In an Iranian city in the northwest, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets to remember 40 days since Mahsa Amini, 22, passed away while being held.
As in many other traditions, deaths are remembered in Shiite Islam 40 days later once more, usually with a public display of sadness. Crowds snared through the neighbourhood cemetery and thronged Amini’s grave in Saqez, the Kurdish hometown of Amini and the birthplace of the nation-wide turmoil that is currently rattling Iran.
According to camera footage that matches with known features of the city and Aichi Cemetery, demonstrators shouted “Death to the dictator!” Hijabs, or head coverings, were pulled off by women, who waved them in the air. Other footage showed a huge procession moving toward Amini’s grave along a highway and into a barren field. There have been rumours of local road restrictions.
10,000 protesters, according to state-affiliated media, were in the parade to her burial.
A Kurdish human rights organisation called Hengaw claimed that security personnel used tear gas to disperse protesters. Security personnel reportedly fired pellets at masses of protesters outside of Saqez and repelled demonstrators who attempted to attack the governor’s office, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency. Local internet access has apparently been disabled for “security grounds.”
Earlier in the day, Kurdistan Gov.
Traffic was moving as usual, insisted Esmail Zarei Koosha, who described the environment as “absolutely stable.”
Schools and institutions in the northwest of Iran would be closed, according to state-run media, in an effort to stop “the spread of influenza.”
Major portions of the famous grand bazaar in Tehran’s downtown were shuttered in support of the demonstrations. People cheered and chanted, “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” as they moved through the confusing marketplace.
They chanted, “This year is a year of blood!” “Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will be overthrown,” someone declared.
Motorbike riot cops were widely seen. Death to the tyrant! was yelled as a sizable gathering of men and women marched through the streets while garbage cans were set on fire and cars honked in solidarity. Police unleashed anti-riot bullets at protesters in the streets and sprayed pellets upward at journalists filming from windows and rooftops.
The University of Tehran campus also reverberated with anti-government chanting.
Amini, who was imprisoned for allegedly breaking the nation’s severe dress code for women, continues to serve as a vivid representation of the demonstrations that have posed one of the most significant threats to the Islamic Republic.
The protests’ initial focus was on women’s rights and the state-mandated hijab, or headscarf for women, under the hashtag #WomanLifeFreedom.
However, they soon turned into demands for the overthrow of the Shiite clerics that have ruled Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
University students, labour organisations, prisons, and ethnic minorities like the Kurds along Iran’s border with Iraq have all been inspired by the rallies.
According to rights organisations, security forces have used live bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters since the uprising began, killing over 200 people in the process.
Estimates place the number of people who have been arrested in the thousands. Iranian judicial officials announced this week they would bring over 600 people to trial over their role in the protests, including 315 in Tehran, 201 in the neighbouring Alborz province and 105 in the southwestern province of Khuzestan..
Numerous people fill the streets to mark the passing of Mahsa Amini after 40 days.
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