Iran sees ‘major disruption’ of internet amid calls for renewed protests

While the demonstrations have focused on Mahsa Amini's death, anger has been simmering in Iran for years over the country's cratering economy.

Iran suffered a “major disruption” in internet service Wednesday amid calls for renewed protests weeks after the death of a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the country’s morality police, an advocacy group said.

The demonstrations over the death of Mahsa Amini have become one of the greatest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the country’s 2009 Green Movement protests. Demonstrators have included oil workers, high school students and women marching without their mandatory headscarf, or hijab.

Calls for protests beginning at noon Wednesday saw a massive deployment of riot police and plainclothes officers throughout Tehran, witnesses said. They also described disruptions affecting their mobile internet services.

NetBlocks, an advocacy group, said that Iran’s internet traffic had dropped to some 25 per cent compared to the peak, even during a working day in which students were in class across the country.

“The incident is likely to further limit the free flow of information amid protests,” NetBlocks said.

Despite the disruption, witnesses saw at least one demonstration in Tehran by some 30 women who had removed their headscarves while chanting: “Death to the dictator!” Passing cars honked in support despite the threats of security forces. Other women simply continued with their day not wearing the hijab in a silent protest, witnesses said.

Iran’s government insists Amini was not mistreated, but her family says her body showed bruises and other signs of beating after she was detained for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Subsequent videos have shown security forces beating and shoving female protesters, including women who have torn off their hijabs.

Anger has been particularly acute in western Iran’s Kurdish regions, as Amini was Kurdish. On Wednesday, a Kurdish group called the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights showed images of closed shops and empty streets in some areas, describing it as a strike by shopkeepers. The group also posted a video it said came from Amini’s hometown of Saqqez, which showed truckloads of riot police moving through the city.