The September
16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, while in
the custody of Iran’s morality police, has sparked an unprecedented wave of
national anger against the Islamic Republic of Iran – and a violent
government response.
اضافة اعلان
So far, more than 150
people have been killed, including children, dozens have been wounded and hundreds remain
in detention. The regime has also engaged in violent attacks in
Kurdistan, including in the Kurdish region of Iraq, where Iranian Kurdish opposition
political parties and their families reside.
Zahedan, the
capital of the highly marginalized Sistan and Baluchestan province, has been
hit especially hard, with at least 63 people
killed when authorities used lethal force to suppress protests
after recent Friday prayers.
Iranian
President Ebrahim Raisi, while vowing to “steadfastly” investigate Amini’s death after her arrest
for “improperly” wearing the mandatory hijab, continues to threaten protesters
with further crackdowns, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has blamed the US
and Israel for the ongoing protests. And yet, demonstrators
remain undeterred.
Today, “Mahsa”,
who went by her Kurdish name, Zhina, is synonymous with Iranians’ fight for
freedom and liberty. The ongoing protests have evolved into anti-government
strikes and boycotts by teachers and university students, intellectuals, even oil workers.
The country’s sports and artistic communities
have been particularly supportive, as have former political prisoners and others wronged by
the regime.
The protests
have also generated massive global interest. Despite internet blocks and
hashtag filtering, #MahsaAmini has been shared more than 100 million times
on Twitter. Iranians in the diaspora have stepped up to show the world that
they stand with the Iranian people, organizing large demonstrations in 150 cities around
the world, with the largest, in Toronto, drawing an estimated 50,000 people.
Many Iranian
women, whether at home or abroad, see themselves in Mahsa, victims of
gender-based discrimination, repression, and cruelty. Most Iranian women,
including myself, have been stopped by the regime’s morality police for
violating laws against “immodesty and
societal vices”. This experience is humiliating, and can leave
serious emotional, legal, and physical scars for those harassed by the
authorities.
Like Mahsa, at
some point in our life, and often repeatedly since a young age, we have all
been stopped for “inadequate” wearing of the compulsory Islamic veil. Even a
few strands of hair showing from underneath our scarf can bring trouble. Schoolgirls as young as six must wear a veil to
school, and once a girl turns nine, the Islamic veil becomes mandatory.
Many Iranian women, whether at home or abroad, see themselves in Mahsa, victims of gender-based discrimination, repression, and cruelty.
It has been
heartwarming to see the international response to Iranians’ demands for justice
in the wake of Mahsa’s death. Still, I worry that many are missing key
contextual elements that are driving the visceral reaction inside my
country.
First, while
women’s rights are central to today’s protests, gender equality is far from the
only demand. The regime itself is under fire, as evidenced by the slogans
people are shouting: “Death to the dictator,” “Death to Khamenei”, and “We will
take Iran back”. Moreover, anti-regime protests – and the regime’s bloody
response – have precedence in Iran, such as in December 2017 and November 2019.
If Mahsa’s
death was the spark for these most recent protests, a Kurdish saying – “Woman, life,
liberty” – is its fuel. Protesters recognize that true freedom in Iran is only
attainable if women are free, and for that to happen, the Islamic Republic must
go.
Socio-economic
concerns, the climate crisis, corruption, and widespread political repression
are among the myriad reasons why men and children, and women who choose to
wear the hijab, are protesting alongside those who do not want to.
Second, Iranian
women’s objections and protests to the mandatory veil are not new; they are the
continuation of a fight against compulsory veil laws and practices that are as
old as the Islamic Republic itself. On March 8, 1979, less than two months
after the Shah was toppled, huge protests were staged in opposition to Ayatollah
Khomeini’s announcement a day earlier that the veil would become compulsory in government offices.
Ever since,
grassroots-level resistance has been practiced by generations of Iranian women,
fueled more recently by social media. Over the years, many have been arrested
and persecuted for participating in these campaigns or for taking off their
scarves in public.
Third,
the women’s rights movement in Iran is one of the oldest
movements in the country, dating to before the Constitutional Revolution of
1905-1911. Women’s rights advocates have also been among the most active in
post-revolutionary Iran. In other words, today’s protests are about more than a
piece of fabric; they are pluralistic, just as Iranian society itself.
Finally, there
is an unprecedented sense of unity in the protests currently under way, and that
poses a direct challenge to a regime reliant on a “divide and rule” strategy.
The inability to use Syria-like marginalization tactics to contain the buildup
of grievances and anger is causing the regime to lash out aggressively.
Mahsa was a
Kurdish guest in Tehran (she was on holiday when she was arrested). Iranian
Kurds, one of the country’s largest ethnic groups, are heavily targeted and
repressed by the regime, and they themselves have a long history of resilience.
Yet, the people
of Iran have stood with their Kurdish brothers and sisters. This type of
solidarity, which began with the women’s rights movement decades ago, has
become ubiquitous. Slogans such as “Kurdistan is not alone” and “Baluchestan is
not alone” are being chanted by thousands of Iranian protesters in Iran and
abroad.
The death of a
young Kurdish woman at the hands of Iran’s morality police has awakened a
nation to fight for individual rights, and the rights of one another. What
comes next in Iran is unclear, though one thing is certain: collective calls
for accountability, justice, and freedom are reaching a crescendo that the
world cannot ignore.
Azadeh Pourzand, is co-founder
and executive director of the Siamak Pourzand Foundation, and a PhD candidate
in Global Media and Communications at SOAS University of London. Syndication
Bureau.
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