On September 16th, 2022, Mahsa Amini, a twenty-two year old Iranian woman died in hospital. The Islamic Republic’s Guidance Patrol — know as the “morality police” — attacked and beat her for not adhering to Islamic law.
She was wearing her hijab wrong.
Some of her hair was showing.
Or her pants were too short.
The specifics are unclear.
All we know for sure is that the morality police killed her because she didn’t fall in line with their rules.
The hijab became legally mandated for women shortly after the Islamic Republic came into power. Before the 1979 revolution that led to the Republic’s takeover, Iran was run by a monarchy.
While the monarchy — the Pahlavi dynasty — had its own share of human rights violations, overall they ruled with a secular, modern hand. There were no dress codes, Europeans would come to vacation, and so on.
Iranian people have never had the opportunity to govern themselves (they tried in 1953 by democratically electing a Prime Minister, but were overthrown by UK- and US-backed forces who wanted to keep the monarchy).
When the monarchy was finally overthrown in 1979, the Islamic Republic — not a democracy — came in. Although the Islamic faith entered Iran over a millennia ago, the religion is an import to the culture.
I spoke with Kia Zahrabi, an engineer, artist, and one of the organizers behind the One Year Anniversary rally for Mahsa Amini this September at the Vancouver Art Gallery about the history of politics in Iran and the current situation on the ground.
We discussed how the regime instills fear in the population, overcoming that fear, the younger generation having nothing left to lose, and touched on Zoroastrianism, Iran’s native religion — one of the world’s oldest organized faiths and the first religion to conceptualize the dualistic cosmology of good and evil.
Watch the video of conversation here or listen on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, or Google.
Stay up to date by following some of these accounts on Instagram: Nazanin Boniadi, Iranian Knowledge, Amplify Iran, Iranian Diaspora Collective, United for Masha, Center for Human Rights in Iran, and Gol Farahani.
*It’s important to stay tapped in to independent news sources. As wonderful as publications like The New York Times can be, they don’t always get it right. The Islamic Regime does not allow foreign journalists into the country and they kill or imprison Iranian journalists speaking out from inside.
Iran is currently at 177, out of 180, on the Reporters Without Borders Free Press list.
The latest update, after the Islamic Regime-USA prisoner exchange (which is as flawed as it seems) is that the Regime is doubling down on oppression.
On September 20th, 2023, the Islamic Regime passed stricter hijab laws, imposing heavier penalties on women who refuse to wear the mandatory Islamic headscarf in public. According to The National, “The bill also extends punishments to business owners who serve women not wearing the mandatory headscarf, known as hijab, and activists who organize against it. Violators could face up to 10 years in prison if the offense occurs in an organized way.”
I hope that you, dear reader, take this information as an invitation to stay sharp — to stay awake and aware in the face of injustice. The world is full of problems and we won’t conquer any of them by going numb.
Fighting oppression anywhere is fighting oppression everywhere. Support where you can, learn all you can, and keep the fire burning. Women! Life! Freedom!
For B.C. events supporting Iran and the Iranian diaspora follow nsuncollective and to learn more about the history of Iran, check out the Modern History of Iran podcast.
What's Going On in Iran? with Kia Zahrabi