We haven't seen anything like this in Iran since the Green Movement, or the Persian Spring of 2009 when mass protests began.
Source: The Guardian
A 22-year-old woman has died in an Iranian hospital days after being detained by the regime’s morality police for allegedly not complying with the country’s hijab regulations.
Mahsa Amini was travelling with her family from Iran’s western province of Kurdistan to the capital, Tehran, to visit relatives when she was reportedly arrested for failing to meet the country’s strict rules on women’s dress.
Witnesses reported that Amini was beaten in the police van, an allegation the police deny.
The news comes weeks after Iran’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, ordered a crackdown on women’s rights and called for stricter enforcement of the country’s mandatory dress code, which has required all women to wear the hijab head-covering since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
It's been four days now and the protests have only gotten stronger and louder, with open clashes between police and protesters. And calls for "Death to the dictator!" We haven't seen anything like this since 2009 when another young woman was killed by police.
Four days after Amini was found dead in a Tehran prison cell, protests in the Iranian capital show little sign of slowing. Most protests appear peaceful, but some in Kurdish areas of Iran have turned violent.
There are some signs that a groundswell could be taking shape: the first of its kind since 2009, when the death of another young woman sparked days of widespread unrest not seen since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Even now, Neda Agha Soltan’s slow demise from a gunshot to the head remains a testament to how Iran deals with dissent, and with women. Soltan was shot by a sniper as she attended an anti-government protest in June 2009, in a moment that galvanized a revolt and, for a time, exposed the fragility of one of the region’s staunchest police states.
Some amazing scenes from Iran today, with calls for "Death to the Dictator", the Ayatollah. That is unheard of in Iran, as it usually means instant prison, beatings, etc.
Young women take off their hijabs in solidarity.
And this cop, armed with a taser and a baton, probably wasn't expecting the crowd to kick the shit out of him.
