In September, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died in the custody of the country’s “morality police” after she was arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly.”
In the weeks and months following her death, the country has erupted in protests that show little sign of ceasing despite brutal crackdowns by the Iranian government. Videos have shown police beating protesters — many of whom are women and teenagers — with batons and spraying tear gas and bullets into crowds.
According to Iran Human Rights, at least 402 people, including at least 43 children and 26 women, have been killed, though widespread internet blackouts have made it difficult to confirm fatalities. Hundreds of people have been injured, and according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, at least 16,800 have been arrested.
Mahsa Amini died in police custody on September 16.
On September 13, while visiting family in Tehran, Amini was reportedly arrested for “improper hijab” — a violation of Iran’s mandatory dress code that requires women, regardless of religious affiliation, to conceal their hair and necks with headscarves. After her arrest, Amini’s family struggled to find where she’d been taken. “We tried by every means to reach her, but the Iranian authorities did not let us,” her cousin Irfan Mortezia told the media. “I couldn’t reach her.”
Police claim Amini suffered a heart attack on September 16 while in custody at the Vozara detention center, where she had been taken to be “educated,” though many question this account. Following Amini’s death, photos began circulating of her lying incapacitated in a hospital bed with tubes and wires all over her body and blood pooling from one ear. Amini’s family believes she was beaten by officers in police van following her arrest. “They have to explain for what crime, for what reason did they do this?” Amini’s mother said in an interview with the Iranian news media. “I am her mother, and I am dying from grief.” Amini’s father told BBC Persia he believes authorities are lying about his daughter’s death. “They’re lying. They’re telling lies. Everything is a lie … no matter how much I begged, they wouldn’t let me see my daughter,” he said.
Following Amini’s death, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi ordered the interior minister to investigate the case and reportedly called Amini’s family to assure them that action would be taken. “Your daughter is like my own daughter, and I feel that this incident happened to one of my loved ones,” he said.
Amini’s death set off a wave of protests across the country
Following news of Amini’s death, protests spread across the country with women at the forefront. In Amini’s hometown of Saqqez, in the Kurdistan Province, women took their hijabs off and chanted, “Death to the dictator.” In Tehran, they ripped off their headscarves and waved them in the air; one protester climbed atop a car and set fire to her hijab. Women followed suit in Sari with a mass burning, tossing their headscarves into a large fire and dancing as they watched them go up in flames.
In Kerman’s Azadi Square, a woman disposed of her headscarf, took scissors to her hair, and chopped nearly all of it off as the crowd around her cheered. Women around the world have been cutting their own hair in protest of of Amini’s death — including Abir Al-Sahlani, an Iraqi-born Swedish member of European Parliament, who chopped off her hair during a speech at the E.U. assembly.
Across the country, growing protests have been met with brutal violence from Iranian forces. Growing protests at universities across Iran have been met with police violence.
Since protests broke out, at least 48 journalists, including 18 women, have reportedly been detained and only one known to be released so far.
Several Iranian public figures are showing solidarity with anti-government protesters at extreme risk to themselves.
A news twist in the ongoing countrywide protest
Antigovernment protests continued Sunday mainly through nationwide strikes by truckers and protest rallies at universities during the day and street rallies through the night.
Truck drivers and owners in many cities across the country did not move their vehicles on Sunday in one of the biggest strikes taking place in more than two months since the current wave of protests began following the death Mahsa Amini.
Truckers in several cities such as Esfahan, Bandar Abbas, Qazvin, and Kermanshah refrained from moving goods in support of the protests, sit-ins and strikes by industrial workers. Many people on social media describe the strike by the truckers as a significant blow to the Islamic Republic since it has the potential to cripple the economy. Some people say, “the truckers are leading the revolutionary uprising.”
The strike is so costly for the regime that it has already started giving the drivers extra fuel subsidies to lure them back into work.
In a video that became viral on Sunday, a driver is heard saying that if the government was able to give them subsidies before, why did they refuse to do so earlier in the year when they held another round of nationwide strikes.
