SAQQEZ-Clashes broke out throughout Iran Wednesday as thousands of people came to the burial site of Mahsa Amini in Saqqez, a city in the Kurdistan province, to mark 40 days since her death, semi-official Iranian state news agency ISNA said. Protests have swept through the Islamic Republic following the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, who died on September 16 after being detained by “morality police” and taken to a “re-education center,” allegedly for not abiding by the country’s conservative dress code.  Nationwide protests took place in Iran on Wednesday to mark 40 days since Amini died, an important day of mourning in Iranian and Islamic tradition.
The unrest came on the same day that at least 15 people were killed and 10 others were injured in a “terrorist attack” at the Shahcheragh Shrine in the city of Shiraz, southern Iran, according to state-run IRNA news. It’s unclear if Wednesday’s attack was linked to the protests.
ISNA said security forces “did not prevent” protesters from visiting Amini’s grave in Saqqez, which is also her birthplace, but reported that clashes took place after people left the site.  “There were no clashes between mourners and police at the burial site, most were chanting Kurdish slogans, some moved towards the city with the intention of clashes, one of them raised the Kurdish flag,” ISNA said.
In videos shared on social media, large crowds of people and lines of cars are seen making their way to Saqqez’s Aichi cemetery where Amini is buried. Groups of people in the videos are heard chanting “women, life, freedom” and “death to this child-killing regime.” Other videos show plumes of smoke rising from several fires in the streets of a different neighborhood nearby. Gunshots are heard in the background while protesters march in the streets.
Video shared by Kurdish rights group Hengaw and verified by CNN shows security forces deployed in large numbers in Saqqez late Tuesday, after activists called for protests across the country to mark 40 days since Amini died.