Iranians returned to the streets this week to mourn those killed by security forces during last month's anti-government demonstrations, sparking fresh crackdowns reminiscent of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the US-backed Shah.
The revolutionaries fighting the Shah turned Shiite religious processions, organized 40 days after each death, into new protests, which incited new waves of government violence and created new "martyrs."
Opponents of today's clerical establishment, who after five decades are using the same tactics, have not yet regained the momentum of that time, but Iran's religious rulers, faced with threats of military attack from US President Donald Trump, are showing signs of anxiety.
Authorities deployed security forces around some cemeteries on Tuesday and called on citizens to attend state ceremonies for the "chehleham" (forty-day commemoration), after apologizing to "all those affected" by the violence, which they blamed on individuals they described as "terrorists."
"They tried to prevent history from repeating itself by organizing these ceremonies in mosques across the country, to prevent angry families from gathering at cemeteries, but they failed," a human rights activist in Iran, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals, told Reuters.
Footage circulating on social media showed families across Iran holding their own memorial services on Tuesday, 40 days after security forces launched a two-day nationwide offensive that rights groups say has killed thousands of protesters.
Some of Tuesday's commemorations escalated into wider protests, and some were responded to with deadly force.
In the Kurdish town of Abdanan, in Ilam province, witnesses and activists say security forces opened fire on hundreds of mourners gathered at a cemetery.
Footage shows people fleeing as gunfire echoes, with shouts of "death to the dictator."
Reuters reporters confirmed that the footage was taken at the cemetery. They could not confirm the date of the footage, but they could not find any version published before Tuesday; eyewitnesses and activists claim that this is when shots were fired at the cemetery.
Hengav, a Kurdish Iranian human rights group, said at least three people were injured and nine arrested in Abdanan. Similar clashes were reported in Mashhad and Hamedan. Reuters sources in Iran said internet access was severely restricted in those cities.
Yesterday marked 40 days since the deadliest two days of protests in January.
The January unrest grew from moderate economic protests in December, sparked by merchants in Tehran's Grand Bazaar, into the most serious threat to Iran's Shiite theocracy in nearly five decades, as protesters demanded the resignation of the ruling clergy.
Authorities have cut off internet access, blaming the violence on "armed terrorists" linked to Israel and the US, and have arrested journalists, lawyers, activists, human rights defenders and students, according to human rights organizations.
"How long can they kill people to stay in power? People are angry, people are frustrated," Sara, a 28-year-old civil servant from the central city of Isfahan, told Reuters. "The Islamic Republic has brought nothing to my country except war, economic misery and death."
Trump has deployed aircraft carriers, fighter jets, guided-missile destroyers and other capabilities to the Middle East, in preparation for a possible attack if talks to limit Iran's nuclear program and weaken its foreign allies fail.
Even without a US attack, continued isolation due to Western sanctions would likely further fuel public anger.
The 1979 uprising against the Shah in provincial towns and villages was further strengthened when oil workers went on strike, cutting off much of Iran's revenue, and when bazaar merchants financially supported the rebel clerics.
This time there are no reports of either, but people have adopted some of the smaller-scale tactics - during nighttime demonstrations, according to witnesses and social media posts, they often shout "Allah is great" and "Death to the dictator" from rooftops.
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