By Pishtaz | 2023-09-18

On the first anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death on September 16, which sparked the widespread anti-establishment movement "Women, Life, Freedom," thousands of people gathered in cities across the world to protest the Islamic Republic's actions and its continued crackdown on dissent.

Iran Human Rights watchdog (IHR) said 551 protesters were killed and over 22,000 were arrested in the country during last year's protests, which lasted several months.

Holding ceremonies on the first death anniversary of the departed is common in Iranian culture, and Amini's parents announced last week that they would be commemorating their daughter on Saturday (September 16).

In the days leading up to the anniversary, New York-based Human Rights Watch said family members of at least 36 people killed or executed in the crackdown had been interrogated, arrested, prosecuted or sentenced to prison over the past month as authorities imposed a "chokehold on dissent."

A few days before the anniversary, many cities of Iran, including Tehran, Saqqez -- Amini's hometown and burial site -- as well as Karaj, Esfahan, Shiraz and Zahedan, faced heavy security presence, including anti-riot police and security vehicles on the main streets and squares.

Rights groups said security forces had blocked access to the cemetery where Amini is buried.

Gatherings despite 'martial law'

On the morning of Saturday, when Amjad Amini, Mahsa's father, was heading to his daughter's gravesite, the regime's security forces did not allow him to be alone, later saying they had "accompanied him and foiled a plot to assassinate him."

Observers found the justification for monitoring Amini absurd, as they said it was clear that no one other than the regime's own security forces would plot to kill him.

Despite heavy security, which witnesses likened to the rule of "martial law", slogans such as "We'll take Iran back!", "Death to the dictator" and "Death to Khamenei!" echoed across the country.

Kurdish-focused rights group Hengaw said additional security forces were sent to Kordestan, as people in western Iran were expressing discontent through a general strike, with shops closed in a dozen towns and cities, including Saqqez.

Hengaw said a young man named Fardin Jafari was in critical condition after being shot in the head near the cemetery where Amini is buried.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces surrounded the area around Amini's parents' house on Friday evening. Mozhgan Eftekhari, Mahsa's mother, said her brother had been detained by security forces, adding that she and her husband had been summoned four times.

As people gathered in protest across the country, demonstrations were also held in two prisons.

The Instagram account of Narges Mohammadi, a high-profile, award-winning political prisoner in Iran, posted that Mohammadi and three other women prisoners burned their headscarves in the courtyard of Tehran's Evin prison.

In Gharchak women's prison near Tehran, a fire broke out when security forces quelled a protest by inmates.

Hengaw published images of fires being lit on roads in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj and said security forces opened fire on protesters in Mahabad, another Kurdish city.

Through open windows, many Iranians protested in their homes and chanted slogans.

A few well-known figures, most of them artists, have been detained and kept in "temporary custody" over the past few days. Their family members said they had no news about them or their whereabouts on the first day of their detainment.

Iran's Baluch protests

On Friday, a large group of people gathered in protest in Zahedan, mostly populated by the Sunni Baluch minority who has been protesting every week after Friday prayers.

Economic woes, discrimination and the regime's longtime negligence have been the main reasons for the protests, in part guided by Zahedan's outspoken, popular Friday prayers leader Abdolhamid Ismaeelzahi, commonly known as Molavi Abdolhamid.

Like every Friday in the past year, in his September 15 sermon, Abdolhamid criticized the regime, mentioned how the government's security forces killed dozens of the Baluch while protesting last year, and condemned the killing of Mahsa Amini in custody of the "morality police."

And like every Friday in the past year, the city saw heavy security presence while internet connection was severely disrupted.

During the protests, the crowd chanted slogans, vowing to remember the death of their fellow citizens, and held up signs that read, "Baluch's share of Iran: denial, bullets, execution."

Persian-language channels based outside Iran, including Iran International, broadcast footage of residents shouting "Death to the dictator" and the main protest slogan of "Women, Life, Freedom" from apartment blocks in Tehran and its satellite city of Karaj overnight.

Global support

Since its inception, Iran's "Women, Life, Freedom" movement was recognized and supported by many nations and governments around the world.

Iranian emigres held commemorative rallies from Sydney to Toronto, chanting slogans against the Iranian regime and waving pre-revolutionary flags.

Place de la Bastille in central Paris saw a very large gathering of Iranians while in New York, some 500 people protested in memory of Amini on Brooklyn Bridge.

US President Joe Biden issued a statement on the occasion, saying, "Over the last year, the United States has responded to the calls of the Iranian people and organized an unprecedented diplomatic campaign that led to the Iranian government's removal from the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and the creation of a UN fact-finding mission to investigate their human rights abuses."

"The United States has joined countries around the world in supporting the Iranian people in their pursuit of justice, accountability, and respect for their human rights -- during the protests and throughout the last year," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

"We've also sanctioned over 70 officials and organizations involved in the repression. Today, we are announcing new sanctions against 29 other individuals and entities in connection with the Iranian regime's human rights abuses," the statement, issued on Friday, said.

Biden on Monday imposed new sanctions on Iran's intelligence ministry and former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, AFP reported.

On the eve of Amini's first death anniversary, the European Union sanctioned four more Iranian individuals and six Iranian entities for human rights violations during the crackdown.