Iran protests: mourners gather at Mahsa Amini grave amid crackdown

Mourners have gathered at the grave of Mahsa Amini to mark 40 days since her death, defying heightened security measures in Iran as part of a bloody crackdown on protests led by women.

Dozens of men and women shouted “Woman, life, freedom” and “Death to the dictator”, at Aichi cemetery in Saqqez, Amini’s hometown in the western province of Kurdistan, in videos shared online.

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, died on 16 September, three days after her arrest by the morality police while visiting Tehran with her younger brother.

Anger flared at her funeral last month and sparked the biggest wave of protests in the Islamic republic in almost three years. Young women and schoolgirls have led the demonstrations, removing and burning their headscarves and confronting security forces on the street.

Mourners headed to Amini’s gravesite on Wednesday morning, even though the security services had warned her family not to hold the ceremony, threatening that “they should worry for their son’s life”, according to activists.

Wednesday marks 40 days since Amini’s death and the end of the traditional mourning period in Iran.

Images shared by the Hengaw rights group showed the heavy presence overnight of security forces in Saqqez, who reportedly shut entrances to the city.

Despite that, dozens of people were seen streaming into the city in cars and on motorcycles, as well as on foot along roads and across fields, in footage posted online by Hengaw.

“Kurdistan, Kurdistan, the graveyard of fascists”, a group was heard chanting in another video shared by activists on Twitter. Agence FrancePresse was unable to immediately verify the footage.

“The cities of Sanandaj, Saqqez, Divandarreh, Marivan and Kamyaran are on widespread strike” in Kurdistan province, Hengaw tweeted.

The group, which monitors rights violations in Kurdistan, said the Iranian footballers Ali Daei and Hamed Lak had travelled to Saqqez to take part in the 40th day funeral and were staying at the Kurd hotel, but they had been taken to the government guesthouse … under guard by the security forces, Hengaw said.

Daei has previously run into trouble with authorities over his online support for the Amini protests.

Unverified footage posted by the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) showed people gathering outside the Kurd hotel in Saqqez in night-time protests.

The Hammihan newspaper quoted Kurdistan governor, Esmail Zarei Koosha, as saying Daei and other celebrities were in Tehran, however, and “everything is calm in Saqqez”.

IHR said 141 demonstrators were killed during the crackdown on the Amini protests, in an updated death toll on Tuesday.

Amnesty International said at least 23 children had been killed, while IHR on Tuesday put that number at 29.