When the 22-year-old Mahsa (Zhina) Amini died in custody following the beatings suffered at the hands of the Iranian “moral” police on September 16, 2022, no one would have expected such a broad and structured response from Iranian civil society.
Iranian civil society has been organizing protests for years, but so far everything has remained the same. How not to remember the heroic gesture of Movahed Life who on December 27, 2017 climbed onto a control unit, took off her white veil, tied it to a stick and began to wave it. The girl from the Via della Revolutions, many remember her like this, was immediately arrested and sentenced to one year in prison. Her gesture gave birth to a revolutionary movement of women which, however, was soon repressed.
The repression of protests
The death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini has, however, unleashed an unprecedented popular uprising that continues throughout the country. The protests quickly spread to all provinces, the same speed with which control and repression actions were ordered, even resorting to killing, if necessary. The Iranian authorities have used it extensively and illegally ammunition, metal pellets and tear gas against anyone who took to the streets to demonstrate. No one was spared, not even i children. Too many have been beaten and abused.
Amnesty International has registered the names of hundreds of protesters and bystanders unlawfully killed by security forces, including at least 44 children. Hundreds of others were blinded or suffered other serious eye injuries from metal bullets used by security forces. Thousands of people have sustained injuries for which many have not sought medical assistance for fear of arrest. According to some local organizations, since the protests began, the Iranian authorities have killed 500 people and reportedly arrested 20,000. Difficult today to be able to have a certain number because there is so much fear of retaliation for any type of denunciation.
Arrests, death sentences, executions
The situation changed after four executions occurred between December and January, which led to new methods and times of protest. Although the street demonstrations have diminished, the will to carry on in the war has not diminished demand for justice and freedom. The walls and public spaces of cities have begun to be covered with the guiding slogan of this revolution: “woman, life, freedom”. We can find it written on the walls as in banners that appear at night on public monuments just as, suddenly, at night we can hear people gathering on roofs and balconies shouting the slogan together in solidarity with those who have lost a loved one, with who is still in custody. Because it is true that many people have been released in recent weeks, but the truth is none of them would have to spend a single day in prison.
We are happy to have been able to celebrate the release of Iranian activists Yasaman Aryani and his mother Monireh Arabshahi. They had been arrested in 2019 and sentenced to years in prison just for fighting for women’s rights and against the veil obligation. But, as soon as they left, their liberating cry, a sign of incredible courage and determination, was: “woman, life, freedom!”. The message is clear: the releases of the last few weeks will not be enough to stop an unstoppable process. Women and girls continue to boldly defy the mandatory headscarf laws by appearing bareheaded in public. The so-called ‘Generation Z’, which has lost so much in terms of lives in these almost six months of revolt, is not willing to give up its freedom.
The rights of girls under threat
Women and girls continue to be at the forefront of the popular uprising, defying decades of gender-based discrimination and violence. They challenged the discriminatory and degrading obligation of the veil law which forces women and girls, even those of seven years old, to cover their hair with a veil against their will.
These girls now find themselves challenging a new enemy: the intoxication. According to information from the Persian BBC, from November 30 to February 26, at least 830 students, including 650 female students, plus two teachers were poisoned. The first case was registered in the Iranian city of Qom, southwest of Tehran, where hundreds of girls ended up in hospital with symptoms of severe respiratory intoxication. Qom is the city of excellence for Shia studies in Iran.
To date, there is no confirmation of the origins and causes of the attacks. The first official statements in this regard are beginning to arrive which, as often happens in Iran, attribute the responsibility to foreign agents who want to undermine the peace of the country. These episodes of intoxication leading to closure of schools, especially girls’ classesbring to mind similar episodes recorded in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2015. Again, it was the girls who suffered the attacks and had to give up school. Or what happened at Isfahan in 2014, when six girls were disfigured with acid by motorcycle gangs for being ill-veiled.
The executions of minorities
To the violence and gender discrimination reported across the country, we must add a frightening one wave of executions that hit ethnic minorities of Iran since the beginning of 2023. In the first two months of the year there were at least 94 executions, more than those recorded in the first two months of 2022, often accompanied by reports of sexual violence and other forms of torture. Between December 2022 and January 2023, at least six young people from Baloch minority were sentenced to death in separate trials in connection with protests that took place in Sistan and Baluchistan province in September 2022.
The determination and courage of Iranian civil society do not seem to stop. The dissent does not stop and the situation is evolving. For our part, the obligation remains to continue to denounce the violence, to show solidarity with their desire for freedom and to be their voice.
Copertina EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH’s photo