Clashes between Iranian security forces and protesters have been reported in the home city of Mahsa Amini, after crowds gathered near her grave to mark 40 days since her death in custody.
A Kurdish rights group said security personnel fired live rounds and tear gas in Saqqez’s Zindan Square. Semi-official news agency Isna reported a clash on the outskirts of the city.
Earlier, thousands of mourners at the Aichi cemetery shouted “Woman, life, freedom” and “Death to the dictator”.
They are two of the signature chants of the anti-government unrest that has swept across Iran since Ms Amini died.
The 22-year-old Kurdish woman was detained by the morality police in the capital, Tehran, on 13 September for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly”.
She fell into a coma after collapsing at a detention centre and died three days later. There were reports that officers beat her on the head with a baton and banged her head against a vehicle, but the police denied that she was mistreated and said she suffered a heart attack.
Many Iranians were enraged and the first protests took place after Ms Amini’s funeral in Saqqez, when women ripped off their headscarves in solidarity. The protests spread quickly and evolved into one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
Women have been at the forefront, defiantly waving their headscarves in the air, setting them on fire and even cutting their hair in public.
Schoolgirls have also been demonstrating in playgrounds and on the streets in an unprecedented show of support.
Norway-based Iran Human Rights says at least 234 protesters, including 29 children, have been killed by security forces in a violent crackdown on what Iran’s leaders have portrayed as “riots” fomented by foreign enemies.
