LONDON -- Hundreds of people gathered in central London on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody in Iran last year, sparking worldwide protests against the country's conservative Islamic theocracy.
Chanting "Women! Life! Freedom!," the crowds held her portrait and rallied around the memory of a young woman who died on Sept. 16, 2022, after she was arrested for violating Iran's mandatory headscarf law. Similar protests took place in Italy, Germany and France.
"We're calling on everyone to remember those killed, but also continue the fight, because this fight has to go to the end. Mahsa Jina Amini and the many others cannot have died in vain," said Maryam Namazie, an Iranian human-rights activist in the U.K. "We have to have a better society as the result of this huge, Herculean fight."
In Iran, authorities sought to prevent the anniversary from reigniting the protests that gripped the country last year. Amini's father was detained outside his home after the family indicated that they planned to gather at her grave for a traditional service of commemoration, the Kurdish rights group Hengaw said. People in downtown Tehran reported a heavy security presence, and security forces were seen in western Iran, where the Kurdish minority staged large protests last year.
Hengaw reported a widespread general strike in Kurdish areas on Saturday, circulating video and photos that appeared to show streets largely empty and shops shuttered. Human Rights Activists in Iran, another group that closely follows events within the country, also reported the general strike. There was no acknowledgement of the strike in state media.
Hengaw reported that a man was in critical condition after being shot by security forces near Saqqez, in the Kurdish region. The semi-official Fars news agency said that he was shot after ignoring orders to stop at a checkpoint and that his condition was stable.
Videos on social media purported to show tear gas being fired in Mashhad and Karaj, a satellite city of Tehran. The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran also reported the tear gas being used. Iranian state media did not acknowledge any such incidents.
Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman from the western region, died three days after she was arrested by morality police who claimed she had violated laws that require women to cover their hair in public. While authorities said that she suffered a heart attack, Amini's supporters said she was beaten by police and died as a result of her injuries.
Her death triggered protests that spread across the country and rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran's four-decade-old Islamic theocracy.
Authorities responded with a violent crackdown in which more than 500 people were killed and in excess of 22,000 others were detained, according to rights groups. The demonstrations largely died down early this year, but there are still widespread signs of discontent. For several months, women could be seen openly flaunting the headscarf rule in Tehran and other cities, prompting a renewed crackdown over the summer.
On Saturday, about 100 protesters gathered in front of the Iranian Embassy in Rome under the "Women! Life! Freedom!" banner. In Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced that a garden in the French capital now carried Amini's name. The mayor called Amini an Iranian resistance hero and said Paris "honors her memory and her battle, as well as those of women who fight for their freedom in Iran and elsewhere."
The Villemin Garden that now also bears Amini's name is in Paris' 10th district, next to a canal with popular boat tours for tourists.
Information for this article was contributed by Kwiyeon Ha, Paolo Santalucia, John Leicester and Emily Schultheis of The Associated Press.