Iran: Outrage Over Death Of Woman By Morality Police, Protests Erupt With Chants Of ‘Death To Dictator’

The killing of 22-years-old Mahsa Amini by the Iranian regime’s morality police was not the first act of brutality by the regime nor will it be the last. 

Mahsa Amini, who had traveled to Tehran with her family from Saqqez western Iran was arrested at Haqqani metro station on the evening of September 16. She was with her brother when she was arrested. According to their relatives, security forces manhandled Kiaresh Amini, Mahsa’s brother who tried to prevent her arrest. They told her brother that Mahsa would be released “after an hour of orientation class and after she signs a pledge.”

Mahsa was taken to the Vozara detention center, and after two hours, was transferred to Kasra Hospital unconscious. After examining Mahsa, doctors declared that she had simultaneously suffered a heart attack and brain death. It is reported that Mahsa’s brain death was due to the fracture of her skull following heavy blows to her head.

Mahsa’s uncle said the hospital had recorded her death as a stroke in her medical file.

“Mahsa did not have heart disease. The cause of the incident is very obvious. When they grab girls and push them in the car while terrorizing and intimidating them, it’s obvious what will happen. They do not know what Islam or humanity is. Mahsa was completely healthy. In Kurdistan, everyone knows our family. My grandfather had disciples in all the provinces of Iran… We don’t need lessons on the hijab,” he told Asre Iran daily.

Mahsa’s father said it took the police 45 minutes to transfer her to the hospital after she lost consciousness and fell to the ground.

“They took her to the hospital without identifying her and told the nurses they found her on the street. The doctors said if she was brought in 10 minutes earlier, things might have turned out differently,” her father said speaking to Ham Mihan website.

Photographs of Mahsa lying in the hospital bed in a coma with bandages around her head and breathing tubes have circulated on social media. Outraged at the murder of the innocent Mahsa Amini, many brave men and women of Tehran took to the streets after she was announced dead and marched toward Kasra Hospital in the north-central part of the capital. 

Protests also broke out in Saqqez, Mahsa’s hometown following her funeral on September 17, and in the neighboring city of Sanandaj in Kurdistan Province. Protesters chanted “death to the dictator” and “death to Khamenei” the regime’s Supreme Leader. In Saqqez, angry protesters tore down a large banner of Khamenei. In Sanandaj, they tore down a large banner of the dead terrorist commander of the Quds Force Qasem Soleimani. The regime responded by using shotguns against protesters.

One young protester lost one eye while another is in critical condition. Hengaw, a Kurdish human rights group said 33 people were injured during the protests.

In the last 44 years of the reign of the mullahs in Iran, the cycle of oppression of women has never stopped. In fact, it has intensified and has become more systematic. The continuous suffocation of Iranian women’s freedom and fundamental rights is a daily occurrence in Iran.

In 2020, the state-run Fars News Agency named 25 government agencies that are active in the field of imposing and propagating the hijab. Other media outlets later named other institutions, so much so that this year, the Red Crescent also announced its voluntary activities with the same goals. It was in April 2022 that the Secretary General of the Red Crescent Society announced his entry into the field of promoting hijab and chastity. A few months ago, the regime announced the establishment of two new repressive organizations to “control the lack of hijab.” The mandate of these new entities of suppression is being completed, and its policies are going to be dictated to 120 government offices. Each office is obliged to manifest ways to implement these restrictive policies on its female employees.