In the video, a huge crowd cheers as a woman raises a pair of scissors to her hair – exposed, with no hijab in sight.  The sea of ​​people, many of them men, roar as she cuts her ponytail and raises her fist in the air.   

  It was a powerful act of defiance on Tuesday night in the Iranian city of Kerman, where women are required to wear the hijab in public – and just one of many protests taking place across the country following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.  -elderly woman who died in custody last week.   

  Thousands took to the streets on Tuesday night, with videos of protests emerging from dozens of towns and cities – from the capital Tehran to more traditionally conservative strongholds such as Mashad.   

  Footage shows some protesters chanting “Women, life, freedom”.  Others are seen setting fires, brawling with police or removing and burning their headscarves – as well as destroying posters of the country’s Supreme Leader and chanting, “Death to the dictator”.   

  In a video in Tehran, young protesters walk around a bonfire in the street at night, shouting: “We are the children of war.  Come and fight and we will fight back.”   

  Almost all provincial cities in Iran’s Kurdish region, including Kermanshah and Hamedan, have also seen protests.   

  The protests are remarkable for their scale, ferocity and rare feminist nature.  The last protests of this size took place three years ago, after the government raised gas prices in 2019.   

  Witnesses tell CNN that Tuesday night’s protests appear to be “flash protests” — meaning groups are forming and quickly dispersing to avoid clashes with Iranian security forces after violence escalated over the past week.   

  A source said there was at least one instance of a heavy-handed police response on Tuesday, near Iran’s Enghelab (“Revolution”) Square on the west side of Tehran University – historically a rallying point for protests.   

  “Two young men were beaten and beaten by plainclothes and riot police and then dragged into the van in front of the subway entrance gate,” an eyewitness told CNN.  “An injured girl on the sidewalk was taken by ambulance to hospital and five others were arrested on the north side of Enghelab Square.”   

  At least five protesters have been shot dead during demonstrations in the Kurdish region in recent days, according to Hengaw Human Rights, a Norwegian organization that monitors rights abuses in Iran.   

  It said another 75 were injured in other cities over the weekend.   

  The protests erupted after the death of Amini, who was stopped and arrested by Iran’s morality police last Tuesday.   

  Iranian officials said Amini died last Friday after suffering a “heart attack” and falling into a coma after her arrest.   

  However, her family said she had no pre-existing heart condition, according to Emtedad news, a pro-reform Iranian media outlet that claimed to have spoken to Amini’s father.   

  Edited security camera footage released by Iran’s state media appeared to show Amini collapsing at a “re-education” center where she was taken to receive “guidance” on how to dress.   

  Iran’s morality police are part of the country’s law enforcement and are tasked with enforcing the Islamic Republic’s strict social norms, including a dress code that requires women to wear a headscarf or hijab in public.   

  An aide to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei promised a “thorough investigation” into Amini’s death during a meeting with her family at their home on Monday, according to Iran’s semi-official Nour News agency.   

  Abdolreza Pourzahabi, Khamenei’s spokesman in Iran’s Kurdish province, said the Supreme Leader “is sad” and that the family’s grief “is also his sadness,” according to Nour.   

  He added that he hoped the family would show “good will to help restore peace in society.”   

  During a press conference also on Monday, Greater Tehran Police Commander Hossein Rahimi denied “false accusations” against Iranian police, saying they “did everything” to keep Amini alive.   

  He added that Amini had not been physically injured during or after her arrest and called her death “unfortunate”.   

  Since Amini’s death, internet monitoring website Netblocks has documented internet outages since Friday – a tactic Iran has used in the past to prevent protests from spreading.