Police in Iran have reportedly fired on protesters in Saghez, the home city of Mahsa Amini who died after being arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly”.
Iranian protesters and workers held demonstrations and strikes across the country to mark a traditional mourning ceremony for the Kurdish-Iranian woman whose death in police custody on September 16th has sparked nationwide unrest.
Crowds gathered at the cemetery where Ms Amini was buried on the outskirts of Saghez in Iran’s Kurdistan province, with the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency estimating the number of demonstrators at around 10,000.
According to witnesses, police officers fired live rounds and tear gas at the crowds in the city
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A video posted on Twitter by Oslo-based Iran Human Rights showed people walking down a four-lane road purportedly toward the cemetery. The footage cannot be verified by Bloomberg.
The Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network, a non-governmental organisation, said protests then moved to outside the city governor’s office and public squares, with security forces firing bullets and tear gas.
Wednesday’s rallies followed thousands of posts on Twitter, Instagram and Telegram calling for large demonstrations to mark 40 days since Ms Amini’s death, a traditionally important stage in the mourning process in Iran.
Strikes were reported in a number of cities including Tehran, where workers at the state-managed Tehran Oil Refining Co. staged walkouts, according to an unverified video posted on Twitter.
Workers returned to work after getting assurances from managers that unspecified “union issues would be resolved, state-run IRNA reported, citing a refinery spokesman. — additional reporting: Bloomberg