Iran Mahsa Amini Protests
Mahsa Zhina Amini, a twenty-two-year-old Kurdish woman visiting Tehran, was arrested by the morality police on 13 September 2022 for wearing her headscarf improperly. She collapsed in custody, was taken to hospital in a coma, and died three days later. The police said she had a heart attack. Her family said she had been beaten, and leaked medical scans supported them. Protests began at her funeral in Saqqez, where women removed their headscarves at the graveside, and spread within days to every province and to more than 150 cities. The slogan was Zan, Zendegi, Azadi — Woman, Life, Freedom — taken from the Kurdish movement, and the protests were led disproportionately by young women and schoolgirls, filmed cutting their hair and burning headscarves. Unlike the unrest of 2009, which contested an election, or 2019, which began over fuel prices, these protests attacked the system itself and were not led by any faction within it. The state cut internet access, and the security forces killed over five hundred people, including children, and detained close to twenty thousand. At least ten men were executed after trials lasting hours. The protests receded by early 2023 without concessions. The compulsory hijab, however, is now widely and openly ignored in Tehran and other cities, and the state's periodic attempts to enforce it have not held. Amini's family were prevented from travelling to collect the Sakharov Prize awarded in her name. Narges Mohammadi, imprisoned throughout, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 for the same movement. The protests are generally treated as the most serious internal challenge the Islamic Republic has faced. Emigration among young educated Iranians has risen sharply since.
- Year: 2022 CE
- Category: Social
