Molavi Abdolhamid, the Friday prayer leader in the eastern city of Zahedan, made the comments on December 2 amid a bloody state crackdown on an anti-government protest movement that has swept the country for 11 weeks.According to footage shared on social media, dozens of women gathered in Zahedan, chanting "Whether with or without a hijab, we are going toward the revolution" and "An Iranian dies, he does not accept humiliation".The protest movement has grown to become one of the biggest threats to the clerical regime since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.The unrest sparked a heavy-handed crackdown by security forces in which more than 440 people were killed, including dozens of children.Referring to widespread reports about the torture of prisoners, Abdolhamid called on the government to stop “beating, insulting and assaulting” inmates, and urged the judiciary to not charge protesters with "enmity against God", which carries a death sentence."