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Women, Life, Freedom Anonymous protester, 2022 Despite the repression of the Iranian government, thousands of people joined the procession to Aichi Cemetery to honor the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini. It was a bold act, but the most courageous protests of the day were the dozens of women who, in full view, removed their hijabs and waved them in the air. The day before, September 16, 2022, the twenty-two-year-old had died in government custody after being jailed by Iran’s infamous “morality police” for violating Iran’s compulsory hijab law. Her death set off a year of protest around the country that featured hundreds of women defying the law at great personal risk by removing their hijabs, often burning them, and in some cases cutting off their hair in public. The government claimed that Mahsa Amini collapsed while in detention, but her parents, countless Iranians, and, ultimately, the United Nations Human Rights Council, strongly questioned the official claims. “Our daughter was perfectly healthy,” said Amjad Amini, Mahsa Amini’s father. “We saw bruises on her body. The authorities’ story is a lie.” Policing Women’s Bodies Amini’s death did not launch the resistance, but it fueled a dramatic resurgence. Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, when the westernized country had become a theocratic Islamic republic led by the cleric Ayatollah Khomeini, a generation of Iranian women had grown up under draconian legal and social restrictions. Music deemed contrary to “Islamic values” was banned or restricted, public dancing was prohibited, and women were required to wear a headscarf and cover their arms and legs in public. Since 2005, Gasht-e Ershad, the government’s “morality police,” had patrolled urban areas and public events in marked and unmarked vans, harassing and jailing people, mostly women, deemed in violation of the codes. These dress codes have been challenged repeatedly, particularly by women who see them as a symbol of democracy under attack. On March 8, 1979, the day after the Ayatollah declared that women should cover in public, men and women marched in the street in a protest that lasted for six days and was met with violence and intimidation. “In the dawn of freedom, we find ourselves cloaked in forced rules,” chanted the protesters. “We did not make a revolution to go backwards.” But after consolidating power, in 1983, the Iranian parliament approved a law “punishing women who refused to comply with state-enforced veiling.” Public displays flouting the law were met with brutality—women faced punishments including fines, imprisonment, and lashes for violating the hijab law. The “morality police” deployed security and traffic cameras in public spaces and used footage from cafes and universities to identify violators. Iranians were encouraged to report on their neighbors and friends, creating an atmosphere of constant surveillance and social pressure. “They threatened us with lashes for wearing bright lipstick and showing a few strands of hair,” said one Iranian woman. “The fear was constant.” Still, many women engaged in small acts of defiance, such as wearing their headscarves loosely or letting bits of their hair be visible. The death of Mahsa Amini in morality-police custody in September 2022 ignited Iran’s Women, Life, Freedom uprising, which swept across the country. Left and center: Women without headscarves in the streets of Tehran and at the funeral of one of the hundreds killed during the protests. Right: Mahsa Amini. PHOTOS: ANONYMOUS / MIDDLE EAST IMAGES / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, MIDDLE EAST IMAGES / PANOS PICTURES, ANONYMOUS / MIDDLE EAST IMAGES / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Piercing the Veil In 2014, despite the repression, the My Stealthy Freedom campaign launched online, featuring women sharing photos of themselves without hijabs. Three years later, the White Wednesdays movement encouraged women to wear white headscarves or remove their hijabs in public. These online efforts laid the groundwork for more visible street protests that would emerge starting in 2017, partly in response to other widespread economic and political grievances. On December 27, 2017, Vida Movahed (later nicknamed the “Girl of Enghelab Street”) stood on a utility box on Enghelab (Revolution) Street in central Tehran. She removed her hijab and waved it on a stick in a silent act of protest. Photos and videos quickly spread online. “She didn’t shout or chant,” said one witness. “She just stood there silently, waving her scarf. It was the strongest moment I’ve ever witnessed.” Movahed was arrested and released a month later, but not before a movement dubbed the Girls (or Daughters) of Enghelab Street spawned similar actions around the country. The image of a lone figure standing on a box, waving her headscarf, became iconic in the global conversation about women’s rights in Iran. Sustained simmering pressure for economic and social change was swirling in 2022, and Mahsa Amini’s death triggered the largest political demonstrations against the government since it came to power. “We are not afraid anymore,” said one activist. “We’re going to tear down the walls of fear brick by brick. Let them see our hair, let them see we’re free.” What began as outrage over Amini’s death quickly evolved into a broader movement challenging the fundamental principles of the Islamic Republic. Under the banner “Women, Life, Freedom,” young people took center stage in these protests, leading demonstrations with astonishing courage. “This is a revolution led by women, because they’ve had enough,” said Masih Alinejad, the journalist and activist who launched the My Stealthy Freedom movement on Facebook. “They realize that compliance is no longer an option.” The authorities responded with violence. According to estimates by rights groups such as the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), by the end of 2022, at least five hundred protesters were killed, among them dozens of minors, while more than nineteen thousand people were detained or arrested. “We have more bodies than you have bullets. One day, you will run out of bullets, but we will still be here.” - Anonymous protester, 2022 Despite the brutality, protests continued through 2023 and 2024, uniting students, professionals, and working-class people from around the country. In September 2023, protesters rallied on the anniversary of Amini’s death. Women defiantly unveiled in public. Students led campus sit-ins, facing expulsions and nighttime raids. Internationally, the events in Iran sparked widespread solidarity and condemnation of the Iranian regime. Politicians, actors, musicians, and the public joined in protests that erupted in numerous countries, including Lebanon, Germany, Turkey, the United States, and Greece. In October 2023, Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian activist jailed since 2015, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When she heard the news, she wrote from prison, “the name Mahsa Jina Amini emerged from the depths of my being. This movement is adorned with her beautiful name, and I dedicate this award to her.” While the immediate protests were eventually suppressed, the movement sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death has had enduring effects, reinvigorating debates about women’s rights, personal freedoms, and governance in Iran. “I just wish for basic human rights,” said one Iranian, “to eat, drink, read, write, or wear whatever you want, to check into a hotel or travel as an unmarried woman wherever you want. To practice whatever religion you want. For the last 43 years, Iranians have been arrested, tortured, and killed on a daily basis for wanting them. I just wish for the right to live normally, as many of you do, and NOT live in constant fear.” https://annas-archive.pk/md5/08527c0fc602042a5c387ee04a0c8bd3?&check=1 Back |
 LINKS Tudeh Party of Iran https://www.tudehpartyiran.org/ Radio Zamaneh (Iran) https://www.radiozamaneh.com/ Iran Labour Confederation https://iranlc.org/en/12023? |
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