Shopkeepers and factory workers have reportedly gone on strike Iran On Saturday, the nationwide women-led protests that erupted after Mahsa Amini’s death in custody entered their sixth week and solidarity rallies were held across the world.
The death of 22-year-old Amini, after she was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code, sparked the largest protests the Islamic Republic has seen in years.
Young women led the charge, took off their headscarves, chanted anti-government slogans and confronted security forces, despite a crackdown that rights groups say has killed at least 122 people.
Activists issued a call for new demonstrations as the work week began in Iran on Saturday, but the turnout was difficult to measure due to restrictions on internet access.
“Saturday… we will be together for freedom,” activist Atena Daemi said in a tweet with a picture of a bare-headed woman raising her fist.
Iran’s deputy interior minister, Majid al-Marhamadi, told state media that the protests were in their “last days”.
“There are different gatherings in some universities, they are decreasing every day, and the riots are passing their last days,” he said.
1500tasvir channel on social media told AFP that there were “strikes in two cities including Sanandaj, Bokan and Saqez”, adding that it was difficult to see evidence of them online because “internet connection is very slow”.
Saqez, located in the western Kurdistan region of the country, is Amini’s hometown, where outrage erupted at her burial last month, helping to launch the protest movement.
Verified footage on social media showed dozens of students waving Iranian flags and chanting outside Iran’s largest university, Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.
Some of the female students among them did not wear the obligatory headscarf.
Verified footage showed in northwest Iran, dozens of students clapped and chanted during a protest at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.
arch-foe Iran has accused the United States of seeking to use the protests to get concessions in talks aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal.
“The Americans continue to exchange messages with us, but they are trying to fan the flames of what is going on inside Iran in recent days,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said.
Organizers of a mass rally in Berlin in solidarity with Iranian demonstrators called on “democratic governments… to stop negotiating with the criminal state called the Islamic Republic.”
In a statement, the “Iranians for Justice and Human Rights” group also called for the expulsion of Iran’s ambassadors.
“We are not asking you to interfere in Iran, to wage war, or to punish the Iranian people,” she said. “We want you to impose targeted sanctions on leaders, activists, oligarchs and pressure groups in the Islamic Republic.”
The Berlin rally, which police said drew more than 80,000 people, was one of a number of demonstrations around the world, including in Australia and Japan.
Organizers said the Iranians traveled from the United States, Canada and all over the European Union.
“From Zahedan to Tehran, I sacrifice my life for Iran,” human rights activist Fariba Baloch said after giving a speech at the Berlin rally, referring to the Iranian cities that have swept the protests. The crowd responded with “Death to Khamenei,” a reference to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Anti-government activists said the Berlin rally was the largest-ever demonstration against the Islamic Republic by Iranians abroad.
Iran’s teachers’ union called for a nationwide strike on Sunday and Monday over the crackdown that Amnesty International says has killed at least 23 children.
The Coordinating Council of Teachers’ Unions said the “sit-in” would be a response to “systematic repression” by security forces in schools.
Activists also accused the authorities of launching a campaign of mass arrests and travel bans to quell the protests, in which athletes, celebrities and journalists were arrested in the drag network.
Overnight Iranian climber, who was placed under house arrest She thanked her fans on Instagram, for competing abroad last weekend without the headscarf.
Elnaz Rakabi, 33, wore only a headband to an event at the Asian Championships in Seoul, in what many saw as a gesture of solidarity with Amini’s protests.
“I extend my sincere thanks to all who came to the airport for welcoming me, I love you,” Rakabi said in her first comment on social media since she returned on Wednesday to welcome the heroes.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the London-based Iranian International Television said, on Friday, that the passengers were placed under house arrest. Her phone was reportedly seized before she returned home.
On Friday, the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran called on the International Climbing Federation to do more to protect my riders and all Iranian athletes.
Reuters contributed to this report
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