Mahsa Amini’s death unleashed a wave of massive protests in Iran. Amini was filmed by security cameras collapsing in a “re-education” centre where the morality police took her to receive “instruction” on the dress code. She was detained by the specialist police unit that enforces the strict dress code that was made obligatory for women forced to wear a hijab in public.
After the young woman’s death, hundreds of thousands of women from all over the country had their hair cut, taken off, and burned their headscarves in the squares. Thousands of videos showed popular protests in dozens of towns and cities, from the capital Tehran to the traditionally conservative strongholds like Mashad. Mahsa Amini, 22, is a Kurdish woman. In less than twelve cities in the province of Iranian Kurdistan, shops closed after the Kurdish organisations that opposed the regime called a strike.
The images we receive from this country show some protesters chanting: “Women, life, freedom”. We can see how they bravely face the brutal repression and how they take out their hijabs and burn them. We also see women shouting “death to the dictator” against the government and supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The government restricted access to the internet, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Women of IWU-FI stand in full solidarity with the courageous women that take to the streets to protest, in a country where they are violently repressed and oppressed by the capitalist and authoritarian president Ebrahim Raisi and the police force for just violating the dress code. We also repudiate the Iranian police, who are ferociously repressing protests and demonstrations. Hundreds of detainees were among the protesters and four dead, according to the Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights. We make ourselves available and call on feminist, political, and human rights organisations in the countries to repudiate these very serious events and to carry out united actions in solidarity with the women and the Iranian people.
Women of the International Workers Unity-Fourth International (IWU-FI)
21 September 2022
