Schoolgirls across Iran have joined the nationwide unrest by defiantly posting pictures of themselves without their headscarves, writing "Woman, Life, Freedom" on the walls, singing the anthem of the protest movement "For" and ripping portraits of Ruhullah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei, the former and current leaders of the Islamic Republic.
The crackdown on under-18s has been brutal, with the authorities responding to child protesters with detentions and violence.
According to information received by IranWire, the principal of a girls' primary school in Tehran’s 4th district searches into the students' bags every day to see if portraits of Khamenei or Khomeini have been removed from textbooks.
The families say those who tore photos are pulled out of the class by school managers and forced to attend a meeting in the presence of a cleric close to a government. They say these meetings are aimed at threatening the students.
"Our children have been told that they [school manager] will denounce students to the police and that they should go to jail. They also threatened parents," a relative of an 11-year-old girl told IranWire.
