Iranian security forces intensify raids on girls' schools
Parents outraged by latest actions to suppress protests, as students heckle government official.
Tehran's Mortazavi neighborhood witnessed clashes well into midnight after security forces raided a girls' high school amid nationwide anti-government unrest that has continued unabated for over five weeks.
The tension began after stories made rounds on social media of some students being beaten up and reportedly forced to undress during body searches for cell phones. The Education Ministry confirmed the entirety of the incident "after one of the students was found possessing a mobile phone."
School authorities and security organizations have recently been cracking down on schoolgirls after they entered queues of protesters with unprecedented defiance by removing their headscarves and chanting anti-government slogans, not to mention heckling and shaming hard-line clerics.
"Some of the students suffered blood pressure drops and were treated by emergency services," the Education Ministry's statement added. "But no one has died." Social media videos showed at least one of the students being carried before being hospitalized.
