Remembering Neda 40 days later: Mourners met by tear gas and baton-wielding police

Neda Agha-Soltan, who died in the government crackdown at a June 20 demonstration, continues to be a public face for protesters who have faced government intimidation and arrests for demanding transparency and accountability after what they allege was a fraudulent election. (Photo: AP/Courtesy of Caspian Makan, file)

As Iranian mourners observed arbayeen, a memorial ritual held 40 days after someone's death, for those killed in post-election violence, they found themselves clashing yet again with the riot police deployed by their government, BBC News says.

The most public victim of the bloody government crackdown on June 20, Neda Agha-Soltan, has drawn crowds again to her presence at her gravesite. The government of Iran, dominated by hardliners and conservatives aligned with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has refused to hold memorial services at the Grand Mossala prayer site and applied heavy police and security measures to try and enforce the ban.

Opposition leaders, including Mir Hossein Mousavi who claims he was the true victor of the June 12 presidential election, were reportedly denied entry into the impromptu memorial services at Neda's gravesite. Witnesses told BBC there had been arrests and tear gas had been used by riot police to disperse crowds, while Mousavi was barred from reciting Koran verses appropriate for arbayeen.

The Iranian government may be particularly sensitive about public gatherings because the Islamic Republic that now towers over its dissatisfied people initially came to power in a similar manner 30 years earlier. In 1978, the opposition used the 40-day mourning cycle to reinvigorate their protest movement against the Shah's authoritarian regime, which fell within a year and ended 2,500 years of dynastic rule over Iran (formerly Persia).