The story of Mahsa Amini
Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in police custody on September 16th. She was arrested on September 13th by Iran’s morality police for “improper hijab”. The morality police is a unit of Iran’s police force that enforces laws on the Islamic dress code in public. There are reports that she was beaten with a baton and that her head was banged against a vehicle. She fell into a coma at Vozara detention centre where she had been taken to be “educated” by the police. Her family was unable to reach her after her arrest and on September 16th, police claim she suffered a heart attack due to prior health concerns, but her family insists she did not have any. After her death, photos began circulating of her lying in a hospital bed in a horrifying state.
The protests
After news of her death, there were nationwide protests, women threw off and burned their hijabs, they even cut their hair in solidarity. The growing protests have been met with brutal violence from the authorities and more than 300 protestors have been killed. In response to these demonstrations, the Iranian government implemented regional shutdowns of Internet access to avoid news of the situation leaving the country.
The New York times has documented “Raids on high schools in cities across Iran, where plainclothes militia and intelligence agents interrogated, beat and searched students or where school authorities threatened or attacked students”. The BBC reports that Iranian authorities have used threats of sexual assault to subdue protestors.
The government denies killing any protestors and claims 20 security personnel have died. The reporter who first wrote about Amini’s story (Niloufar Hamedi) has been arrested and charged and is now being held in solitary confinement, at least 35 other journalists have been detained.
Iran is the country with the most death penalties issued per capita. It is also a country where there is no separation between religion and government. The Supreme Leader- Ali Khamenei holds all the power. More than 15000 protestors are reportedly in detention and Iranian lawmakers in Parliament are asking for “no leniency” for those arrested.
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Written by Mehek Sharma
Art done by Tiffanie Cheng