The scale of the protest movement that erupted after the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini and the brutal repression of those demonstrations have left an indelible mark on Iranian society. More and more women are flouting the veil requirement when out in public in what one NGO has described as a "quiet revolution" while men's behavior and awareness have also seen a shift in the years since.
September 16 marks two years since a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman died after being detained by Iran’s morality police for wearing what they called an "ill-fitting" veil, sparking one of the largest waves of protests in the history of the Islamic Republic.
In the days following Mahsa Amini’s death, tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to express their anger, chanting, "Woman, life, freedom." These demonstrations, which lasted for several months, were violently suppressed by the Iranian authorities. But two years later, the legacy of the protests remains tangible; tongues have loosened, and more first-hand accounts have begun to surface.
“We now know that unprecedented violence was used during the crackdown on these demonstrators. It was far worse than we thought,” said Chowra Makaremi, an anthropologist and specialist on Iran. “We only really became aware of the extent of the cruelty by reading the testimonies collected by the UN investigation.”
A damning UN report published in March found evidence of extrajudicial killings and crimes against humanity. Investigators detailed serious human rights violations, including torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence against detained demonstrators.
Read moreIran uses rape, torture to silence detained Mahsa Amini protesters, Amnesty says
More than 30,000 arrests were recorded and at least 551 protesters were killed by security forces, including 49 women and 68 children.
"Most deaths were caused by firearms, including assault rifles," the report said, noting numerous injuries to protesters' eyes and the "blinding of scores of women, men and children, branding them for life".
‘Men's behavior has changed’
The demonstrations have had a lasting effect on Iranian society, according to the Oslo-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR), with more and more Iranian women refusing to cover their hair in public.
“A quiet revolution has taken place across Iran, in which women refuse to adhere to what has become the symbol of Islamic Republic oppression – the mandatory hijab,” the IHR said in a September release.
“With their simple act of peaceful civil disobedience, these women say no – no to the repression, no to the violence, and no to the systematic discrimination and gender apartheid that has characterized the plight of women in the Islamic Republic since its inception.”
Beyond the veil, there have been even more profound changes within civil society since Mahsa Amini's death, said Makaremi, who published an essay on the revolt entitled, "Woman! Life! Freedom! Echoes of a Revolutionary Uprising in Iran."
"A cultural revolution is under way,” she said. “Within families, in the private sphere, hierarchical relationships are changing. The place of young women and girls is changing. Men's behavior has changed too – they no longer take for granted their positions of power. In fact, they are no longer as blind to the way in which they, themselves, had become tools of state repression.”
‘You can be pious and opposed to the Islamic Republic’
Makaremi said another recent development is that the "adherence to traditional values and religion has become independent of adherence to the regime". In other words, she said, it is now understood that "you can adhere to traditional values, be deeply pious, and yet be fundamentally opposed to the Islamic Republic".
Strikes led by Iranian bazaar merchants illustrated this phenomenon. The bazaaris, a sector of Iranian society that has traditionally been close to the clergy, closed up shop to show support for the protest movement, helping it maintain momentum.
There has also been a marked shift in Iran's sociopolitical sphere since the protests. From the spontaneous gatherings in Iranian streets to the chants heard in schools, from the graffiti seen on walls to viral social media posts, Makaremi said these small but widespread acts of protest have begun to reveal the true scale of opposition to the regime.
Read moreIran's new generation: Meet the young women fighting for freedom
Break with the reformers
Iranians are breaking the final taboos, including criticizing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The chants of "Death to Khamenei" heard during the demonstrations and the high school girls directing their middle fingers at his portrait were essentially calls for a change of regime – something that even Iran’s reformists had rarely dared to vocalize.
"The Iranians have realized that their opposition has become foundational," Makaremi said.
"Before all of this the reformists were the main conduit for political dissent, which nevertheless stopped short of questioning the foundations of the Islamic Republic,” she said.
“But now we are seeing a movement that has broken free.”
In another sign of the rupture between the population and Iran’s traditional reformists, there were widespread calls for a boycott ahead of the June 2024 presidential election despite the presence of a reformist candidate (who eventually won).
The vote’s first round saw the lowest turnout ever in an Iranian election, another sign of deep disillusionment with the political system inherited from the 1979 Islamic revolution – and the reformers who are part of it.
This article has been translated from the original in French.
