On September 16, 2022, Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died away in a Tehran hospital . She had left her home in northwestern Iran to visit the capital and was then confronted by Tehran's morality police, who claimed the she was violating the mandate for women to cover their hair. Three days later, she was declared dead.
For many Iranians, the brutality of law enforcement officers toward women accused of violating hijab rules was nothing new. And yet, Amini's death triggered an unprecedented outpouring of anger. Protesters all across the country took to the streets under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom." They marched for months, but the regime eventually managed to suppress the movement with a violent clampdown.
"From my perspective, the movement 'Woman, Life, Freedom' is the biggest social and cultural change in Iran in decades," the writer, poet and activist Pouran Nazemi told DW. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Nazemi's work as a women's rights activist has gotten her arrested several times in recent years. Still, she refuses to be intimidated.
She said the movement had clear goals right from the start: ending the hijab mandate and ending state violence against Iran's population. Though those goals were ultimately not met, the protests did lead many people to recognize their own power within the society. "The institutions still use physical violence and occasional arrests against us," Nazemi said.
"But something fundamental has changed." Even now, amid the ongoing war with the United States, parts of the Iranian regime are still focusing on the hijab mandate. Many politicians are supporting a new bill which would introduce significantly stricter punishments for women violating the hijab order in public places. One lawmaker described the missing head coverings as a "deep wound in the body of society." The proposed law has been in limbo for years and marked by wrangling between various state institutions.
I a virtual parliamentary session on September 6, several lawmakers urged Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf to pass the proposed legislation to the president for signing. A 17-year-old female student told DW that she doesn't even think about wearing a hijab in public. Like many other young women, the pupil is posting pictures and videos of herself in colorful skirts and summer clothing on social media.
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