In Iran, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was detained by ethics police in recent weeks for not covering herself according to the rules and died after suffering a brain hemorrhage in custody. Since then, the country has been in turmoil. So, how did Iran get to this day? How do the protests that started after Amini differ from past demonstrations?
In Tehran, the capital of Iran, on September 13, a young woman named Mahsa Amini was detained by ethics police on the grounds that she did not cover herself according to the rules. She refused to be taken to the police station and faced disproportionate violence.
The news that Amini, who was detained by the morality police, died three days later in a coma caused outrage. When the investigation revealed that the young woman died as a result of multiple blows to the head, protests erupted.
SPREAD TO 80 CITIES
The protests have spread to more than 80 cities including Tehran, Kermanshah, Tabriz, Ardabil, Isfahan, Qazvin, Xinjiang, Kish, Ilam, Hemedan, Kerec, Mashhad and other cities, with reports of more than 40 casualties so far. There is serious concern that this number may increase in the ongoing protests.
One of the main reasons for the lack of a healthy flow of information is that the government has blocked communication and social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and slowed down access to the internet in most of the country.
1) WHAT HAPPENED TO MAHSA AMINI?
On September 13, Amini was spotted by ethics police on her way out of the subway. She was not wearing her headscarf properly and was detained for this reason and asked to be taken to a “re-education center for women”. The young woman resisted the police’s detention order but was forcibly taken to the police station.
Although Iranian broadcasters broadcast footage of Amini entering the police station of her own accord, this footage did not satisfy anyone, especially her family. When the Amini family demanded that the “real” footage be handed over to them, street protests broke out all over the country.
When the young woman, who was hospitalized and in a coma due to the blows to her head, lost her fight for life on September 16, news agencies reported that Amini had suffered a heart attack at the police station. Some news outlets, however, claimed that the young woman was already in poor health and died of a recurrence of a childhood brain tumor.
Iranian President Ebrahim Reisi ordered an official investigation by Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi after Amini fell into a coma. Reformist politician Mahmoud Sadiqi said they urgently wanted clarification on the case.
2) WHEN AND HOW DID THE PROTESTS BEGIN?
On September 16, when news of Amini’s death broke, hundreds of thousands of Iranians, fed up with the growing repression, the economic crisis and the gloomy atmosphere, took to the streets.
In response to government violence in Saqqiz and Senandaj to disperse protesters, demonstrations quickly spread across the country. Not only the people, but also political parties and prominent activists mobilized and a general strike was declared as of Monday, September 19.
Supporters of the government also soon took to the streets.
In the increasingly violent protests, the Norway-based Hengaw Human Rights Organization reported that over 40 protesters were killed, hundreds injured and dozens arrested.
Tasnim, the state-backed news agency, claimed that protesters resorted to violence and announced that police stations and Revolutionary Guards forces were targeted.
3) WILL MUSK BREAK THE SOCIAL MEDIA BAN?
The Iranian government first restricted internet access in the cities of Saqqiz and Senendej for a few days to prevent photos and videos of the protests from spreading on the internet and reaching the world’s leading news agencies.
As the protests spread across Iran, the government found the solution to cut off the internet in the whole country. Following this decision, a surprise statement came from the US.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Elon Musk, the executive director of SpaceX, could launch Starlink, a satellite internet service in Iran to ensure internet freedom and free flow of information for Iranians.
Starlink is meant for peaceful use only
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 17, 2022
4) WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF THE MORALITY POLICE?
Following Mahsa Amini’s death, the existence of the morality police in the country has come to the fore again.
Established in 2005 during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency, the morality police, known as “Geshti Irshad” (Persian for Irshad Patrol), detain those who do not comply with the dress code in parks, shopping malls and squares where the public is concentrated and take them to the police station.
This special unit, which operates in almost every city in the country, works together with the police. The exact number of personnel of this special unit, which was established to deter those who do not comply with the dress code, is unknown.
Women who promise to dress according to the rules and sign a paper are released only if they are handed over to a male family member.
5) HOW ARE THE PROTESTS DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS ONES?
Iran has often been the scene of major protests in the past.
The 1999 student uprisings, the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, 2017, 2019 and the recent protests after Mahsa Amini’s assassination have been triggered by economic crisis, cost of living, unemployment, increasing poverty, water crisis, human rights violations and gender discrimination.
The Washington Post, in its article titled “Are Iran’s hijab protests different from past protest waves?”, emphasized that the protests in Iran in the last 5 years are different from previous protests.
In its analysis, the newspaper said, “While the current wave of protests is encouraged by past protests, it differs in some ways. First of all, it is led by women and they are acting creatively against the regime.”
6) WHAT HAS THE IRANIAN WOMEN’S MOVEMENT ACHIEVED?
For many years, Iranian women have been protesting against existing laws based on gender inequality and impositions that limit their right to life. In 2014, women first launched a large-scale campaign on social media.
In 2014, dissident journalist Masih Alinejad sparked the My Stealthy Freedom movement on Facebook by posting a photo of herself driving without a headscarf on her social media account to protest the mandatory veiling. The act of individual disobedience soon became a widespread protest by Iranian women.
Batı’ya ve özellikle Biden’a sesleniyorum. Batı’nın bize demokrasi getirmesini istediğimiz falan yok.O işi biz İran halkı olarak sokaklarda molla rejimiyle savaşarak zaten yapıyoruz. Sadece Batı’nın bu rejimi kurtarmayı bırakmasını istiyoruz #MahsaAmini
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) September 22, 2022
Pious women also supported the protests, emphasizing that it was their choice to wear the headscarf. According to conservative women, women who did not want to wear the headscarf should also have the right to do so. This outburst made a big noise.
