The grave of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian Kurdish woman whose death sparked a protest movement that shook Iran’s religious leadership, has been vandalized, according to activists and the family’s lawyer.
Mahsa Amini died in September, three days after she was arrested by the morality police in Tehran, for violating the strict dress code imposed on women.
Amini, who was visiting Tehran with her family, was buried in her hometown of Saqqez in the Iranian province of Kurdistan, where activists said the authorities were determined to prevent any public gathering in its vicinity.
The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said the tomb, which shows her Kurdish name Gina in capital Persian letters, was vandalized on the morning of May 21.
Pictures posted on social networks, said to be from her brother Ashkan’s Instagram account, showed the glass protecting Amini’s portrait at the top of the tombstone shattered.
“Unfortunately, on Sunday morning, people known to us, who have done similar things in the past, attacked the grave of Gina Mahsa Amini,” said the family’s lawyer, Salih Nikbakht, in a statement published by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, noting that the authorities had previously intervened to prevent Put a protective tent over the grave.
Ashkan Amini said in his post on social media: “Even the glass of your tombstone bothers them too? Let them break it a thousand times, we will put it again to see who gets tired.”
Amini’s family and supporters say she was killed after receiving a blow to the head while in police custody, although the authorities have so far insisted her death was caused by a heart attack, the result of her previous ill health.
