‘The beginning of the end’: Iranians continue protests over Mahsa Amini’s death despite internet cuts

Demonstrators filled the streets of Iran on Saturday over Mahsa Amini despite internet outages, in the fifth week of the biggest protests and violence Iran has seen in years

Iran’s crackdown on protesters has drawn international condemnation, sanctions from Britain, Canada and the US, and EU countries agreed this week to level new sanctions

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Iranian protesters chant slogans as they march in a street in the southeastern city of Zahedan on October 14. Cities across Iran have seen protests since 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini died on September 16 after her arrest by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly failing to observe the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:55pm, 15 Oct 2022

Demonstrators took to streets across Iran again Saturday over Mahsa Amini despite internet cuts, as the protest movement sparked by outrage over her death in custody enters a fifth week.

Amini’s death on September 16, three days after she was arrested by Iran’s notorious morality police, has fuelled the biggest wave of street protests and violence seen in the country for years.

Young women have been at the forefront of the demonstrations, shouting anti-government slogans, removing and burning their headscarves, and standing up to security forces on the streets.

Despite what online monitor NetBlocks called a “major disruption to internet traffic”, protesters were seen pouring onto the streets of the northwestern city of Ardabil, in videos shared on Twitter.

Shopkeepers went on strike in Amini’s hometown Saqez, in Kurdistan province, and Mahabad in West Azerbaijan, according to the 1500tasvir social media channel that monitors protests and police violations.

“Freedom, freedom, freedom,” young women at Shariati Technical and Vocational College in Tehran chanted as they waved their headscarves in the air, 1500tasvir said.

“Schoolgirls in Ney village in Marivan began the protests by setting fires on the ground and yelling anti-government chants,” said Hengaw, an Oslo-based rights group.