This Friday marks nine months since the young Kurdish-Iranian woman died in the custody of the Moral Police, after being arrested and assaulted for not wearing the Islamic veil correctly. Almost a year after the massive protests demanding justice and freedoms for Iranian women, the brutal repression with which they were appeased has silenced the movement in the streets. But more and more women are defying Islamic norms by going into public space without the hijab.
Her name resounded loudly in the streets of hundreds of cities around the world: Mahsa Amini. The face of the young Kurdish-Iranian girl appeared on banners, newspapers and news reports for weeks. Nine months after her death, little remains of those demonstrations under the cry of: “woman, life, freedom.” Only a silencing based on excessive repression and echoes of justice from exile.
This Friday, September 16, marks nine months since the young Mahsa Amini, 22, after being arrested and assaulted by the strict Iranian Moral Police for allegedly not wearing the hijab or Islamic veil covering her hair. as ordered by the laws of the Islamic Republic. Shortly after, she entered a hospital in Tehran, the capital, in a coma, where she died as a result of a brain hemorrhage.
Then, the Iranian authorities argued that her death was due to a cardiac arrest – “due to previous health problems” – and a fall, but the images of the young woman connected to tubes and cables in the hospital, along with the video of her arrest The gunpowder was little replicated on the Internet and thus began the most massive protests in recent years in Iran. The young woman’s family denied at all times that her daughter suffered from some type of heart disease.
Thousands of young people, led by women, took to the streets of various cities in the country. They burned veils, chanted against the government, blocked schools and universities, but above all they defied the repression of the feared security forces of Iran, who responded with brutal violence: arrests, shootings, beatings. While in many cities around the world, Iranians in exile and supporters showed support for Mahsa Amini’s family and the women of Iran.
Dio thus began an unprecedented movement: the young men and women of Iran lost their fear of taking to the streets to express their indignation against the Islamic government, which deployed thousands of soldiers and members of the Basij paramilitary group to appease the protests. According to Human Rights Watch, rights groups in Iran and in exile had recorded the homicide of 537 people at the hands of the security forces “in the context of the protests”, at least 68 were minors.
As the peaceful protests spread over time and across virtually the entire territory of Iran, the repression by the security forces increased, which ended up silencing much of the movement in the streets. “Amnesty International collected dozens of testimonies, audiovisual evidence and leaked official documents revealing that the Iranian authorities, and specifically the security forces, used lethal force, live ammunition, rubber bullets, tear gas and beatings to break up these protests. and cling to power by any means,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Thousands of arrests and dozens of death sentences
More than 15,000 people were arrested, hundreds of students who participated in the protests were expelled from classes and the Iranian authorities have executed seven people linked to the marches, dozens more have been sentenced to death. “The outrageous way in which Iran’s judicial system hastened the trial and sentencing of these protesters amid the use of torture-tainted ‘confessions,’ gross procedural flaws and a lack of evidence is yet another example of the authorities’ blatant indifference. Iranians for the right to life and a fair trial”, alarmed the head of the human rights organization.
Despite internet blackouts within the Islamic Republic, a campaign is still going on on social media demanding freedom for Iranian women and justice for Amini. “The government has regularly used internet speed limiting and restrictions to suppress dissent, monitor and punish Iranians for exercising their freedom of expression and assembly both online and offline,” the government said a few days ago. spokesman for the United States Department of the Treasury.
The motto: “Woman. Life. Freedom” still resonates on social networks
“We will fight and reclaim our land Iran. Nine months after the #WomanLifeFreedom revolution, the people of Baluchistan have taken to the streets every Friday constantly to demand unity and freedom against the oppressive regime,” Masih Alinejad, an Iranian human rights activist in exile, said on Twitter.
Nine months later, there is no justice for Amini, but many women began to lose their fear of appearing in public without the Islamic headscarf. More and more young women reject the imposition and compulsory nature of the garment, as well as the religious conservatism of the authorities. For her part, this Wednesday, the first lady of Iran, Jamileh Alamolhoda, reiterated from Caracas, Venezuela, that the Iranian social outbreak was an “informative media bombardment orchestrated by the United States.”
Iranian journalists Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi who reported on Mahsa Amini’s death have been imprisoned in Iran for the past eight months and are now facing charges of “conspiracy and rebellion against national security” and “anti-state propaganda” which could lead to… pic.twitter.com/7wOTYDlujG
— Ammara Ahmad (@ammarawrites) June 11, 2023
At the end of April, the trial began in Iran against Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, two Iranian reporters detained for more than seven months for reporting during the Amini protests, accused of “collaboration”, “conspiracy and rebellion against national security and “propaganda”.
“The trial against Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, the journalists who alerted on the Mahsa Amini case, begins behind closed doors. They face the death penalty without having seen their lawyers, nor acceding to the summary. We denounce this farce-justice and demand their release”, denounced Reporters Without Borders at the beginning of the trial.
With AP and local media
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