Violent Protest Hits Northwestern Iran

Hundreds of Iranians took to the streets on Thursday in the city of Mahabad, northwestern Iran, to protest against an Iranian officer who sexually harassed a Kurdish girl causing her to commit suicide.

Local activists reported that the Kurdish girl, Farinaz Khosrwni, 23, who was working in Tarai hotel in Mahabad, has committed suicide after an Iranian intelligence officer tried to rape her.

“She threw herself from the hotel’s balcony on the fourth floor, for fear of being captured by the Iranian officer,” the sources said.

Activists on social networking sites have shared the news in the city and called for a campaign of mass protests across Mahabad. Thousands of Kurds protested in front of the hotel and burned it.

The security forces has reportedly fired live bullets at the protesters after blocking the roads linking the protest’s location with other parts of the city.

A Kurdish activist Ibrahim Asaad told the media that the Iranian regime’s practices against the Kurds “reached unbearable level”.

“The Kurdish people in Iran have be subject to persecution and suppression by the authorities. This incident, although seems individual, reflects the degree of brutality of security officers in Mahabad,” he said.

“This protest has been motivated by sympathy with the victim and dozens other victims who were exposed to such acts by the Iranian authorities. The Kurdish residents of Mahabad won’t stop protesting until making sure that the perpetrators are prosecuted,” he said.

Over the past few months, the Iranian authorities executed several Kurdish activists. Last February, the Kurdish political activist Saman Nesim was executed in the jail of the city of Urmia, in western Iran, on charges of participating in armed activities of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan against the Iranian government.