Iranians protest in capital over woman's death in custody

Iranians took to the streets of the capital on Monday to protest the death of a young woman who was detained for violating the country's conservative dress code.

The semiofficial Fars news agency said students in many Tehran universities gathered in protest, demanding an investigation into the death of Mahsa Amini and the dismantling of the morality police, who were holding her when she died.

Witnesses said demonstrators poured into Keshavarz Boulevard, a central thoroughfare, chanting "Death to the Dictator". They also chanted against the police and damaged a police vehicle. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns.

Videos circulating on social media showed a third day of demonstrations in Kurdish cities in western Iran as well as the northern city of Rasht and a university in the central city of Isfahan. The Associated Press could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.

The morality police detained the 22-year-old Amini last Tuesday for not covering her hair with the Islamic headscarf, known as hijab, which is mandatory for Iranian women.

Police say she died of a heart attack and deny that she was mistreated. They released closed-circuit video footage last week purportedly showing the moment she collapsed. Her family says she had no history of heart trouble.

Amini, who was Kurdish, was buried Saturday in her home city of Saqez in western Iran. Protests erupted there after her funeral and police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators on Saturday and Sunday. Several protesters were arrested.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has ordered an investigation and vowed to pursue the case in a phone call with Amini's family. The judiciary has launched a probe, and a parliamentary committee is also looking into the incident.

The hijab has been compulsory for women in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the morality police are charged with enforcing that and other restrictions. The force has been criticised in recent years over its treatment of people, especially young women.

Dozens of women removed their headscarves in protest in 2017. Iranians have also taken to the streets in recent years in response to an economic crisis exacerbated by Western sanctions linked to Iran's nuclear programme.