Iran is currently experiencing its biggest uprising since the Iranian revolution in 1979 following the brutal murder of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old was beaten so badly by the country’s morality police after being detained for incorrectly wearing her hijab that she fell into a coma and died on 16th September.
Notably, the protests are being led by Gen Z women who are bravely risking their lives to incite change and using their tech saviness to bypass the country’s censorship. Indeed, a few days after the protests began, the government blocked internet access – including WhatsApp and Instagram – to make it hard for its population to share footage of the unrest. However, young women have been using VPN connections or the Tor anonymity network to share shocking videos and photos of the revolt, with Iranians across the diaspora helping push the trickle of information seeping out of the country to the global mainstream media.
In one particularly poignant video, a crowd of schoolgirls in the city of Karaj can be seen throwing water bottles while shouting at an education official – who had been sent to quell the unrest caused by Amini’s death – before chasing him off the grounds shouting “shame on you”. In another, teenagers can be seen marching the streets without their hijabs, shouting “Women. Life. Freedom” in the city of Karaj, west of the capital, and in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj.
I’ve never seen anything like this in the Islamic Republic of Iran… schoolgirls without mandatory hejab,chanting "We don't want the Islamic Republic" & "Khamenei is a murderer, his reign is nullified.” And it’s happening in several places. #IranProtests #iran #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/Jwx1wJP0r0
— Roxana Saberi (@roxanasaberi) October 3, 2022
Across 80 cities were protests have erupted, footage is showcasing the heroic actions of Iranian people en masse, who have been marching on the streets chanting “death to the dictator” in direct reference to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, burning their hijabs and cutting off their hair. “It’s a very powerful gesture of Iranian women almost sarcastically and bitterly stating that: ‘If it’s the hair that is bothering you — if it’s the hair you want — here you go,’” explained Mr. Akbari of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting to The New York Times of the significance of the latter gesture that’s currently going viral on social media.
"The video published on social media shows that a group of women in the center of Sanandaj city take off their headscarves and dance with the slogan "Zhen Jian Azadi" in protest against the mandatory hijab and accompanying the uprising of the Iranian people.#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/XfHWTGUNGx
— Iran for Mahsa Amini (@Farshad51346335) October 3, 2022
For those unable to attend the marches, they have uploaded videos of themselves removing pictures of the two supreme leaders who have ruled since the revolution – Ayatollah Khomeini and now Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – from their homes, offices and schools. In some photos, young girls can be seen with their backs to the camera with their hair on display, sticking their middle finger to the two Ayatollahs.
In an unprecedented & dangerous act of solidarity, some school girls in #Iran have removed their hijabs & denounced the Islamic regime. Protests are in their third week now following the death of a young woman over an alleged hijab violation. #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/dtqMNBR4VO
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) October 5, 2022
However, the protests are being met with brute force by the authoritarian regime. Most recently, the Iranian security forces clashed with the students at Sharif University of Technology, a prominent institution which is widely regarded as one of the best universities in the country. Last night activist Twitter account 1500tasvir posted a slate of videos that showed security forces chasing dozens of students trapped in the university’s underground parking. Concerns further grew overnight where, local media reported, riot police confronted hundreds of students, using tear gas and paintballs and carrying weapons that shoot non-lethal steel pellets.
This young woman's mother has been killed in protests, but that doesn't stop her from standing near her mother's grave, holding her chopped-off hair, & not wearing a hijab. Iranian women giving a crash course to the people on how to be brave against their authoritarian regimes. pic.twitter.com/FfVA64Py8q
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) September 30, 2022
Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based group, in a statement said that “so far 133 people had been killed across Iran“, including more than 40 people it said died in clashes last week in Zahedan, capital of the south-eastern Sistan-Baluchistan province. They also stated that over 1,500 have been arrested so far in connection to the protests.
Although in the past, the families of those killed by security forces have been intimidated by the authorities into keeping quiet, this time heartbreaking videos of funeral services show displays of public mourning, such as a woman cutting her hair over a coffin or a father dancing at his daughter’s grave after promising he would at her upcoming wedding.
As the country enters the third week of protests, many Iranians are calling for the rest of the world to “please be our voice” as the government crack down on the internet intensifies. Be sure to honour the incredible actions of these brave individuals by amplifying their fight for freedom.
