The name Mahsa Amini may mean absolutely nothing to you. But you may have come across videos of angry, crying people, women and men, cutting their hair in protest on some social media – especially Tik Tok.
They are protesting the brutal murder of their young compatriot Mahsa Amini, while violent clashes have rocked Iran since mid-September, with citizens protesting in the country’s streets against police brutality and its obsessive, murderous adherence to the Law that every woman wants Iran to wear hijab.
A chronicle
It all started when 22-year-old Iranian woman Zhina/Jina Amini was arrested by the Guidance Patrol of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a special police force responsible for the public enforcement of Islamic hijab regulations, because her hijab did not meet the mandatory government regulations…
@lunafairy.ir Mahsa Amini is a 22-year-old Iranian girl who was killed by the guidance patrol (police for compulsory hijab) due to a severe beating. Please bring the voice of Iranian people to the world مهسا_امینی mahsa_amini mahsaamini ♬ original sound – luna
Two days later it became known that Amini died, while she had fallen into a coma, as a result of the violent beatings she received from the men of the Modesty Police, as it is called in Iran.
The official police report said she suffered a cardiac arrest, fell into a coma and died two days later, but evidence that came to light revealed that the young woman had been beaten to death in the head with a club shortly after her arrest and brutal putting her in a police cage.
Her death automatically made her a symbol against violence against women in the Islamic Republic.
Mahsa, originally from Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, was accompanied by her brother, Kiaresh, at the time of the arrest. She was in Tehran with her family when she was arrested on September 13, at the entrance to Haqqani Avenue by the so-called “Guidance Patrol” of the regime.
After the arrest, it was supposed, as she had been informed, that she would be transferred to the “Moral Security” service and from there to a detention center where she would undergo a “brief lesson in modesty” and then she could be released. None of this happened. The next place she was found, no longer conscious, was Tehran’s Kasra Hospital.
There, Amini was hospitalized for two days. He was already in a comatose state. In those two 24 hours, the news of her arrest and the police brutality of the young girl went around Iran and subsequently, the world. Amini died in intensive care on September 16, poignantly reigniting the hijab debate.
Things got complicated and media attention turned back to Iran when the clinic where the young girl was treated released a statement on Instagram saying she was brain dead on admission. Shortly after, the post on the social networking platform was deleted.
But her death has now made headlines in foreign media with her brother reporting that he had noticed bruises on the dead girl’s head and legs. His testimony was corroborated by the statements of women who had been arrested with Mahsa: the 22-year-old was punched, kicked and hit on the head several times with a club when she reacted to the policemen’s insults.
It was then that the first medical reports came to light, which spoke of unsolicited brain damage, bleeding from the ears and very serious injuries in the area of the eyes, as a result of police violence.
Violent clashes and protests everywhere in Iran
After the death of the 22-year-old, outrage engulfed the country, but also her hometown in Kurdistan, the city of Saqqez. The streets were flooded with Kurdish feminist slogans such as “Jin-Jian-Azadi: Women, life, freedom” and “death to the dictator” in Persian.
Protests also took place outside Kasra Hospital in Tehran, with several women arrested and others knocked unconscious after being teargassed.
For days now, Iran has been on fire with angry protests and clashes between ordinary citizens and the security forces of the Islamic State non-stop. The streets of Sanandaj on Sunday were closed and security forces were spread across the city after a night of protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strict dress code.
Even more tragically, on September 19, five people were killed in the Kurdish region of Iran on Monday when security forces opened fire during protests for the 22-year-old.
@nikaazarriii mahsaamini iran persiantiktok ♬ original sound – em-
