‘Get lost' Schoolgirls vow to take their country back from the mullahs

Last Monday night, 16-year-old Elnaz sat at home in the Iranian city of Karaj and wept with shock and rage as she scrolled through social media posts about the death of NikaShakarami.

- Deepa Parent

The 17-year-old schoolgirl was allegedly tortured and killed by Iran’s security forces as they try to suppress the protests that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, allegedly beaten by police for infringing the hijab regulations.

The next morning, Elnazarrived at school to find a small group of friends gathered in the playground, pulling off their hijabs and shouting: Death to the dictator.”

“I was in tears when I saw the other girls standing together in protest and felt like I betrayed the memory of Nika by not doing more to express my anger. So I pushed back my headscarf, and joined them,” she said.

She said the death of Shakarami has proved a tipping point for her and hundreds of other schoolgirls across Iran. Last week, allegations surrounding the circumstances of Shakarami’s death were circulating on social media. She was reported missing on 20 September after joining a protest in Tehran, amid claims that she had been beaten, raped and her body stolen and buried by the regime ina village away from her family.