The UN has expressed alarm at Iranian authorities’ response to protests sparked by the death in custody of a woman detained for breaking hijab laws.
Human rights groups said three people were killed on Monday as security forces opened fire at men, women and children who took to the streets of Kurdistan province for a fourth day.
Protests also took place in Tehran.
The UN urged Iran’s leaders to allow peaceful demonstrations and launch an impartial probe into the woman’s death.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old from the western city of Saqez, who was from Iran’s Kurdish minority, died in hospital on Friday after spending three days in a coma.
She was with her brother in Tehran on Tuesday when she was arrested by Iran’s morality police, who accused her of breaking the law requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf, and their arms and legs with loose clothing. She fell into a coma shortly after collapsing at a detention centre.
