Woman, Life, Freedom
On 16 September 2022 Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman from Saqqez in Iran’s Kurdistan Province, died in a Tehran hospital. Three days earlier she had been arrested by Iran’s Guidance Patrol, or ‘morality police’, for wearing her hijab ‘improperly’ and fell into a coma after she was beaten inside the police van taking her to the Vozara Detention Centre.
Crowds gathered outside the hospital in a state of shock and responded to her death by calling for accountability. Soon protests spread to other cities.
During Amini’s funeral, on 17 September, crowds gathered in Saqqez chanting the slogan ‘Women Life Freedom’, which was adopted across the country and beyond. Civil unrest eventually spread across cities and towns as well as on Iranian social media. The initial focus of the protests grew to encompass the diverse grievances of Iranian women, with many removing and ritualistically burning their hijabs in front of cheering crowds. Across the diaspora, Iranian women are cutting their hair in solidarity.
Under the laws of the Islamic Republic women were not just subjected to compulsory veiling but also gender segregation. City spaces were divided along gender lines. ‘Women only’ areas were created, while other spaces, such as football stadiums, remained off-limits. These arrangements were considered to be the pillars of the Islamic Republic: highly symbolic and non-negotiable.
Since 1980 Iranian women have sought to improve their situation by initiating protests, petitioning and mounting legal challenges. After the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), for example, war widows lobbied for custody of their children; the law stipulated that a father had guardianship of a child, which passed to the next male relative in the case of his death. (www.historytoday.com, n.d.)
During protests in response to the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, Iran’s authorities have used violence, killing dozens, with impunity. Recent unrest follows decades of human rights violations in Iran. Iranian authorities do not want the truth to be revealed. They have attempted to shut down the internet, cover up evidence, as well as intimidating families of victims like Mahsa Amini. The families of 16-year-olds Nika Shakarami and Sarina Esmailzadeh have been coerced into reiterating the official narrative that their children died by “suicide”. (www.amnesty.org.uk, n.d.)
What Iranians are demanding during these protests is regime change. The protests and strikes have been going on for more than two months now (November 2022) and this is the longest period of time that people have united against the Islamic Republic since 1979 (when Islamic Republic took over). This has given hope to many Iranians who have lived their whole or most of their lives under the oppression of their most basic rights. Many Iranians all around the world are also protesting every week, trying their best to encourage the governments of where they live to put more pressure on Islamic Republic.
By Hasan Abdallah
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References:
www.amnesty.org.uk. (n.d.). Embassy of Iran: end the bloodshed in Iran now. [online] Available at: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/woman-life-freedom [Accessed 20 Nov. 2022].
www.historytoday.com. (n.d.). Women, Life, Freedom | History Today. [online] Available at: https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/women-life-freedom.