Lawmaker slams protesters, cleric appeals for calm

Street clashes with security forces have been escalating

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES A hard-line Iranian lawmaker Tuesday slammed female protesters who have taken off mandatory headscarves as prostitutes, doubling down on the government stance amid the dramatic demonstrations following the death of a 22-year-old woman detained by the country’s morality police.

The harsh language by Mahmoud Nabavian, a legislator from Tehran, was in sharp contrast to the appeal by a top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamadani, who on Sunday urged the government to listen to the people’s demands.

The fate of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman who died in custody after being detained by the morality police — because her headscarf was allegedly too loose — has ignited unrest across Iran. Protests have have spread to at least 46 cities, including the capital of Tehran, towns and villages with scenes of violence and street clashes with security forces unseen for years in Iran.

State TV reported that a police officer died Tuesday in a hospital after being injured by rioters in the town of Robatkarim in Tehran province.

Solidarity protests have also erupted in Europe, the United States and in parts of the Middle East. In a predominantly Kurdish city in Syria, thousands of women took to the streets Monday, holding posters with Amini’s photo.

Across Iran, ordinary women and public figures, including Iranian actresses, have removed their headscarves in protest or cut their hair in public to show solidarity with the demonstrators.

Iranian state TV has suggested that at least 41 protesters and police have been killed since the demonstrations began Sept. 17. An Associated Press count of official statements by authorities tallied at least 14 dead, with more than 1,500 demonstrators arrested.

The state-run IRNA news agency reported Tuesday that Hassan Bahramnia, governor of Ilam province in western Iran near the border with Iraq, said security forces have arrested 180 protesters since the unrest began. He said some have been released.

“These rioters are out to prostitute themselves,” the lawmaker, Mahmoud Nabavian, was quoted as saying by Fararu, a news website. He suggested that taking off the hijab, or headscarf, was akin to being naked in public to attract male attention.