2023-09-14 20:36:52
Just over a week before the first anniversary of her death, the family of Jina Mahsa Amini addressed the Iranian public, announcing on Instagram, on September 8, that they would like to mourn at the young woman’s grave on the 16th. of September.
Her relatives, like any grieving family, want to hold a traditional, religious funeral service for their beloved daughter. For a year, the family has been under surveillance by security forces.
But not only Mahsa Amini’s family is in the sights of the authorities, many cemeteries in the country are also monitored to avoid crowds, since these could quickly lead to protests, as happened last year.
The largest protest movement in decades
Jina Mahsa Amini was detained in 2022 during a trip to the capital, Tehran, and taken to a police station, allegedly for not wearing her headscarf properly.
In Iran, women are strictly required to wear headscarves in public. A few hours later, she was taken dead from police custody to the hospital. Three days later, on September 16, she was officially declared dead.
Mass protests began with the funeral of Jina Mahsa Amini in her hometown of Saghes, a Kurdish town in western Iran, and quickly spread throughout the country.
The participants, mostly young women, removed their headscarves. Her motto: “Woman, life, freedom.” The widespread rallies became the largest and longest protests since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979, to which the government responded with massive repression and violence.
It is difficult to know exact figures, but according to independent human rights organizations, Iranian security forces killed at least 527 protesters, including 17 minors, during protests that took place between September 16, 2022 and the end of January 2022. 2023.
The veil as a symbol of systematic oppression
However, human rights activists are convinced that these protests have permanently changed the political and social relations of Iranian society.
One of the most significant changes concerns the new appearance of women in public. Despite stricter punitive measures, such as fines, many women refuse to wear the mandatory headscarf. They consider the headscarf to be a symbol of systematic oppression and humiliation and no longer want to submit to the rules associated with it.
The Government fights against its own population
“We are facing a progressive movement that will bear fruit in the long term,” says the internationally famous Iranian sculptor Barbad Golshiri, who now lives in Paris.
In an interview with DW, she states: “The ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement is giving rise to a cultural revolution from the lowest stratum of society. It is questioning values that despots have wanted to impose on their society from above for years. eighty”.
On August 22, the Iranian Parliament passed a controversial law providing for harsher punitive measures in case of non-compliance with Islamic dress codes. Among them, up to 15 years in prison for multiple violations. The publication on the Internet of photos of women without veils is also punished.
In addition, a ban on leaving the country is planned. Justice threatens to close supermarkets, restaurants or museums that allow entry to women without veils. On the other hand, religious women will be better protected. If veiled women are insulted, the punishment for the offender is six months behind bars and 74 lashes.
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