of explanation,” said Nia.
“It would be a shame if that 47-member body voted no” to create such a mechanism, she added.
