'Jamie Oliver of Iran' beaten to death after arrest at hijab protests

Iran's answer to Jamie Oliver was beaten to death by security forces after anti-regime protests, triggering a fresh wave of unrest.

Thousands marched on Saturday during the funeral for Mehrshad Shahidi, who was killed the day before his 20th birthday.

Dr Reza Taghizadeh, an Iranian affairs commentator, claimed that his death was causing a “second and even greater wave of national protests against the regime in the same way Mahsa Amini’s death did a month ago”.

Protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who died while in custody after being arrested in Tehran for an alleged breach of Iran's strict dress rules for women, have entered their seventh week.

More than 253 have been killed by security forces during the demonstrations, according to human rights organisations.

Mr Shahidi was killed on Wednesday, the 40th day of the protests, after reportedly receiving blows to his skull while in the custody of the intelligence unit of the Revolutionary Guard’s base in the city of Arak. 

His family claim that officials had pushed them to tell the public that the 19-year-old’s cause of death was a heart attack.

“Our son lost his life as a result of receiving baton blows to his head after his arrest, but we have been under pressure by the regime to say that he has died of a heart attack”, a relative of Mehrshad told Iran International TV in London.

The head of the justice department for the Province of Tehran, cleric Abdolmehdi Mousavi dismissed the family’s comments.

Mr Shahidi had 25,000 followers on Instagram and was known for videos of him cooking shared widely on social media.

Students at the University of Arak, where Mr Mehrshad worked as head chef, described him as a “popular man” who was “energetic and handsome”.

Security forces are struggling to contain the protests that are evolving into a broader campaign to end the Islamic republic founded in 1979.

"Death to the dictator," said activists on Saturday at a ceremony to mark 40 days of protests, using a slogan aimed at supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Mourners gathered on Saturday in the southern city of Shiraz to bury the victims of a deadly assault on a shrine after at least 15 people were killed on Wednesday in the attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

Remarks made Thursday by Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi appeared to link the Shiraz attack, one of the country's deadliest in years, with the protests and "riots" following Ms Amini's death.

"The intention of the enemy is to disrupt the country's progress, and then these riots pave the ground for terrorist acts," he said in televised remarks.

During Saturday's funeral processions, the crowd also chanted slogans condemning the United States, Israel and Britain for allegedly being "behind the riots", according to live footage broadcast on state television.

They could be heard chanting "Death to America, to Israel, to England" and "The vigilant revolutionary people hates the rioters".

During the ceremony, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran's military, urged "a limited number of youth deceived" by the Islamic republic's enemies to put an end to the "riots".

"Today is when the riots end," warned Major General Hossein Salami, calling on students "not to become chess pieces for the enemy".

Students in several universities in Tehran and other Iranian cities have been protesting in the weeks since Ms Amini's death.

On Friday, security forces fired upon a nearby student dorm at the Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, the Hengaw rights group claimed.

They can be seen arriving on more than a dozen motorbikes before shooting up into the dormitory building in footage recorded at the scene.

British Iranian doctors and nurses who work for the NHS gathered at Trafalgar Square on Saturday to express their support for the protests and demonstrate against the regime's clampdown.

Cold Play’s Chris Martin made a rare political statement on Friday supporting the protestors, singing an Iranian song at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aries.

“You see on the news right now that there are so many places where people are not able to gather like this and be free to be themselves,” he said.

“We would like to do something to show that we support all the women and everybody fighting for freedom in Iran.”