1 of 1 Veiled and unveiled women on the streets of Tehran in March 2023. — Photo: Murielle Paradon / RFI Veiled and unveiled women on the streets of Tehran in March 2023. — Photo: Murielle Paradon / RFI
In Iran, six months after Mahsa Amini’s death, street protests demanding more freedoms are less frequent, mainly due to severe repression. However, the determination of some young people remains. The RFI report spoke to three students about their demands and wishes for the country.
They meet in a café near the University of Tehran. Three friends in their twenties, three college students in jeans and sneakers, with long brown hair. Inconceivable six months ago: These young women do not wear a headscarf, even though Iranian law requires them to do so. Mahsa Amini’s death changed her life.
After the young Kurd’s death from a misplaced veil, Shirin* decided to join the protest movement to demand more freedom, especially the freedom to dress freely.
“In the beginning we were very afraid, because if you didn’t wear the veil on your head, it meant your death sentence. It takes courage to remove the veil. But we must continue to do this for those who have sacrificed themselves.”
For several months, young men and women have been fighting against the wearing of headscarves in Iran and demanding more freedom. The slogans are clearly hostile to the Islamic regime. Hundreds dead, thousands arrested, young people executed.
Repression is fierce. Yasmine* experienced that. She narrowly escaped during a demonstration. “I was able to escape, but we were shot at,” she says, recounting how she and her friends found shelter in a house. The young woman tells how the owner helped the young demonstrators by preventing the police from entering their house. They escaped arrest, but many of Yasmine’s friends weren’t so lucky: “Many were arrested, shot, some are still in trouble, they can’t go back to university,” he says.
religious instruction as a punishment
With the repression, the protests subsided. The removal of the veil becomes an act of resistance that is increasingly visible on the streets of Tehran and especially in cafes.
Shirin symbolically burned her veil on her university campus during a boygirl meeting. As a result, she takes ten compulsory Islamic education courses to remind her of the rules.
“A mullah came to give us lessons in Islam and theology, he told us about divine laws. And then they gave us back our confiscated student ID cards,” he explains. “But after two or three sentences, the girls can be suspended from their studies and the boys to military service.”
The young woman scoffed at the religious education courses she had to take: “Basically, it’s loving supreme leader Khamanei and that Khomeini was a good person, Khomeini was honest. But in the time of the Shah, who previously ruled the country, women were not allowed to study! Everything they told us irritated us and prompted us to go back onto the streets to put an end to these idiots,” he points out.
An appeal to older generations
Rejection of the mullah regime is very present among some young people. Ava*, who is also a student, wants the youth protest movement to spread to other sections of the population and go well beyond the headscarf issue.
“Hijab is the pillar of the Islamic Republic. For over 40 years they have been trying to force it on us by any means necessary. And by not respecting the use of the veil, we are questioning the very existence of the Islamic Republic. But it’s true that we want more,” defends Ava.
“We are waiting for the silent majority to speak out. We especially hope that inflation, the high cost of living will make everyone vent their anger and that it is not just our generation that is making sacrifices.”
And he adds: “At some point those who took part in the 1979 revolution will also have to stand up. And that we are trying to overthrow power by any means”.
The regime’s control of the situation has kept young Iranians from returning to the streets en masse. But these three young women are convinced that the protests will return sooner or later. “A seed has been planted, it takes time to grow,” concludes Ava.
*Names have been changed for security reasons