Women, Life, Freedom: A quick recap on the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran
When Mahsa Amini, a 22 year old Kurdish-Iranian woman, was murdered by the Iranian ‘Morality Police’ in September 2022 for not wearing her hijab in accordance with government standards, nationwide protests erupted as an outcry to the decades of oppression women have faced in Iran. Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, women have been legally required to cover their hair fully with a hijab, with failure to do so carrying a prison sentence of up to two months. However, since the violent death of Amini, who passed away in police custody after suffering multiple head injuries that were probably the result of an assault, a national uprising led primarily by women who were protesting the end of the hijab's requirement has been met with extreme measures by the government and police abusing international human right law.
Mahsa Amini was arrested by the Guidance Patrol (also known as the Morality Police) on the 14th September 2022 for an ‘improper hijab’. She was then placed in detention where she was beaten until she fell into a coma. Once taken to hospital, CT scans confirmed multiple head injuries and she sadly died on the 16th September 2022. She was only 22.
Her death sparked national protests that saw thousands of people take the streets, including, for the first time, schoolgirls, and women from both working and middle classes. They demanded an end to the compulsory hijab law, whilst also protesting for wider freedom, and the protection of civil and political rights. Hundreds burnt their hijabs and shaved their heads in a defiant message to the Iranian government: ‘we belong to ourselves, not the state’. Fountains were dyed blood red, roads were blocked with dumpsters, and police cars were overturned. Universities across Iran took part in general strikes to put pressure on the Iranian regime over their stance on women’s rights.
This is not the first time women have protested hijab laws. “The Girls of Revolution Street” movement in 2017 saw 29 people arrested for removing their hijabs.
These protests were met with violence from the Iranian Security Forces. Hundreds of protesters were arrested and subsequently tortured by police to obtain, often, false confessions. In the first month of protests alone, the Iranian state media reported over 1,000 arrests. Protesters were shot with paintball guns, non-lethal steel pellet guns and attacked with tear gas with many injured protesters refusing to seek hospital treatment over fears of being arrested. In one highly reported incident, police were seen beating a male protester, before running him over with a motorbike, and then shooting him. In another worrying development, apparent chemical attacks targeting schoolgirls have been reported in 91 schools, and in more than 20 Iranian provinces, poisoning at least 1,200 of them..
In November 2022, nearly 2 months after the protests began, Iran's Revolutionary Court issued its first death sentence to one of the protestors on the charges of ‘moharebeh’ (waging war against god) and ‘corruption on earth’. On the 8th December 2022, the state carried out its first execution over the protests, 22 year old Mohsen Shekari was hanged after being found guilty of ‘moharebeh’. The execution was condemned by the UN who urged Iran to establish ‘a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty’.
As of January 2023, at least 522 people have died in the Iranian protests, among these are 70 minors and 68 members of the Security Forces, with over 22,000 arrested (and later pardoned) and four executions. The protests are still ongoing today, and their importance remains undoubted despite the lack of media attention.