Protesters in Iran marched through the streets of multiple cities overnight in the most widespread demonstration in weeks amid the months-long unrest that’s gripped the Islamic Republic, online videos purported to show on Friday.
The demonstrations, marking 40 days since Iran executed two men on charges related to the protests, show the continuing anger in the country. The protests, which began over the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police, have morphed into one of the most serious challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Videos showed demonstrations in Iran’s capital, Tehran, as well as in the cities of Arak, Isfahan, Izeh in Khuzestan province and Karaj, the group Human Rights Activists in Iran said.
The Associated Press could not immediately verify the videos, many of which had been blurred or showed grainy nighttime scenes.
In Iran’s western Kurdish regions, online videos shared by the Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights showed burning roadblocks in Sanandaj, which has seen repeated demonstrations since Amini’s death. Hengaw shared one video that included digitally altered voices shouting: “Death to the Dictator!”
That call has been repeatedly heard in the demonstrations, targeting Iran’s 83-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Other videos purportedly shot in Tehran had similar chants.