Psychological counselling for detained students in Iran

Iran is holding high school students detained in protests over the death of an Iranian woman in police custody in psychological counselling centres, Minister of Education and Training, Yousef Nouri, said Wednesday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

“No students were jailed,” Nouri said in statements cited by the local Sharq newspaper. “The detainees are admitted into correction and education centres where experts are tending to their needs,” he added.

“We want to rehabilitate these students who could turn into anti-social individuals,” the Minister said.

Without giving an exact figure, the Minister said the number of the detained students “was not large”.

Iran has, for weeks, found itself in the midst of mass protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody last month.

Amini, 22, died in mysterious circumstances after being detained for wearing “inappropriate dress” by the country’s morality police. A government report into Amini’s death blamed her demise for multiple organ failure, not physical violence, but her family rejected the findings.

The government is yet to announce the exact figure of casualties in the protests, but independent rights groups have put the death toll at more than 100.

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