On Sept. 13, a 22-year-old woman was arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly by the Gasht-e-Ershad, widely known as “morality police,” in Tehran, Iran.
Mahsa Amini’s death while in custody on Sept. 16 has caused protests against the country’s law on women’s rights in at least 46 cities, according to the Associated Press News.
Iran has experienced multiple protests over the years, the last one being in 2019 over gasoline price increases, according to the news agency. But this new wave of protests is demanding that women have the freedom to dress and behave however they want.
Women are protesting in the streets with pictures of the 22-year-old, cutting their hair and burning their hijabs.
“Iran’s Islamic Republic requires women to cover up in public, including wearing a ‘hijab’ or headscarf that is supposed to completely hide the hair,” according to the AP News.
Since the protests began on Sept. 17, Iranian state TV suggested that at least 41 protesters and police have been killed. According to an Associated Press count of official statements, more than 1,500 demonstrators had been arrested as of last week.
At least 76 protesters have been killed by Iranian security forces during 11 days of protests sparked by the death of Amini, according to foreignpolicy.com.
The 22-year-old was visiting the capital when she was arrested. Although Iranian authorities claim that Amini died of heart failure, her family and protesters across Iran accuse the government of covering up her murder, according to Time magazine.
“This happens within two hours,” said Sara A. Ahmadi, a native of Iran, and an assistant professor of practice in the UTRGV Department of Teaching and Learning. “So, I think that was the kind of last straw in the camel. People are like, ‘We’re done.’”
Ahmadi said the hijab wearing began after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when the religious law became law.
“Women were considered the second-ranked citizens,” she said. “They lost a lot of the rights, the equality rights, that they had in that country. So, basically, women become the property of a man as if they cannot decide or be on their own.”
Anytime women wanted to speak out about this, they would be shut down, but Ahmadi said that this time it is different because people now understand that a hijab is much more than a piece of cloth.
“If there were people at some point that were like, ‘No, it doesn’t matter. I don’t want another revolution,’ these are the things that prevent people from really doing something,” Ahmadi said. “But this time [they’re] determined. We want our rights. And men are also, you know, supporting that. We’re tired of this regime. There is nothing that can be reformed or be done about it. They have to be gone. They have to be overthrown.”
Siamak Javadi, who is married to Ahmadi and is an assistant professor of finance, said there are millions of women who are being killed because they want to have their agency back.
“It’s none of anybody’s business to tell them what to wear, what not to wear,” Javadi said. “It should be relevant to everybody. And, also, another thing, UTRGV has a fairly good number of Iranians living here. I am not the only faculty member. You have faculty members in different departments.”
During the protest, authorities shut down internet access to Iranians.
Javadi said the two reasons for the internet shutdown is to cut off communication between protesters in different cities and slow down the information going out of Iran so other countries do not know what is going on.
“[People] knew this [would] happen, people didn’t care, they knew the internet would be cut off,” he said. “But they continued, and they found different ways to, you know, pass on the information. So the government has been successful in slowing down the flow of information, but due to the intelligence of my fellow countrymen, now the word is out. I mean, the entire world is watching.”
The professors hope that the outcome of the protests is a regime change and encourage people to contact their representatives to bring awareness and help Iranians.
