Cleric Molavi Abdolhamid, the main religious representative of the Sunni minority in Iran, called Friday for a national referendum to be held to address the demands of demonstrators who have been protesting against the authorities for the death in custody of young Mehsa Amini for improperly wearing the veil for the past month and a half.
«Let there be a referendum with international observers. Authorities, listen to the cry of the people,» the cleric remarked during Friday’s sermon in the Sunni-majority city of Zahedan, one of the epicenters of the demonstrations.
«People have been protesting for 50 days,» the cleric lamented during the sermon. «The authorities cannot repress the people by killing or imprisoning people, because the people have seen blood, and they have killed their own. Let a referendum be held to see what the people of Iran want, and find out what kind of change would make them happy,» he added in comments reported by Al Arabiya.
Abdolhamid, a figure of extraordinary reputation among Sunni leaders, warned Iranian authorities that «God would hold them responsible» for the killing in Zahedan on Sept. 30, the worst day of protests in the city.
On that day, the so-called «Black Friday,» security forces killed 92 people, including 12 children, according to civilian organizations, at the height of protests that began first over the June rape of a Baloch girl by a police officer and later spilled over into Amini’s death on September 16.
Although the Iranian Revolutionary Guard warned the cleric that the expression of such sentiments constituted a crime of agitation that «could cost him dearly», the cleric continues to appear in public to express his revulsion against the repression.
