by Greta Privitera
In the past two weeks, thousands of people have taken to the streets against the regime of Khamenei and Raisi, who are accusing the United States. Police take action against protests: 133 dead
on September 16, when Masha Amini, 22, dies in Tehran after three days in a coma. Heart attack, official documents say, but family and friends have no doubt: Masha died after being arrested and beaten by Iran’s vice squad Gasht-e Ershad, established in 2005 to control girls’ clothing and oppress them .
Masha was punished and then killed for bad hijab, a lock of hair came out of her veil and that’s why she didn’t wear it properly. The protests begin in Amini’s hometown of Saqqez, Kurdistan, and spread across the country day by day. Thousands of people, thousands of girls, occupy Iran’s streets and squares and, at the dictator’s death cry, demand freedom where women’s is kept to a minimum.
In addition to the strict dress codes (girls aged 9 and over must wear the veil in public), there are dozens of rules that govern women’s lives and make them second-class citizens – just a few examples: they cannot ask for divorce and have men full custody of children, married women must ask their husbands for permission to work, and even singing, dancing, going to the stadium or traveling alone is not allowed.
The Global Gender Gap Report, the gender equality report released in 2022, states that Iran, ruled by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi, ranks 143rd out of 146 countries analyzed. The veiling law has been in place since 1979, but under the pro-equality government of Hassan Rouhani, the situation of Iranian women had greatly improved. Since the ultra-conservatives Khamenei and Raisi came to power, the country has taken a huge step backwards in terms of rights and freedoms. And while in Parliament, MPs are screaming death to the rioters and the police, Ayatollah defines the death of Masha Amini as a sad accident caused by the insecurity experienced on the streets.
In this climate of repression and lies, the regime police use violence to smother the protests, and in just two weeks there are 133 dead among the demonstrators. In the square, the girls, proud as warriors, burn their veils as a symbol of their oppression and cut their hair as a sign of sadness and anger, a powerful gesture derived from an ancient Iranian and Middle Eastern ritual. Scissors of all kinds, tails pulled up and cut in half videos going viral on Tik Tok, Instagram and Twitter with the now universal hashtag #mashaamini. You see these young women laughing, screaming, dancing, and breaking through the barriers of meaningless laws they’ve been subjected to for decades. With short hair, they ask the world to be seen and heard and help stop the regime’s brutality.
President Raisi said in an interview that a distinction must be made between protests and riots. According to him, foreign governments and other movements are guilty of manipulating what they define as riots fomented from afar to destabilize the country. Khamenei, who directly accuses the United States and Israel, confirms the thesis.
Alongside many protesters and several journalists, a former international footballer and a musician were arrested over the two weeks, both accused of posting comments on social media in support of the protests. Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was also arrested in Tehran. The disputes have also shifted within the universities. Sharif University, one of the most prestigious in the country, was surrounded by Basij militias. Dozens of arrests among university students.
On Friday September 30, Amnesty International condemned the arrest of 9 foreigners believed to be accomplices, including Alessia Piperno, a 30-year-old Roman woman who says from prison that she is fine but desperate for the Farnesina appeals to be helped. The girl was allegedly arrested on her birthday while partying with friends in a place where it seems they could not have done so.
October 3, 2022 (update October 3, 2022 | 13:03)
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