Iran’s Kurdish cities strike on Zhina Mahsa Amini anniversary

Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - On Saturday, the anniversary of the death of Zhina Mahsa Amini, shopkeepers shuttered their doors in protest in cities across Kurdish areas of Iran where security forces have been deployed in an attempt to prevent a renewal of last year’s demonstrations that rocked the Islamic republic.

“In response to a prior request from Kurdistan parties, organizations, and civic activists, marketers and workers in at least 18 cities embarked on a massive strike by closing their stores on the anniversary of Jina Amini's state murder and the beginning of the "Jin, Jiyan, Azadi" movement,” reported Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. 

Strikes have been reported in cities including Mariwan, Mahabad, Sanandaj, and Amini’s hometown of Saqqez. On Saturday evening, street protests were reported in several cities, including Sanandaj, Mahabad, Kermanshah, and Rasht. Hengaw reported government forces opened fire in Mahabad and Kermanshah, injuring several protesters.

Twenty-two-year-old Kurdish woman Amini died while in police custody on September 16, 2022. She had been arrested for allegedly wearing a lax hijab. Her death sparked nationwide protests that posed the biggest threat to the Iranian regime in 40 years. Protesters chanting “Jin Jiyan Azadi” (Woman Life Freedom) began by calling for greater freedoms, the movement grew into an anti-government revolution as the authorities responded with violence. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands arrested.

For weeks in the lead up to the anniversary of Amini’s death, scores of family members of protesters who were killed were arrested or warned not to hold any commemoration event, and security forces have been deployed across restive provinces.

Amini’s father, Amjad Amini, was briefly detained on Saturday. “He’s released, but now his family is under house arrest,” reported the Center for Human Rights in Iran. In the two weeks prior, he had been interrogated by the Ministry of Intelligence four times, according to the Kurdistan Human Rights Network. He and his wife had posted on Instagram that they planned to visit their daughter’s grave: “Like any other grieving family, we will gather at the grave of our beloved daughter Jina (Mahsa) Amini on the anniversary of her martyrdom to hold traditional and religious ceremonies.”

Not far from Aichi cemetery where Amini is buried, a young Kurdish man named Fardin Jafari was shot in the head by Iranian forces on Saturday, according to Hengaw. He is in critical condition in hospital. 

In a televised interview last week, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned people not to protest. “Those who intend to abuse Mahsa Amini’s name under this pretext, to be an agent of foreigners, to create this instability in the country, we know what will happen to them,” he said.

Helicopters are patrolling the skies over Aichi cemetery and snipers have been positioned on bridges, according to human rights monitors.



“Iranian authorities are trying to impose a chokehold on dissent to prevent public commemoration of Mahsa Jina Amini’s death in custody, which has become the symbol of the government’s systematic oppression of women, injustice and impunity,” Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Friday. “But Iranian authorities can't erase the mounting frustration, louder calls for fundamental change, and the resistance and solidarity in Iranian society in the face of mounting repression.” 

 

Updated at 9:33pm