Iran’s rulers have faced the biggest protests in years since the death last month of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.
Following are some of the events since his arrest:
September 13
Mohsa Amini, from Iran’s Kurdistan region, has been detained by the moral police in the Iranian capital, Tehran, for “improper clothing”.
September 16
Amini dies after falling into a coma. Police say he suffered a heart attack after being taken to the station for “education”. His family denied that he had any heart problems. Her father later says she had bruises on her legs, and blames the police for her death. President Ibrahim Raisi called for an investigation. Protests begin on social media and in the streets.
September 17
Protests erupted during Amini’s funeral in his hometown of Saqiz in Kurdistan. Security forces fired tear gas. The protest spread to the provincial capital. Chants of “Death to the dictator” are heard, with some women removing their headscarves.
September 18
Demonstrations spread. Hundreds of people gathered around Tehran University, chanting “woman, life, freedom”.
September 19
Protests are intensifying in Rasht, Mashhad, Isfahan and Tehran, where security forces and protesters are clashing.
September 20
An aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says he went to condole with Amini’s family and that Khamenei was saddened by his death. An official blames terrorist groups for the killings in Kurdistan.
September 21
Authorities blocked access to Instagram and WhatsApp. Official sources confirmed eight deaths in the unrest, including one member of the police and one member of the Basij militia.
September 22
Protesters in Tehran and several other cities torched police stations and vehicles. Raisi says “acts of chaos” are unacceptable. The United States has imposed sanctions on Tehran’s moral police.
September 23
The state organizes rallies in several cities in which marchers call for the execution of protesters. The army vowed to “counter the various plots of the enemy”. State TV says the death toll is 35.
September 24
After accusing armed Iranian dissidents of involvement in the unrest, the Revolutionary Guard launched the first of several attacks on opposition positions held by Iranian militants in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
Raisi says that Iran must deal decisively with the protests. State TV says the death toll is 41.
September 27
Despite a crackdown on security forces clashing with protesters in dozens of cities, social media from inside Iran showed protesters chanting “woman, life, freedom” while women waved and burned veils.
September 30
Militants opened fire on a police station in the southeastern city of Zahedan, sparking an exchange of fire, state TV said. State TV says 19 people have been killed. Guards say four of his forces and Basij have been killed. Amnesty International later said security forces killed 66 people, including children, in the deadliest day since the protests began.
October 3
In his first comments on the unrest, Khamenei supported the security forces. He says Amini’s death “deeply broke my heart” and called it a “bitter incident” provoked by Iran’s enemies. Rejecting his warning, Iranians in several cities chanted “We want regime change” and “Death to Khomeini”.
October 7
Officials have denied reports that security forces killed a 16-year-old girl and said she committed suicide. This is the second time in a week that a teenage girl has died after falling from a roof, he said. The coroner’s report denied that Amini died from blunt force trauma to the head and limbs while in custody, linking her death to pre-existing conditions.
October 8
As Raisi visits her university campus in Tehran, female students chant “get lost”.
October 10
The protests spread to Iran’s energy sector, with reports on social media showing workers at the Abadan and Kangan oil refineries and the Bushehr petrochemical project.
October 13
Members of the Basij militia, the forces that have been at the forefront of suppressing popular unrest for decades, are stationed in Kurdish areas where seven people have been killed in protests.
October 15
A fire broke out at Tehran’s Avon prison, where many Iranian political and dual-citizen prisoners are held, and witnesses reported hearing gunshots. Later, the judiciary says that eight people were killed in the unrest. Sources told JEE News the trouble started after riot police began patrolling.
October 21
Demonstrations broke out in the southeast, with protesters attacking banks, according to state media reports.
October 26
Iranian riot police have been deployed in large numbers in Amini’s hometown of Saqiz, the capital Tehran and the northern cities of Tabriz and Rasht, witnesses said, on the 40th anniversary of his death. An official at a Tehran refinery has denied that workers have gone on strike after a video surfaced on social media.
