What is going on in Iran right now?
I am pretty sure most of you who are either on TikTok or keep up with international news have heard about the massive protests happening in Iran right now. It's a pretty big deal, but what exactly are these protests for and why are they so important?Hopefully, for those who don't know what's going on, I can explain it all here.
Who is Mahsa Amini and what happened to her?
Mahsa Amini was a 22-year-old woman travelling from Kurdistan to Tehran (the capital of Iran) to visit family and was stopped once she entered the city by something called “the morality police” (yes, this is a real thing). They claimed Mahsa Amini was wearing her hijab incorrectly and that she would be arrested to undergo “re-education” at the police station (which would result in her being released after an hour or so). Mahsa’s brother was with her when she was arrested and waited at the station for her to be released.It is unclear what exactly happened between when Mahsa was arrested and the events of her death (mostly because we do not have any video of these events) but the women detained along with Mahsa reported for similar offenses reported that Mahsa was violently beaten by said “morality officers”. This was supposedly for resisting their insults directed toward her. This story is corroborated by her brother’s report of Mahsa having bruises all over her body and the hospital where Mahsa was staying reporting she was brain dead upon arrival along with reporting signs of skull fracture and bleeding in her brain both on social media and in leaked medical reports.Mahsa died of her injuries two days after she was admitted to the hospital on September 16th of 2022.The official cause of death as reported by both the morality police and Iranian government has been extremely suspicious since the ‘official’ story claims she died as a result of a random heart attack/seizure combo. However, as stated before, there is plenty of evidence that Mahsa was violently attacked which includes but is not limited to the skull fractures found, the bruising around her body and face, the bleeding found in her brain and ears, and the fact several other witnesses have either said they witnessed the assault or have seen the previous things. Mahsa’s father also reported she was in perfect health and did not have a history of heart or seizure issues.
Why are people protesting?
For the people of Iran, instances of violence like this are not an unheard-of occurrence. Since the revolution of 1979 and the creation of this “morality police force”, women were forced to wear the hijab regardless of personal choice and had to adhere to a strict modest dress code lest they face similar treatment to Mahsa. To quote an actual penal code enacted in Iran post-revolution:
“women who appear in public without religious hijab will be sentenced to whipping up to 74 lashes”Violence against women for this reason was now, in a way, much more normalized. Some of these dress codes did apply to men, sure, but they were primarily created expressly to control women with the use of fear and force by way of the hijab. To also directly quote Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who has been in power since 1989:
“improperly veiled women should be made to feel unsafe”
Is this an anti-Islam protest?
The protests surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini have definitely gained international attention by what many people are doing in them. Many women are burning their hijabs in the streets, cutting off/shaving their hair and otherwise just doing a lot of things that, traditionally, would be considered taboo under this system that’s currently in place. However, this does not seem to be a direct rejection of Islam and rather a direct rejection of control over women by the use of the hijab as an avenue for that control.As stated before, this is not a new issue. There have been anti-hijab protests going on since the revolution in Iran back in the 70s. There were even protests pre-revolution for veiling since the leader at the time wanted to strictly stick to western norms. Iran shifted from one major extreme to the other and in both these extremes, choice on the part of the woman in question is completely taken out of the equation. It has been men that are making these choices for women in a broad universal way without giving women the ability to decide what they want for themselves. There is more than one way to veil in Islam. There are also many women who do not veil at all but are still active participants in their faith. There is not one specific way to do this correctly within Islam because modesty as a whole is a subjective topic so the fact that this police force exists in the first place proves that it is less about keeping morals ‘secure’ and more about exerting control through these rules via more extreme interpretations.It would, however, be unfair to say that these protests and the cultural revolution happening because of these protests do not diametrically oppose some parts of Islam and the culture surrounding it. These beliefs are incompatible by virtue of them being polar opposites of each other. These protests, like it or not, have western influence on them and this influence threatens certain parts of Islam because over time certain aspects of culture have become rooted in these controlling methods. Its pretty unclear how this will all play out. However, it is safe to say this will be shaking up things both within Iran and in the world of Islam as a whole.
Why are Non-Iranian women also cutting their hair?
Ever since the protests have gained international attention, many women outside of Iran (both ethnically Iranian and not) have also been cutting their hair to various degrees to stand in solidarity with protestors.This is significant symbolically for a few reasons. In many cultures, long hair is directly tied to one’s femininity, attractiveness and in some cases, even where one comes from. Like it or not, hair is culturally and socially important and the loss off it can be a very big deal for those living under these cultural expectations. In Iran, doing something like this subjects you to harassment from the morality police. It breaks the morality code and challenges the idea of what a woman should be and look like. Outside of this context, the removal of hair can be a sign of mourning, fear, anger and a rejection of femininity (or in this case, the control brought on by strict gendered dress codes).There has been a lot of controversy around this act since many people currently participating in these protests feel this act is performative activism on the part of western allies. Cutting one’s hair is not really on the same level as donating money to a cause or protesting yourself but others believe this is an important act of international solidarity. If you are reading this and decide to do this: do it at your own discretion and be sure your act of solidarity does not outshine the actual protests going on.
Why are people asking to blur protest footage posted online?
It should go without saying that the people protesting right now are putting themselves in very real danger. What happened to Mahsa Amini is now happening to protesters who are speaking out about Iran’s harsh morality laws. Many people have died as a result of participating in these protests and many more have gone missing. When you are dealing with an oppressive system like this, they are not going to take too kindly to opposition and if they are not afraid to beat women simply for wearing their hijab ‘incorrectly’, they are not afraid to do much worse to political rivals.Out of respect for the protesters and their safety: please blur out any faces, names and remove all metadata from any protest photos/footage you decide to share online because if I can find one of the protestors on Instagram simply by looking at their face and general location, so can the morality police. Those around during the Black Lives Matter protests, the Russian anti-war protests or any other media-sensitive protest used these same rules when posting footage/reporting on them.