Tomorrow is the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death. Three days before she died in a hospital, the twenty-two-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman was leaving a metro station in Tehran with her brother when the so-called morality police arrested her for “Bad Hijabi“. Two hours after her arrest, Amini fell into a coma and was hospitalized. She passed away on September 16, 2022.
Amini’s photo in the hospital, which was taken by Niloofar Hamedi, a brave Iranian journalist, went viral. Rumors of her abuse by authorities spread on social media with the Persian hashtag #MahsaAmini.
Women got so angry. They were angry at the authorities’ treatment of women, angry at the totalitarian regime’s control over their bodies, angry at the regime’s dysfunction in managing the economy, and angry at so many things. Therefore, they took their anger to the streets of Tehran.
In less than ten days, Iran faced its second biggest uprising since the 1979 revolution. The first uprising happened a few years earlier when people poured into the streets protesting against the election result in 2009. They believed the presidential election was rigged. This one was bigger, and it was run by women.
Hundreds of people were killed during the uprising. Thousands were kidnapped, arrested, and disappeared. Only this time, women outnumbered men, at least in the beginning. The “softer sex” has become a liability for the Islamic regime during the second uprising.
Now one year later, and right at the anniversary of Amini’s death, the regime is so afraid of new uprisings that they’ve been cracking down on activists, journalists, and the families of those killed to quell potential unrest.
A video reported on Radio Farda, a U.S.-funded radio network, shows the security forces in Iran, all armed, ready to fight back against the protesters tomorrow.
As I anxiously watch what’s happening in my homeland, I think about Khalil Gibran’s saying: “Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.”
It seems to me that the Iranian government has abused Iran’s spirit, and women are trying to revive it.
Women, Life, Freedom.
زن، زندگی، آزادی
Please Pledge to Our Peace Journalism.
Goltune is editorially independent. We set our agenda. No one edits our editors. No one steers our opinion. This is important as it enables us to stay true to our values.
Every contribution we receive from readers like you, big or small, goes directly into funding our journalism. Please support Goltune, large or small.
Send your contributions to our PayPal account: editor@goltune.com
Or, Click the link to pledge your support.
Thank you,
Goltune Editorial Team