How Iran Women Protests Shaped Due To Policymaking Of The Khamenei Government

The nation of Iran has been gripped by the Iran Women protests triggered by the death of Masha Amini on the 16th of September. The three months of ongoing protests first started in Kurdistan, Amini's hometown, and then later spread wide scale across Tehran. 

Agitated with Kurdistan, the Raisi government blamed it for instigating the protests and bombed the anti-hijab protesters there. 

Amini is believed to have died after suffering abuse at hands of the morality police of Tehran. The Gasht-e-Ershad (morality police) reinstated by Raisi is responsible for upholding the 'Islamic dress code' for women.  

Amini was arrested for wearing her hijab too loosely as her hair strands were showing. She was detained for it and her family wasn't allowed to meet her there. She had been moved from the detention centre to the hospital shortly after, where Amini breathed her last. 

The morality police had conveyed to Amjad Amini, Masha's father, that she died of a heart attack. However, some witnesses who were present when Amini was detained conveyed to her family that Amini was beaten up in police custody. 

In an interview with BBC Persian Amini revealed: 

"My son was with her. Some witnesses told my son she was beaten in the van and in the police station. My son begged them not to take her, but he was beaten too, and his clothes were ripped off. I asked them to show me the body-cameras of the security officers, they told me the cameras were out of battery."  

Amini shared that he wasn't allowed to see his daughter at the hospital. He had spotted bruises on his daughter's feet which had gone unexamined. 

The Iranian authority refuted all of the above statements. The forensic organisation responsible for Amini's reports stated that she expired due to brain hypoxia owing to insufficient cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the last few minutes. Additionally, they shared that Amini had surgically removed a brain tumour in 2010. Amini was painted as a sickly individual by the Iranian authorities allowing them to abandon any responsibility for their actions. 

Suggested Reading: Of Dissent And Solidarity: Revisiting Top 5 Moments Of Iran’s Uprising

Support for Iran Women From the International Diaspora

Masha Amini's death, the trigger point for people in Iran led to a nationwide protest. However, the protests are not only limited to Iran. Iranian nationals and even international people have been lending support to Iran by protesting on social media. 

At the FIFA World Cup, the Iranian players refused to sing the national anthem of Iran. Back home, Iranians were seen waving the western flag to celebrate its victory over Iran to spite the Raisi government. 

">Swedish MP Abir Al-Sahlani cut off a chunk of her hair chanting 'Women, Life, Freedom' at the European Union meet. Eminent people, especially women on various media platforms have shown their support by cutting their hair. 

Many Iranian women have come out on social media to share their stories of being harassed by Tehran's morality police. Some women protested by performing or sharing their professional journeys that are condemned by the Islamic code such as dancing, or boxing. Burning of hijabs and women cutting their hair can be seen on social media. 'Death to the Dictator' graces our screens and the streets of Iran. 

As per BBC's mid-October report, 234 people out of which 29 were children, have been killed by the government. Iran has now begun awarding death sentences to its anti-hijab protestors on the streets. Many have been killed in the crackdown or detained. Journalists have been restricted from reporting on the issue. The Indian Express November report states that 16,000 have been detained including more than 450 students. 54 children out of 348 protestors have been killed according to Iran's Human Rights Activists News Agency report last month. 

The UN has decided to carry out an independent investigation into this Human Rights violation in Iran. However, Iran has rejected the UN's investigation into this matter and expressed its contempt towards the body for intending to violate its internal affairs. In late November, Reuters stated the UN's desire to push Iran out of the women's equality and empowerment body. 

The EU has so far sanctioned 29 Iranians and only three organisations over the crackdown on protests. The US, fearing Iran's ties with Russia, has not thundered down on them as they have on Russia. The ">US trait of seldom making a move unless directly beneficial to themselves is a trait that has been questioned by many in the past. 

Iran was not always a human rights violator, to begin with. Iranian women weren't always forced to don hijabs. Before the 1979 Islamic revolution women were free to dress however they wished to. Hijab was a choice at the time and western clothing such as tight skirts, pants, or tops of varying lengths wasn't frowned upon. Women were also publicly seen enjoying their swimwear on beaches. This brief period of liberalism was brought about by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who ruled from 1941-79, before the Islamic revolution.

Ayatollah Khamenei overthrew Pahlavi, the former Shah in 1979, and implemented a fundamentalist Islamic regime and stricter dress code. 1983 under Khamenei saw the hijab made mandatory by the Iran parliament. The initial punishment for violating this was 74 lashes which later got amended to a prison sentence and fine. When Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, a reformist came to power in 1997, women enjoyed a brief period of colourful clothing and more lenient laws. However, the dogma of the Hijab remained. 

After Khamenei brought Iranian president Raisi to power in 2021, the dormant morality police was revived in Iran. This religious entity was tasked to promote the idyllic Islamic lifestyle among women and to that extent used surveillance cameras in public places to detect if women wore their hijab correctly. Women started defying this fundamentalist regime after years of signing away their agency to misogynistic authorities. Women took off their headscarves in public and confronted the morality police despite the fatal consequences. The death of Masha Amini only serves to embolden the women in their existing fight for human rights. 

Views expressed by author are their own