On 16 September 2022, 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini, died in a hospital in Tehran, Iran, under suspicious circumstances. The Guidance Patrol, the religious morality police of Iran's government, had arrested Amini for allegedly not wearing the hijab in accordance with government standards. The Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran stated that she had a heart attack at a police station, collapsed, and fell into a coma before being transferred to a hospital. However, eyewitnesses, including women who were detained with Amini, reported that she was severely beaten and that she died as a result of police brutality,Mehsa Amini's death "due to injury to the skull"; A former IRGC commander informed about the forensic report , BBC News, 29 September 2022 which was denied by the Iranian authorities. The assertions of police brutality, in addition to leaked medical scans, led some observers to believe Amini had a cerebral hemorrhage or stroke due to head injuries received after her arrest.
Amini's death resulted in a series of protests described by CNN as more widespread than the protests in 2009, 2017, and 2019, and by The New York Times as the largest Iranian protests since at least 2009. Iran Human Rights reported that by December 2022 at least 476 people had been killed by security forces attacking protests across the country. Amnesty International reported that Iranian security forces had fired into groups with live ammunition and killed protesters by beating them with batons. Amini's death ignited the global Woman, Life, Freedom movement, rooted in her Kurdish background, which demands the end of compulsory hijab laws and other forms of discrimination and oppression against women in Iran. During the ensuing events some female demonstrators removed their hijab or publicly cut their hair as acts of protest.
Background
Iranian government introduced a mandatory dress code for women after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. On 7 March, less than a month after the revolution, then recently named Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini decreed the hijab (Islamic headscarf) to be mandatory for all women in workplaces. He further decreed that women would no longer be allowed to enter any government office without the hijab, as they would be "naked" without it.
Since then, violence and harassment against women not wearing the hijab in accordance with Iranian government standards, whether by law enforcement personnel or pro-government vigilantes, has been reported. From 1980, women could not enter government or public buildings or attend their workplaces without a hijab. In 1983, mandatory hijab in public was introduced in the penal code, stating that "women who appear in public without religious hijab will be sentenced to whipping up to 74 lashes". In practice, however, a number of women, such as Saba Kord Afshari and Yasaman Aryani, were sentenced only to heavy prison terms.
In the 2010s and 2020s, clothing in Iranian society underwent significant changes, and young women in particular became more liberal about hijab rules. This has prompted the Guidance Patrol, Iran's morality police, to launch intermittent campaigns to verbally admonish or violentlyThe harsh treatment of the Irshad patrol endangers the hijab , Tabnak, 2022Attacks of Islamic guidance patrols on the streets and naked violence against women , Keyhan London, 2022 arrest and "re-educate" women they considered to be wearing the hijab incorrectly. Under routine circumstances, the detainees are brought to a center where they are re-instructed in the dress regulations, before being made to sign a pledge to uphold said regulations, and then being allowed to leave with their family.
Protests against the compulsory hijab have been common since 1979 revolution. One of the largest protests took place between 8 and 14 March 1979, beginning on International Women's Day, a day after hijab rules were introduced by the Islamic Republic. Protests against mandatory hijab rules continued, such as during the 2019–2020 protests, when protesters attacked a Guidance Patrol van and freed two detained women.
In 2020, two representatives of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei separately said that improperly veiled women should be made to feel "unsafe". The representatives later backtracked and said that their comments were misunderstood. Among the general population, an independent survey conducted in the same year showed that 58% of Iranians did not believe in hijab altogether, and 72% were against compulsory hijab rules. Only 15% insisted on the legal obligation to wear it in public.
Victim Mahsa Amini was born on 21 September 1999 to a Kurdish family in Saqqez, Kurdistan Province, in northwestern Iran. While Mahsa was her Persian given name, her Kurdish name was Jina (also spelled Zhina), and this was the name her family used. In Persian Mahsa means "similar to the moon"Meaning of the word Mahsa , NameFarsi and in Kurdish, Jina means "life" or "a life-giving person".The meaning of the word "Gina" , Setareh Website
Amini attended Hijab Secondary School and in 2015, Taleghani High School, to earn a diploma. She aspired to become a doctor.Mahsa Amini's family files complaint in Iran over her arrest , Alarabia, 29 Sep 2022"She was tortured": Mahsa Amini's family speaks out amid Iran , CBS News, 28 Sep 2022 At the time of her death, Amini had recently been admitted to university in Urmia, where she would have studied biology. Before starting university, she travelled to Tehran with her parents and 17-year-old brother, Ashkan, to visit relatives.Mahsa Amini died after 'blow to head' in Iranian police custody, says cousin in Iraq , The Times of Israel, 28 September 2022Her Name Was Mahsa; A Swimming Coach Who Wanted to Become a Doctor , IranWire, September 12, 2023
Amini's father rejected claims by the Iranian government that Amini was involved in any politics. Instead, Amini has been described as having been a "shy, reserved resident" of her hometown who avoided politics, was never politically active as a teenager, and was not an activist. According to those who knew her closely, Amini did not follow the news, did not have many friends and mostly socialized with her relatives.'An Innocent and Ordinary Young Woman' , New York Times, By Farnaz Fassihi, Sept. 16, 2023Death of Mahsa Amini: 'The silent crowd came to life and began shouting' , france 24, 13/09/2023 Amini's family have described her as having no prior health conditions, and as being a healthy 22-year-old, contrasting the claims made by the Iranian government that she possessed prior health conditions.
