‘Death to the dictator’: Women erupt in Iran after suspicious death of Mahsa Amini

The death of a young Kurdish woman after her arrest by Iran’s morality police has sparked “unprecedented” protests across the nation.

A woman sits on top of a box in a public square and emphatically cuts her hair. Nearby, people yell out, “death to the dictator.”

Elsewhere, a police car is set on fire and an Iranian girl stands on the roof chanting, “we don’t want Islamic Republic.”

Another woman burns what Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad calls “the most visible symbol of religious dictatorship”, the “compulsory hijab.”

These are some of the “unprecedented” scenes taking place in Iran as the country erupts after the suspicious death of a young woman who had been arrested by Tehran’s notorious morality police.

The acts of defiance are especially brave given that Iran is brutally cracking down on protests.

The death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, on Friday was the spark that lit the flame.

She died three days after she was urgently hospitalised following her arrest in Tehran by police responsible for enforcing Iran’s strict dress code for women.

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Mahsa Amini, originally from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province in western Iran, died in suspicious circumstances. Picture: Twitter

The scenes in Iran are astonishing. How far will these protests go?
pic.twitter.com/AJeHB0yyYB

— Frida Ghitis (@FridaGhitis) September 20, 2022

This is incredible - Iranians are fighting back like I’ve never seen before.pic.twitter.com/06zKSUBaeJ

— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) September 21, 2022

The death of Mahsa Amini

Mahsa Amini, was arrested on September 13 by the Guidance Patrol, a type of vice squad operating under the Law Enforcement Command in Tehran, Iran.

She had allegedly breached strict hijab regulations and was accused of having “unsuitable attire” because she wore her head covering improperly.

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Mahsa Amini's final moments were captured on CCTV. Picture: Twitter

She reportedly fell into a coma and died three days later while waiting with other women who were being held by police. Authorities have said she died of a “heart attack”. Her father said she had no health problems and that she sustained bruises on her legs while in custody.

Alleged eyewitnesses claim she was beaten and her head hit the side of a police car, but this has not been confirmed by the Iranian officials, who have opened an investigation.

The moment before Mahsa Amini collapsed. Picture: Twitter

She was rushed away in an ambulance. Picture: Twitter

Iran’s state media released CCTV footage of the moments before her death.

She appeared to collapse at the “re-education” centre where people are taken to receive “guidance” about their attire.

Greater Tehran Police Commander Hossein Rahimi said: “The incident was unfortunate for us and we wish to never witness such incidents,” at a press conference on Monday.

He claimed “false accusations” had been made against police and said she was not physically harmed when she was taken into custody or afterwards.

Protesters are reportedly “not convinced” by the explanation for her death given by authorities and claim she died “under torture”. Leaked medical scans “vividly show a skull fracture on the right side of her head caused by a severe trauma to the skull”, indicating she may have died from cerebral haemorrhage and stroke.

Mahsa Amini was buried in her native province of Kurdistan on September 17.

An activist stands on top of a police car during protests in Iran. Picture: Twitter

Protests are taking place in Iran after the woman's death. Picture: Twitter

A woman burns her hijab (left) and a crowd takes on police. Picture: Twitter

#IranProtests are growing in size/ scale and have even reached Kish Island—this is unprecedented.

The #Iranian people are united and could not be clearer in their demand for outright change:

“Death to the Islamic Republic (regime)” #مهسا_امینیhttps://t.co/2l9SgU1WZX

— Kasra Aarabi (کسری اعرابی) (@KasraAarabi) September 20, 2022

Breathtaking scene.
The police cars are on fire and the Iranian girl standing on the roof of the car chanting:
"We don't want Islamic Republic"#IranProtests#IranRevolutionpic.twitter.com/BCn4hSxHe8

— ZiZi🏴 (@zizikhanoum) September 20, 2022

International alarm growing at Iran crackdown

International alarm is mounting over a deadly crackdown in Iran against the protests.

Iranian women and men took to the streets in cities and towns across the country for the fourth evening in a row on Tuesday, despite the deaths of at least three people in the protests on Monday, shouting slogans against the country’s clerical leadership, images posted on social media showed.

