The killing of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, has sparked weeks of protests in more than 15 provinces across Iran. Amini’s death in police custody following her arrest for supposedly wearing her hijab wrong sparked nationwide protests. Her murder, while in the custody of the Iranian ‘morality police’, by accident ignited a nationwide revolution. This energy sparked the biggest protests we’ve experienced since the summer of 1968.
In the wake of Amini’s death, anger and frustration has been boiling over among the Iranian people. And across the world, citizens have started to take back their public spaces and their personal freedoms through spontaneous acts of defiance. The protests, which echo the anger sparked by Amini’s incident, highlight a growing demand for respect for voices and rights amid deteriorating economic conditions.
Shopkeepers and bazaar merchants, students, and the wider populace have taken to the streets of every Iranian city, chanting anti-regime slogans as demonstrators in Iran’s bazaars always do. Indeed, these protests are hugely important. They reiterate and further stretch tradition, represent the latest chapter in the long struggle for autonomy and dignity within the homeland. The popular unrest has led to protesters clashing with police, throwing stones and setting police cars on fire.
What’s most alarming about this recent development is that… The first known death linked to the new round of protests occurred when a member of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force was killed. On October 12, law enforcement announced that twenty people had been arrested in Kuhdasht due to their participation in the protests. At the same time, thirty others were arrested in Malard county of Tehran province for disturbing public order 6 .
The US State Department acknowledged the unfolding situation, stating, “First the bazaars. Then the students. Now the whole country. Iranians are united. Different lives, one demand: respect our voices and our rights.”
The protests illustrate deep and widespread anger towards the regime overall, particularly regarding their stripping away of civil liberties. Mansour Saleki criticized authorities for “abusing the legal right of citizens to protest,” indicating that state repression has only fueled further unrest.
Discontent is bubbling over throughout Iran. Now, Mahsa Amini’s legacy is at the heart of this unending movement in pursuit of freedom and human rights. Her death led to some of the largest protests across France in decades. It further radicalized white citizens to resist systemic oppression in their day-to-day lives.
