Iranian shop and factory workers strike after the death of Mahsa Amini

Iranian shopkeepers and factory workers go on strike as nationwide anti-regime protests rock the country six weeks after the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in police custody

• Protests have raged across Iran for the sixth week after Mahsa Amini’s death 
• Amini, 22, was killed in custody after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police
• Shopkeepers and factory workers are now striking across the Islamic Repulic
• The strikes are the latest addition to the protests across Iran in the last month 

Shopkeepers and factory workers in Iran have gone on strike as widespread protests raged across the country for the sixth week in a row following the death of Mahsa Amini. 

Mahsa Amini, 22, was killed in custody after being accused of breaching Iran’s strict dress code for women. 

Her death has fuelled the biggest anti-government protests seen in the Islamic Republic for years.

Young women have led the charge, removing their headscarves, symbolically cutting their hair, chanting anti-government slogans and confronting security forces despite a brutal crackdown human rights groups say has killed at least 122 people.

Activists called for more demonstrations and strikes on Saturday, the first day of the Iranian working week. Workers in shops and factories are the latest to join the huge protests. 

‘On Saturday… We will be together for freedom,’ activist Atena Daemi said in a Twitter post with an image of a bare-headed woman raising her fist.

The death of Mahsa Amini has sparked fierce protests against the Iranian regime in the Islamic Republic and across the world . Pictured: A protest abroad 

Demonstrations have seen burning and protesters confronting security forces. Pictured: An anti-government protest in Tehran  

Organisers said there were ‘strikes in a couple of cities including Sanandaj, Bukan and Saqez’, but added it was difficult to gauge numbers because of the government crackdown on internet use as it tries to disrupt the protests. 

Saqez, in the western province of Kurdistan, is Amini’s home town, where anger flared at her burial last month, helping to trigger the protest movement.

Iran accused the United States of using the protests to gain concessions in talks over reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

‘The Americans continue to exchange messages with us, but they are trying to fan the flames of what has been going on inside Iran in recent days,’ said Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

The organisers of a massive rally held in Berlin in solidarity with Iranian protesters called on ‘democratic governments… to stop negotiating with the criminal state called the Islamic Republic’.

The Iranians for Justice and Human Rights group also called for the expulsion of the Islamic republic’s ambassadors.

The group said: ‘We are not asking you to interfere in Iran, wage war or sanction Iran’s people.

‘We want you to impose targeted sanctions on the leaders, operatives, oligarchs and lobbyists of the Islamic Republic.’

The Berlin rally, which drew thousands of people, is one of many demonstrations being held around the world, including in Britain, Australia and Japan.

A teachers’ union in Iran has also called for a nationwide strike on Sunday and Monday.

The Co-ordinating Council of Teachers Syndicates said the ‘sit-in’ would be in response to ‘systematic oppression’ by the security forces at schools during the protests.

Activists have accused the authorities of a draconian campaign of mass arrests and travel bans to clamp down on the protests, with athletes, celebrities and journalists being seized by security forces.

Asra Panahi, 15, died after being beaten by the security forces at school, teachers say

Elnaz Rekabi a headband during a climbing competition in Seoul, in what many saw as gesture of solidarity with the Amini protests

An Iranian climber was placed under house arrest for competing abroad in Seoul last week without a headscarf.

Elnaz Rekabi, 33, returned to Iran to a hero’s welcome on Wednesday. She said on Instagram: ‘I sincerely thank all those who came to the airport for welcoming me, I love you.’

Rekabi’s phone was reportedly seized from her before she flew home, where she was placed under house arrest.

On Friday, a New York-based human rights group called on the International Federation of Sport Climbing to do more to protect her.

IFSC ‘should engage with rights organisations to protect pro climber #ElnazRekabi and all Iranian athletes’, the Center for Human Rights in Iran tweeted.

The group added: ‘Don’t take the government in Iran’s word at face value — it has a documented history of detaining, maiming and killing those who oppose it.’

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