Iran blocks access to Amini's cemetery to prevent commemorations

International Editorial.- Iranian authorities have blocked access to the cemetery where Mahsa Amini is buried in the city of Saqqez this Tuesday to apparently prevent commemorations on the third anniversary of the young woman's death after being arrested for not wearing the veil properly, denounced an NGO opposed to the Islamic Republic. "The entrance to the Aichi cemetery (where Amini is buried) has been completely blocked with the deployment of numerous military personnel from the Islamic Republic of Iran, making it impossible to enter and exit this place," reported the NGO Hengaw, an organization based in Oslo.

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The NGO also indicated that security forces are patrolling the streets of Saqqez, Amini's hometown located in Iranian Kurdistan, while military helicopters are flying over the area. Hengaw also reported that numerous businesses are holding a strike in the city with their doors closed in commemoration of the anniversary of Amini's death on September 16, 2022, information that was supported by the exiled opposition NGO Iran Human Rights. The death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman while visiting Tehran on September 16, 2022, sparked protests with a strong feminist tone in which young Iranian women called for the end of the Islamic Republic, shouting "woman, life, freedom." The protests were crushed with a state repression that caused 500 deaths and 22,000 arrests, but their spirit remains today with a sort of civil disobedience in the face of which the Government seems to have thrown in the towel, for the moment. Many Iranian women have stopped wearing the Islamic garment after the protests despite a crackdown that led to arrests, floggings and seizure of vehicles, but which did not achieve its objectives and has led to some relaxation of pressure.