Family
Amini's father is an employee in a government organization and her mother is a housewife. Her mother was an active member of the Parents and Teachers Association for three years in Shahrak Elementary School, Hijab Secondary School and Taleghani High School. She had one younger brother, Kiarash (Ashkan).
Amini's cousin, a left-wing political activist belonging to the Komala party and a Peshmerga fighter living in self-exile in Iraqi Kurdistan, was the first member of Amini's family to speak to the media after her death.Iran: Mahsa Amini was 'insulted and tortured' before her death, cousin tells UK media , The New Arab, 26 September 2022
Opposition to hijab For Amini, as can be seen from her photos and videos on social media, only the mandatory rules made her wear hijab half-heartedly. She did not observe the hijab in various events such as weddings and wore traditional Kurdish clothes that do not have a hijab.Death Of Iranian Woman After Arrest Over Hijab Sparks .. , Radio Free Europe, 17 September 2023Mahsa Amini's Death and What "Bad Hijab" Really Means , elle, 30 Sep 2022Mahsa Amini remains a symbol of resistance in Iran six ... , Franc24, 16 Feb 2023 She also partially observed hijab when traveling to tourist areas. This issue caused the moral security officers to arrest her and beat her. This also caused people, especially women and girls, to join her and put away their hijab.Mahsa Amini: Iran women protest and burn their hijabs , CNN, 22 Sep 2022Hijab Victim Suffered Repeated Blows To Her Head , IranInter, 17 Sep 2022One year on: Iranian women grapple with the aftermath of ... , France 24, 15 Sep 2023
Circumstances of death Amini had come to Tehran to visit her brother and on 13 September 2022 was arrested by the Guidance Patrol at the entry of the Shahid Haghani Expressway in Tehran while in the company of her family. She was then transferred to the custody of Moral Security. Amini's brother, who was with her when she was arrested, was told she would be taken to the detention center to undergo a "briefing class" and released an hour later. Amini was beaten by police shortly after her arrest, while in a police van. After she arrived at the police station, she began to lose vision and fainted. Two hours after her arrest, Amini was taken to Kasra Hospital. It took 30 minutes for the ambulance to arrive, and an hour and a half for her to get to Kasra hospital. Iranian police later denied beating Amini, claiming she had "suffered a sudden heart failure". Police later stated to her brother that his sister had a heart attack and a brain seizure at the police station to which she had been taken.
For two days, Amini was in a coma in Kasra Hospital in Tehran. On 16 September, journalist Niloofar Hamedi (later arrested) broke the story of her coma, posting to Twitter a photo of Amini's father and grandmother crying and embracing in the hospital hallway. Amini died in the intensive care unit later that day. The clinic where Amini was treated released a statement on Instagram saying that she had already been brain dead when she had been admitted around 13 September. By 19 September, the post had been deleted.
On 17 September, the police chief of Tehran stated that the grounds of Amini's arrest were wearing her headscarf improperly and for wearing tight pants.
Published hospital pictures show Mahsa Amini bleeding from the ear and with bruises under her eyes. In an 18 September letter, Doctor Hossein Karampour (the top medical official in Hormozgan province), pointed out that such symptoms "do not match the reasons given by some authorities who declared the cause to be a heart attack... (they are instead consistent with) a head injury and the resulting bleeding." This was also confirmed by alleged medical scans of her skull, leaked by hacktivists, showing bone fracture, hemorrhage, and brain edema.
By 19 September, police had released CCTV footage showing a woman, who they identified as Amini, talking with an official. In the footage, the official grabs Amini's clothing, and Amini holds her head with her hands and collapses. Amini's father dismissed the footage as an "edited version" of events. Amini's brother noticed bruises on her head and legs. The women who were detained with Amini said she had been severely beaten for resisting the insults and curses of the arresting officers.
According to Iran International, the Iranian government was forging fake medical records for Amini, showing that she had a history of heart disease. On 20 September, Massoud Shirvani, a neurosurgeon, stated on state-owned television that Amini had a brain tumor that was extracted at the age of eight.
By 21 September, the hospital had released preliminary CT scans. Government supporters stated the CT scans showed psychological stress caused by a previous brain operation; critics stated the scans showed physical beating and trauma. The Iranian government stated Amini had a brain operation at the age of five.