Iranian protesters have staged fresh anti-government demonstrations by taking to the streets a night before Chaharshanbeh Suri, the traditional Festival of Fire at which people light small fires and jump over them while making wishes for the upcoming year.
In Tehran's Ekbatan neighborhood, protesters on March 14 showed the depth of their anger toward the government's intrusion on their freedoms by chanting, “The struggle continues,” and, “Death to the dictator,” a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ekbatan has been one of the epicenters of protests in the Iranian capital for the last six months, demonstrating defiance amid unrest over the death of a young woman while in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly.
WATCH: Five Tehran girls were reported to have voiced contrition after posting a dance video that went viral among Iranian social media users. It's illegal for women to dance in public in Iran, but the video has inspired others across the country to post similar videos with the same song, in a potentially dangerous act of open defiance toward the regime.
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Viral Iran Dance Video Inspires Imitators To Defy Regime
Similar scenes were repeated in other neighborhoods of the Iranian capital, including Sattar Khan and Tehran Pars as people marked the festival following months of protests.
Videos published on social media showed protesters demonstrating in the streets in the northeastern city of Mashhad, the birthplace of Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi, and chanting slogans against the Islamic government.
A group of protesting young people in Sanandaj in Kurdistan Province also gathered in the city by lighting a fire on the Sanandaj-Kermanshah highway and chanting, "Death to the dictator."
In the western Iranian city of Kamyaran in Kurdistan Province, protesters set fire to tires and closed part of the city's central streets.
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Iranian Women Burn Head Scarves Amid Fire Festival
The unrest was sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16. The 22-year-old died while in custody after being arrested by Tehran's notorious "morality police" for "improperly" wearing a mandatory Islamic head scarf, or hijab.
Her death, which officials blamed on a heart attack, touched off a wave of anti-government protests in cities across the country. The authorities have met the dissent with a harsh crackdown that rights groups say has killed more than 500 people, including 71 children.
Officials, who have blamed the West for the demonstrations, have vowed to crack down even harder on protesters, with the judiciary leading the way by issuing harsh sentences for even minor offenses related to the protests, which analysts say pose the biggest threat to the Islamic government since the 1979 revolution.
Several thousand people have been arrested, including many protesters, as well as journalists, lawyers, activists, digital rights defenders, and others.