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died days after being arrested by morality police. Picture: Twitter

The protests are among the most serious in Iran since November 2019 unrest over fuel price rises and marked this time by the presence of large numbers of women, who have on occasion removed their headscarves in defiance of the Islamic republic’s strict laws and sometimes even set them on fire or symbolically cut their hair.

Demonstrators gather near a motorbike on fire during a protest for Mahsa Amini. Picture: AFP

Demonstrators gather around a burning barricade during a protest for Mahsa Amini. Picture: AFP

The protests first erupted in Iran’s northern Kurdistan province where Amini was from but have now spread across the country to Tehran and also major cities like Rasht in the north and Bandar Abbas in the south as well as the holy city of Mashhad in the east.

Kurdistan province governor Ismail Zarei Koosha confirmed the deaths of three people, insisting they were “killed suspiciously” as part of “a plot by the enemy”, according to the Fars news agency.

Make no mistake, this #IranProtests is targeting the regime's very existence; it's about regime change. Those saying otherwise are in delusion.

Protestors chanting, “death to Khamenei”.pic.twitter.com/H5PmLgfbJ0

— Navid Mohebbi نوید محبی (@navidmohebbi) September 19, 2022

Unprecedented scenes in Iran: woman sits on top of utility box and cuts her hair in main square in Kerman to protest death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the morality police. People clap their hands and chant “Death to the dictator.” #مهسا_امینیpic.twitter.com/2oyuKV80Ac

— Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari) September 20, 2022

A protester holds a portrait of Mahsa Amini during a protest in Istanbul, Turkey Picture: Ozan Kose/AFP

Activists say however that dozens of people have also been wounded and accuse the security forces of using live fire which has caused the casualties.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said witness accounts and videos circulating on social media “indicate that authorities are using teargas to disperse protesters and have apparently used lethal force in Kurdistan province”.

In Geneva, the UN said acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif expressed alarm at Amini’s death and the “the violent response by security forces to ensuing protests”.

She said there must be an independent investigation into “Mahsa Amini’s tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment”.

‘Stop further state killings’

The Kurdish human rights group Hengaw, which is based in Norway, said it had confirmed a total of three deaths in Kurdistan province — one apiece in the towns of Divandareh, Saqqez and Dehglan.

It added that 221 people had been wounded and another 250 arrested in the Kurdistan region, where there had also been a general strike on Monday.

A 10-year-old girl — images of whose blood-spattered body have gone viral on social media —- was wounded in the town of Bukan but alive, it added.

A kiosk in the Iranian capital Tehran displays newspapers on September 18, 2022, with the front pages featuring articles and photographs of Mahsa Amini. Picture: AFP

Images posted on social media have shown fierce clashes especially in the town of Divandareh between protesters and the security forces, with sounds of live fire.

Protests continued on Tuesday in Kurdistan and around Tehran’s main universities and also, unusually, at the Tehran bazaar, images showed.

Slogans shouted included “Death to the dictator” and “Woman, life, freedom” while protesters were shown starting fires and seeking to overturn police vehicles in several cities.

“It is not surprising to us that we are seeing people of all walks of life come out in Iran to object vigorously to that, an say that is not the kind of society that they want to live in,” said US national security advisor Jake Sullivan.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) NGO director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said countries with diplomatic relations with Iran must “to stop further state killings by supporting the people’s demands to realise their basic rights.”

Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died days after being arrested by morality police. Picture: AFP

‘Systemic persecution’

The IHR said security forces used batons, teargas, water cannon, rubber bullets and live ammunition in certain regions “to directly target protesters and crush the protests”.

The Netblocks internet access monitor noted an over three hour regional internet blackout in Kurdistan province and also partial disruptions in Tehran and other cities during protests on Monday.

The situation will add to pressure on Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi who is in New York for the UN General Assembly this week where he was already set to face intense scrutiny over Iran’s human rights record.

French President Emmanuel Macron was holding a rare meeting with Raisi Tuesday in a final attempt to agree a deal reviving the 2015 nuclear accord.

The Islamic headscarf has been obligatory in public for all women in Iran since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah.

The rules are enforced by a special unit of police known as the Gasht-e Ershad (guidance patrol), who have the power to arrest women deemed to have violated the dress code, although normally they are released with a warning.

– with AFP