Mahsa Amini was not forgotten in Iran six months after his death



Six months ago this week, Mahsa Amini was arrested on charges of violating Iran’s strict dress code for women. She was dead a few days later, prompting the largest protests in the country in years.

The 22-year-old ethnic Kurd has become a household name in Iran, uniting demands for change. Around the world, she became a hero for women’s rights activists and a symbol for Western opponents of the Islamic Republic.

Amini was visiting the capital Tehran with her brother and cousins ​​when she was arrested as they exited a metro station in the city center last September.

On charges of wearing “inappropriate” clothing, she was taken to the police station by the vice police.

There, she collapsed after an argument with a female police officer, according to a short security video released by authorities.

She spent three days in a hospital in a coma until her death on September 16, which authorities blamed on underlying health problems.

For many, the young woman from the western city of Sakez represented the struggle against the obligation to wear the hijab. Her name became the starting point of a protest movement that engulfed the country for several months.

The epitaph engraved on her grave reads: “You are not dead, Mahsa, your name has become a symbol.”

Almost overnight, her portrait became ubiquitous in Iranian cities, hung on walls and raised by protesters. He even made the cover of some magazines published in Iran, including the March issue of the monthly Andisheh Pouya.

“Unknown until her death, Mahsa has become a symbol of oppression, and her innocent face reinforces this image,” said political scientist Ahmad Zeidabadi.

A call for openness

Protests over her death in custody that began in the capital and in her home province of Kurdistan quickly grew into a nationwide movement for change.

Public anger over her death has merged with “a range of issues, including the economic crisis, attitudes towards the vice police, or political issues such as the disqualification of candidates in elections” from Iran’s conservative-dominated watchdog body, the Guardian Council, sociologist Abbas said. Abdi

Street protests led by young people demanding gender equality and more openness without a leader or political agenda reached their peak late last year.

Hundreds of people died, including dozens of law enforcement officers. Thousands more were arrested for participating in what officials called “riots” and blamed on hostile forces linked to the United States, Israel and their allies.

In February, after protests subsided and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced a partial amnesty, authorities began releasing thousands of people arrested in connection with the protests.

About 22,600 people “associated with the riots” have been released so far, judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said this week.

But Abdi said that the protesters could return to the streets again as the main grievances went unheeded.

“The rallies are over, but I doubt the protest is over,” he said, noting that “the root causes of the crisis remain.

“In the current situation, any incident could provoke new protests.”

As an example, he cited public anger over a spate of mysterious poisonings that have affected thousands of female students in more than 200 girls’ schools over the past three months.

Silent shift

Massive demonstrations in Iran, some of the largest since the 1979 revolution, have prompted some members of the opposition in exile to speak of imminent regime change.

“Some people, especially in the diaspora, have mistakenly bet on the fall of the Islamic Republic in the very near future,” political analyst Zeidabadi said.

Zeidabadi argued that the émigrés misunderstood the nature of the protest movement, which he said was more “civilian” than political.

He stressed that from this point of view, the movement produced “results”, in particular, a quiet relaxation of the enforcement of the dress code for women.

“A certain degree of freedom from wearing the hijab is allowed, even if the law and regulations have not changed,” Zeidabadi said.

He predicted equally restrained and cautious reforms in other areas, especially in an economy that has been hit by inflation of about 50 percent and a record depreciation of the rial against the dollar.

“It appears that the Islamic Republic has recognized the need for a change of policy, although there is no consensus within it on a lasting response to the challenge.”