The grave of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian Kurd whose death sparked a large-scale protest against Iran's political and religious leaders, has been vandalized, according to activists and the family's lawyer. Mahsa Amini, 22, died in September 2022 after being arrested by Tehran's vice police for violating the strict dress code requiring women to wear the veil in the Islamic Republic.
The protests after his death had defied the Islamic system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution. However, they have weakened in amplitude in recent months, even if actions continue more sporadically. The young woman, who had travelled to Tehran with her family, is buried in her hometown of Saqez, in Iran's Kurdistan province, where activists say authorities are determined to prevent any public gathering in her memory.
The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said the grave, bearing his Kurdish name Zhina in large Persian letters, was attacked on the morning of May 21. Images posted on social media, allegedly from his brother Ashkan's Instagram account, showed that the glass that protects a portrait of Amini on the tombstone was broken.
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Unfortunately, on Sunday morning, people we already know and who have already acted in the same way in the past, attacked the grave of Zhina Mahsa Amini," the family's lawyer Saleh Nikbakht said in a statement carried by KHRN. He did not specify who the individuals were, but added that authorities had intervened earlier to prevent the construction of a protective canopy over the grave.
Repression
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So the glass of your tombstone bothers them too? Let them break it a thousand times, we will restore it again, see who gets tired first," Ashkan Amini said in his social media post. Mahsa Amini's family and supporters claim she was killed by a blow to the head in police custody, but authorities say her death was due to a heart attack caused by her previous poor health.
According to the Norwegian NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), the repression of the demonstrations has left more than 500 dead. Iran has also hanged seven men in cases related to protests in what activists describe as a deliberate policy aimed at creating a climate of fear. Amnesty International warned this week that seven more men were at risk of execution in connection with the protests.