Iranian police arrive to disperse a protest to mark 40 days since the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Photo / AP
Iranian police arrive to disperse a protest to mark 40 days since the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Photo / AP
Iranian security forces opened fire at the graveside of Mahsa Amini in her hometown of Saqez yesterday, witnesses said, after thousands of people gathered to mark 40 days since the 22-year-old died in police custody.
”The riot police shot at mourners at the cemetery for Mahsa’s memorial ceremony,” a witness told Reuters, adding that dozens have been arrested.
Iranian authorities did not immediately comment and there was no immediate report of a death toll or injuries, with authorities cutting the internet in the city after clashes broke out.
Separately, the protest-wracked country was struck by what authorities said was a terrorist attack in the southern city of Shiraz that killed at least 15.
Activists called for protests to mark 40 days since Amini died after being detained for “inappropriate attire”.
People in Iran block an intersection during a protest to mark 40 days since the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Photo / AP
Despite security forces blocking the roads to Saqez, thousands of chanting mourners marched towards the Aichi cemetery outside the city, in a column apparently stretching for miles, video shared online showed.
Mourners chanted “Death to the dictator”, referring to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Many women marched with their hair uncovered as a protest against mandatory hijab laws.
A police checkpoint was torched and fires burned along a bridge in the Qavakh neighbourhood of Saqez.
Up to 10,000 people had gathered at the cemetery, Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency reported, adding that internet had been cut to Saqez “for security reasons”.
Kurdistan governor Esmail Zarei-Kousha accused Iran’s foes of being behind the unrest.
”The enemy and its media... are trying to use the 40-day anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death as a pretext to cause new tensions but fortunately the situation in the province is completely stable,” he said, quoted by IRNA.
Riot police and members of the Basij militia had filled the cemetery, one witness said, while mourners chanted “Woman, life, freedom”.
”Heavy clashes have taken place between people and government forces near Zindan Square in Saqez,” the Hengaw Human Rights Organisation reported.
Videos shared online showed Iranians protesting yesterday, including in the capital Tehran. Video reportedly filmed in Qazvin province showed security forces firing at demonstrators.
Large numbers of riot police were filmed riding towards the site of a demonstration in the capital on motor bikes, while other videos showed columns of security forces marching in the Amir Abad neighbourhood, near the University of Tehran.
Another video showed workers from Tehran Oil Refining Company on strike.
Large parts of Tehran’s grand bazaar closed in solidarity with the protests, with crowds chanting for freedom and for the overthrow of Khamenei.
Oil workers and bazaar merchants played a leading role in the 1979 revolution to oust the Shah, while this year’s protests have been largely youth-led.
Authorities closed all schools and universities in the Kurdistan province yesterday “because of a wave of influenza”, Iranian state media reported.
Rights groups also said security forces threatened members of Amini’s family with arrest if they held a memorial procession.
But the governor of Kurdistan province, Zarei Kusha, denied any official ban holding a service, claiming
“it was the decision of her family not to hold a gathering”, state media reported.
Iranian judicial officials announced this week they would prosecute over 600 people involved in the protests, with some facing charges of “war against God”, a capital offence in Iran.
Meanwhile a “terrorist attack” by gunmen in Shiraz killed at least 15 people people yesterday, state news agency IRNA reported.
Three armed men attacked the Shah Cheragh mosque in the southern city at around 5:45pm local time, a media outlet affiliated to Iran’s judiciary reported.
”Two terrorists have been arrested and efforts to arrest a third person are ongoing,” Mizan News reported.
The Shiite mosque is renowned as one of the most beautiful places of worship in the world and is the most important pilgrimage site in Shiraz.
IRNA said the attackers were “Takfiri terrorists”, suggesting they were Sunni extremists such as Islamic State.
A protester shows a portrait of Mahsa Amini during a demonstration to support Iranian protesters standing up to their leadership over the death of a young woman in police custody. Photo / AP
British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who spent six years detained in Tehran, yesterday said the protest movement had reached the point of “no return”.
Rights groups say at least 250 people have been killed since the protests began in mid-September, while thousands have been arrested.
But Zaghari-Ratcliffe said the regime’s crackdown on the demonstration and shutdown of the internet showed it was scared of losing control.
”The anger has been building up for many, many years,” she told Reuters.
”We can see a coming together for one single goal, and that is freedom. The protests are really, really powerful this time. I don’t think we’ve ever seen the unity we’re seeing now,” she said, describing Amini’s death as the “spark for an explosion”.
The protests have grown into one of the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution, even if they do not appear close to toppling a government that has deployed its powerful security apparatus to quell the unrest.
”There is a generational shift which plays a massive role in the new movement,” said Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, who was arrested at Tehran airport in 2016 after a trip to see her parents with her then 22-month-old daughter Gabriella.
”This is the generation of social media and TikTok and the internet. They know more about the world and their rights than we did. They have a lot more courage than we did.”
Earlier yesterday the United States slapped sanctions on Iranian officials and entities involved in internet censorship and the crackdown.
They included those overseeing Evin prison, which holds political prisoners, and where Washington says many protesters have been sent.
