Cartoon by Marilena Nardi
Iran mourners flock to Mahsa Amini grave despite crackdown
AFP: Iranian mourners gathered Wednesday at the grave of Mahsa Amini to mark 40 days since her death, defying heightened security measures as part of a bloody crackdown on women-led protests.
"Woman, life, freedom" and "Death to the dictator", hundreds of men and women chanted at the Aichi cemetery in Saqez, Amini's home town in the western province of Kurdistan, in videos shared online.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, died on September 16, three days after her arrest by the notorious morality police for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code for women while visiting Tehran with her younger brother.
Anger flared at her funeral last month and quickly sparked the biggest wave of protests to rock the Islamic republic in almost three years. Young women and schoolgirls have led the charge, burning their hijab headscarves and confronting security forces on the street.
Overnight, the authorities stepped up security measures in Saqez, deploying personnel in a central square as well as reportedly shutting off entrances to the city.
Despite that, mourners headed to her graveside early on Wednesday to mark 40 days since her death -- the end of the traditional mourning period in Iran.
They made their way in cars, on motorbikes, and on foot along a highway, through fields and even across a river, in videos shared online by activists and human rights groups.
Hundreds of mourners had gathered at the cemetery located eight kilometres (five miles) outside Saqez, in images that the Hengaw rights group told AFP it had verified.
Year of blood
"This year is the year of blood, Seyed Ali will be toppled," a group of them chanted in a video verified by AFP, referring to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"Kurdistan, Kurdistan, the graveyard of fascists," others were heard singing in another video shared by activists on Twitter. AFP was unable to immediately verify the footage.
Hengaw, which monitors rights violations in Kurdistan, said strikes were underway in Saqez, Divandarreh, Marivan, Kamyaran and Sanandaj, as well as Javanrud and Ravansar in the western province of Kermanshah.
The Norway-based rights group said Iranian football stars Ali Daei and Hamed Lak had travelled to Saqez "to take part in the 40th day funeral".
They had been staying at the Kurd Hotel but were "taken to the government guesthouse... under guard by the security forces", it said.
Daei has previously run into trouble with authorities over his online support for the Amini protests.
Unverified footage posted by Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) showed people gathering outside the Kurd Hotel in Saqez to protest at night.
Kurdistan governor Esmail Zarei-Kousha said the situation in Saqez was calm on Wednesday morning and dismissed as "completely false" reports that roads into the city had been shut.
"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 state news agency IRNA.
Fresh student rallies
Iran's ISNA news agency said the ceremony took place in a "calm atmosphere" and that people had marched to her grave, including from nearby towns, without any tensions.
Hengaw said most of Saqez was "empty" on Wednesday morning as so many people had left the city to join the ceremony to commemorate Amini.
The 1500tasvir social media channel, which chronicles rights violations by Iran's security forces, said fresh protests were being held elsewhere on Wednesday, including at universities in Tehran, Mashhad in Iran's northeast and Ahvaz, in the southwest.
IHR said the security forces' crackdown on the Amini protests has cost the lives of at least 141 demonstrators, up from 122 previously, in an updated death toll Tuesday.
Amnesty International says the crackdown has killed at least 23 children, while IHR said on Tuesday that at least 29 children have been slain.
More than five weeks after Amini's death, the demonstrations show no signs of ending. They have been fuelled by public outrage over the crackdown that has claimed the lives of other young women and girls.
Iran's Forensic Organisation said in a report published this month that Amini's death "was not caused by blows to the head and vital organs and limbs of the body".
But lawyers acting for Amini's family have rejected the findings and called for a re-examination of her death by another commission.
RIP, Iranian people are not forgetting you.
How about Palestinians ? They are NOT with Iranian uprising ? What a shame...
You have always claimed I am Palestinians and I am showing my support.
Are you making a liar out of yourself or just like to talk so people don't think you are mute?
On behalf of Iranians I appreciate this Palestinian for showing his support for uprising of Iranians against tyrrany of mullahs.
When we talk of solidarity, that means the whole nation, not one individual among millions. We have 27 Arab nations and none of them Including Palestinians, who live in Jordan, showed NO sign of solidarity with Iranian people. None of them came out on street in a crowd to show their support.
In below link we see Israelis standing by Iranian people and they are preparing for large demonstration in downtown Tel Aviv on Saturday Oct. 29, 2022.
Our Palestinian guest may contact his people in Gaza and Lebanon and ask them to do so. That will save him face and make him look better on Iranian site.
https://aijac.org.au/featured/we-have-no-reason-to-be-enemies-israeli-women-stand-in-solidarity-with-the-iranian-protest-movement/
70% of Jordanians are Palestinian according to belown link. Palestinians can come out in downtown Aman in Jordan and have demonstration like Jews in Israel to show their support for Iranians.
No excuse.
They don't give a hood about Iranians. The same as Iran-Iraq war. They were all behind invader Saddam Hussein, not Iranians.
https://www.quora.com/Jordan-is-70-Palestinian-by-ethnicity-It-occupies-75-of-the-original-British-Mandate-of-Palestine-Why-is-there-a-need-for-a-three-state-solution-with-a-second-Palestinian-majority-state
I tell my Jordanian friends to come out in support of Iranian women and their freedom and you tell your friends to come out in support of a FREE Palestine
Unfortunately I don't know anybody in Israel. But as far as I know Palestinians have zero tolerance for jews living next to them, not the other way around. Palestinians have been engaged in numerous terrorist activities against jews since the establishment of Israel in 1948, otherwise, they could have had peaceful and great life style next to highly educated Europeans who modernize the land territory and brought great civilalization for nomad Arab tribe.
If I was Palestinian, I would have welcomed new comers with open arms. Similar situation was in 1914 when Armanian were massacred by Turks and ran away in Iran. The houses are close to border. The houses are still around. Iranians with open arms welcomed Armanians and gave them refugee. But story with Palestinians were different. They fought with jews from day one and wanted to kick them out. The territory did NOT belong to them anyway. It was British land, but Palestinian muslims hated jews and wanted them to go back to where they came from. The root of hate goes back to history when jews were throwing rocks from rooftop to Mohammad. The prophet was bleeding to death in that day. When he arrived home, he described that day the worst day of his life. The event shows in the movie by the name of messenger. The movie was made by Arabs. However, many muslims still don't know why they hate jews.