SANANDAJ, Iran - The streets of Sanandaj on Sunday were partially closed and security forces were scattered throughout the city following a night of protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strict dress code and the controversial death of a Kurdish woman days ago.
The 22-year old Mahsa (Zhina) Amini was detained by Iran’s morality police while travelling for vacation to the capital city of Tehran earlier this week with her family for allegedly not wearing a headscarf. Hours later she was taken to a hospital in Tehran, after facing heart problems, where she died on Friday.
Iran has had a compulsory headscarf rule since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The morality police in the country are in charge of enforcing the strict dress code, among other laws by the Islamic Republic.
The news of Amini’s death has caused immense public outrage throughout the Kurdish cities in Iran.
“Ever since I heard the news, I have been thinking about my three daughters and when their turn will come to suffer such tragedies,” Mohammad Zamani, a 45-year-old taxi driver in Sanandaj told Rudaw English. “Everywhere around the world, police protects people but in this country they are the cause of crimes, how is this the age of forcing people to wear hijab?”
“People have every right, it is very unjust, what human law accepts the killing of a young woman because of hijab?” Zamani asked, adding that the right to wear whatever one wants is an individual right that should not be imposed on anyone.
Protestors flowed into the streets of the Kurdish cities of Saqqez and Sanandaj in Iran’s Kurdistan province on Saturday as Amini’s body was laid to rest chanting “death to the dictator” in Persian as scores of women took off their head scarves in defiance to the Islamic Republic following the death of Amini.
Dozens were injured in the Saturday protests as security forces opened fire on protestors and used teargas in an aim to disperse them.
The head of the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Arsalan Yarahmedi, told Rudaw English that “36 people have been injured and five remain under critical condition and need surgery.” The organization monitors human rights violations committed in the Kurdish areas of Iran using local sources.
The 55-year-old Shirin Ahmadi* was among the protestors who stormed the streets of Sanandaj on Saturday evening.
“How does one’s heart not ache when they hear such tragic news, imagine a young woman being killed in this era because of a headscarf,” Ahmadi told Rudaw English. “After her death, I have lost all patience and that is why I have come to express my opinion, if we remain quiet then our daughters will suffer the same fate.”
Activists decried the death of Amini on social media, launching Twitter campaigns and calling for protests in other Kurdish cities.
“I have received threats from security forces a few times since yesterday for calling on people to protest,” an activist whose name Rudaw English has withheld for their safety said. “We should not be afraid and should resist until these unjust laws towards women get changed in Iran.”
Social activism groups both within Iran and outside the country have also decried the killing and called for protests in all cities on Monday.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday ordered a probe in the case of Amini, but this is not the first time Iran’s morality police have been slammed in recent years over the ill-treatment of people, with videos on social media frequently posted of officers shoving women into police vehicles.
Robert Malley, the US special envoy for Iran, said Amini’s death “in custody for an ‘improper’ hijab is appalling” and called on those responsible for her death to be brought to justice.
Amnesty International called for an investigation into the death of Amini.
“The circumstances leading to the suspicious death in custody of 22-year-old young woman Mahsa Amini, which include allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in custody, must be criminally investigated,” it said.
“The so-called 'morality police' in Tehran arbitrarily arrested her 3 days before her death while enforcing the country’s abusive, degrading and discriminatory forced veiling laws. All agents and officials responsible must face justice,” it added.
By Chiya Kaki
Translated by Dilan Sirwan
