A Revolution is Looming in Iran
Protesters have rallied across Iran for weeks as the country is on the brink of a revolution following the untimely death of Mahsa Amini.
She was a normal 22-year-old woman living in Iran and visiting family until the country’s morality police detained her to show “guidance” on her wearing the hijab inappropriately. Days later she died, without investigation.
CCTV footage of Amini, released later by Iranian police, shows her collapsing to the ground at the time of her arrest. The regime’s patrol told her brother that she was taken to a detention center for a “briefing class” and would be released soon. But that was never going to happen.
Instead, Amini was taken to the Kasra Hospital in the capitol city of Tehran, where she died on Sept. 16 after being in a coma for nearly three days. The medical team says she was braindead on arrival. Witnesses to her arrest, say Amini was beaten by the morality police in the van intended to bring her to a capitol detention center.
The hijab, a head covering worn by some Muslim women, is compulsory in Iran, meaning it is required by law to wear. Although this began during the aftermath of the country’s revolution in 1979, Iran’s newest President, Ebrahim Raisi, has enforced many crackdowns on the freedoms of women since his election in 2021. The actions of his morality police have been criticized by the United Nations and even two of the most powerful Ayatollahs in Iran. There have been reports that the police are actively targeting women across the country and verified videos show Iranian women being slapped, beaten with batons, and thrown into their vans for not wearing a hijab according to government standards.
And this summer, Iran’s Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice announced its additional use of surveillance technology against women in public places to enforce its newest law regarding the hijab. Veiled under this distinct title, this clear attack on women is being used as a tactic by the government for more control. In just a few months, this law has already given permission to countless instances of violence against women throughout the country.
Over the last decade, women have risked fines and prison time for violating these strict laws, continuing to push the limits of this harsh dress code. But Amini, while a high-profile case for this issue, is not the first victim in a series of attacks against the hijab and this uprising. Iranian writer and artist, Sepideh Rashno, was arrested in July for wearing inappropriate clothing after publicly protesting the country’s “Hijab and Chastity Day” by removing her veil on social media. Later, Rashno was on state television making an official (and forced) apology while wearing a full hijab in accordance with government regulations. She remains in government custody.
While there have been protests in Iran before, this time it feels different. The size, scale, and unprecedented power of these demonstrations were unimaginable in years prior for the Iranian public. The country’s youngest generation is sending a clear message to the government and fighting for the end of decades of repression.
Protests have spread to dozens of cities across the entire country, even to traditionally conservative areas like the city of Mashad. But most of the demonstrations are concentrated in western Iran, where Amini was from, a poor, predominantly Kurdish region of the country. These protests were exacerbated as the Kurds, who speak their own language and have their own distinct, Sunni Muslim culture, are an underrepresented minority in Iran who feel neglected by the central, majority Shiite Muslim government.
Iranian women are taking to the streets, burning their hijabs, cutting off their hair and singing to signify their strength and resistance (note: signing in public is also against the law for women in Iran). According to Reuters, 52 protestors have died throughout the last three weeks of demonstrations, but numbers have most likely been inaccurately reported by the Iranian government. In response to the outrage, Iran has shut off the internet and restricted online access in hopes to dismantle this movement.
This consequence has an impact beyond the borders of Iran. New York-based artist Shirin Neshat has lost nearly all communication with her family since the protests began. As her work typically involves issues of religion, race, and gender, it’s been extremely difficult for her to process the violent events happening in her home country and around her loved ones. She has luckily been able to briefly get in touch with her sister, saying, “[My sister] says she hears gunfire all night long, because people come out at sundown—revolutionary guards are hiding in every corner, under trees, and spreading tear gas. I asked my sister if people are more afraid because of this very militant attack on people. And she said, oddly enough, they are not afraid. And they continue to come out like a storm.”
Similarly, Amini’s death has sparked global outrage. Her case is a symbol of the violence and discrimination Iranian women have been facing for decades. But its general message is far-reaching. Women across the world can resonate with a government restricting their deserved rights.
In Berlin, demonstrators hold hair throughout a protest in front of the Brandenburg Gate; in Istanbul, an Iranian woman cuts her hair in protest outside of the Iranian consulate in Turkey; and in New York City, a protestor dresses as President Ebrahim Rasi covered in blood with snakes on his shoulder.
As women in the United States, we understand what it is like to have our rights stripped away. After the overturn of Roe v. Wade this summer, people across this country felt the devastating loss of a freedom previously taken for granted.
It’s not just what is right, but it’s our responsibility to stand with the women of Iran as they bravely fight for their freedom and expression. The violence against Iranian women is intolerable and we must take action to support their revolution as they change the standards set before them.