The father of Mahsa Amini was temporarily detained by Iranian security forces on the anniversary of her death in an attempt to stop people gathering at her grave amid strikes and protests across the country.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network said the security forces released Amjad Amini after briefly detaining him and warning him against marking the anniversary of his daughter’s death.
It said Amini was told at the Intelligence Department that the family “do not have the right” to leave the house and go to the grave, and they should not participate in the anniversary ceremony, which they had announced in a previous statement.
Roads to the Aichi cemetery were blocked. The family said they wanted to hold a traditional religious ceremony. One of Amini’s uncles, Safa Aeli, was detained in Saqqez on 5 September and remains in custody.
Helicopters flew low over Mahsa Amini’s home town of Saqqez as the crackdown focused on Kurdish towns. The internet was disrupted as part of the regime’s efforts to prevent protesters communicating and gathering.
In many districts of Tehran, protesters chanted slogans such as “Death to the dictator!” and “Woman, Life, Freedom!”. Some gathered on the roofs of residential buildings or stood on their balconies.
In several western Kurdish towns, people set up roadblocks and honked their car horns.
Security forces had increased their presence across Iran in anticipation of the protests, and continued to arrest dissidents.
The Revolutionary Guards detained a dual national suspected of “trying to organise unrest and sabotage”, the official news agency IRNA said on Saturday, one of several arrests of “counter-revolutionaries” and “terrorists” reported.
As night fell on Saturday, a heavy security force presence appeared to have deterred large-scale protest rallies but human rights groups reported sporadic confrontations in several areas of the country.
IRNA reported that fire engulfed the women’s ward at the Qarchak prison in Tehran province before being put out after convicts awaiting execution set fire to their clothes. It said there were no casualties.
The Kurdistan Human Rights Network said the incident was linked to the protests and that special forces entered the ward, beat up the women and fired pellet bullets.
In a separate incident, human rights group Hengaw said security forces opened fire in the Kurdish city of Mahabad, wounding at least one person. It also said several people were wounded in the city of Kermanshah but there was no official confirmation of either incident.
In Amini’s home town of Saqqez, in north-western Iran, the semi-official Fars news agency reported that police using a pellet gun had seriously injured a man who “ignored a police warning”. It said the man was in an intensive care ward after undergoing an operation, but provided no more detail.
Amini’s death in police custody in Tehran after she was arrested for allegedly wearing the hijab improperly sparked months-long protests that failed to dislodge the regime, but tens of thousands of women refuse to wear the hijab, leaving the authorities with a dilemma of how to respond.
Amini’s mother issued a statement saying that although the past year had been full of sadness and sorrow she wanted to thank everyone who had sent “messages of love and comfort to our grieving hearts”.
Her father has always claimed Amini died in a “morality police” detention centre after being hit by officers. The government has insisted she died from a pre-existing neurological condition.
Iran’s Etemaad daily reported in August that the lawyer for Amini’s family faced charges of “propaganda against the system”. If convicted, Saleh Nikbakht faces a jail sentence of between one and three years.
The US president, Joe Biden, and his wife, Jill, issued a statement saying Amini’s story “did not end with her brutal death. She inspired a historic movement – Woman, Life, Freedom – that has impacted Iran and influenced people across the globe who are tirelessly advocating for gender equality and respect for their human rights.
“In the face of continued oppression and violence, the citizens of Iran remain committed to this movement and to their fight for a free and democratic future. Iranians alone will determine the fate of their country, but the United States remains committed to standing with them – including providing tools to support Iranians’ ability to advocate for their own future.”
Amnesty Iran said: “Instead of abolishing discriminatory compulsory veiling laws, Iranian authorities have waged an all-out assault on women’s rights, unlawfully killed hundreds and tortured thousands.”
Commemorative protests were held in cities of western countries including Australia, Canada, Germany and the UK.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog harshly criticised Iran on Saturday for effectively barring several of its most experienced inspectors from monitoring the country’s disputed atomic programme.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the IAEA, said Iran had withdrawn the designation of “several experienced agency inspectors”, barring them from taking part in monitoring.
“Iran has effectively removed about one-third of the core group of the agency’s most experienced inspectors designated for Iran,” he said.
Grossi went on to “strongly condemn this disproportionate and unprecedented unilateral measure”, saying it “constitutes an unnecessary blow to an already strained relationship between the IAEA and Iran”.
Iran’s foreign ministry linked the move to what it said was an attempt by the US and three European countries to misuse the IAEA “for their own political purposes”.
