Protests in Iran Mark 40 Days Since Mahsa Amini’s Death in Detention

Protesters march in solidarity with protesters in Iran in front of the White House in Washington on Oct. 22, 2022. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

Protests across Iran on Oct. 26 marked 40 days since Mahsa Amini died in detention over her “inappropriate attire.”

Twenty-two-year-old Amini died on Sept. 16 in Tehran while in the custody of Iran’s morality police, sparking more than a month of nationwide protests.

At least 234 people, including 29 children, have been killed in the ongoing protests in Iran, a human rights organization reported on Oct. 25.

Traditionally, deaths are commemorated in Shiite Islam again after 40 days. In Saqez, Amini’s Kurdish hometown, crowds gathered at the local cemetery.

Iran International, a Persian news channel based in the UK, wrote on Twitter: “Security forces have attacked the people who had gathered in thousands in a cemetery in Saqqez, Kurdistan, to mourn the 40th day after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini. There are reports that they have opened fire on protesters to disperse them.”

Iran’s semi-official Iranian Students News Agency said clashes took place on Wednesday: “A limited number of those present at Mahsa Amini’s memorial clashed with police forces on the outskirts of Saqez and were dispersed. Following the scattered clashes, internet in Saqez was cut off due to security considerations,” the agency reported, adding about 10,000 people had gathered.

According to The Associated Press, Tehran prosecutor Ali Salehi told the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency that four protesters were charged with “war against God,'' which is punishable by death in Iran.

Iranian state-run media said that schools and universities in the Kurdistan province would be closed “because of a wave of influenza,” according to Reuters.

Students have played a pivotal role in the protests, with dozens of universities on strike. Hundreds of school girls have joined in, chanting “Freedom, Freedom, Freedom,” despite fierce crackdowns by security forces.

“I am not scared of them anymore. [The authorities] should be scared of us. For years they did not let us have a normal life. Mullahs should go,” a teenage student in the northern city of Sari, according to Reuters.

State media and hardline officials have branded protesters “hypocrites, monarchists, thugs, and seditionists.”

Some of the deadliest unrest has been in areas home to ethnic minorities with long-standing grievances against the state, including Kurds in the northwest and Baluchis in the southeast.

Iran imposed sanctions on a number of European officials and institutions last week, including foreign-based Farsi channels that have covered the protests. Sanctions include banning entry visas ban for staffers and confiscation of their assets in Iran.

Deutsche Welle, the German public broadcaster whose Farsi team was blacklisted, condemned the move on Wednesday as “unacceptable.'’

“I expect politicians in Germany and Europe to increase the pressure on the regime,'' said Deutsche Welle Director General Peter Limbourg.

Shahrzad Ghanei and Reuters contributed to this report.