Iran faces massive civil unrest as anti-government protests turn deadly

The death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died while in police custody, has sparked one of largest anti-government protest movements Iran has seen in years.

Protestors clashed with security forces in Tehran this week over the death of Mahsa Amini.

Source: Reuters

On Tuesday, September 13, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman from Iran’s Kurdistan province, was arrested in Tehran by the Islamic morality police for improperly wearing her hijab and then fell into a coma and died, allegedly after being beaten by police. Amini’s death sparked nationwide anger and widespread anti-government protests, which are now raging on for the ninth consecutive day as Iranians take to the streets in more than 80 cities and towns.¹ The response by Iranian security forces has been lethal, especially in Kurdistan, where police opened fire into a crowd of demonstrators earlier this week; while state television and human rights groups provide different estimates, it is likely that the death toll is at least 30 people as of today.

Many Iranians, especially women, have rallied around Amini’s death, with many courageous women setting their hijabs on fire to protest the nation’s strict Islamic laws. Outside of Iran, the international community has demanded accountability from the Iranian government: the United States alleged that Amini died from "injuries sustained while in police custody for wearing an 'improper' hijab," while the United Nations called for an independent investigation into her death. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative in the Kurdistan province, Abdolreza Pourzahabi, visited Amini’s family earlier this week to convey condolences, saying that "all institutions will take action to defend the rights that were violated" in Amini’s death.²

Mahsa Amini’s death has acted as a catalyst for a growing protest movement for women’s rights in Iran.

Source: Ozan Kose / AFP Via Getty Images

While Iran is known for its strict Islamic government, for much of its history Iran was a tolerant, pluralistic society in which women were free to dress how they liked. It was not until the Islamic Revolution of 1979, a period of massive civil unrest that resulted in the ousting of the Shah and the end of Iran’s 2,500-year-old monarchy, that religious leaders and clerics began to shape government institutions. As a part of this new era of clerical rule led by Ayatollah Khomeini, Islamic leaders began to implement drastic reforms to Iran’s legal system, cultural practices and institutions, and began the moral surveillance of public space.³

In the wake of the Islamic Revolution, clerical authorities imposed a mandatory dress code for all Iranian women, requiring them to cover their hair with a headscarf and wear loose-fitting clothes to hide their figures in public. In addition to compulsory veiling, women found it extremely difficult to access higher education, had very few individual rights or personal liberties, and were increasingly segregated from the rest of the population. The imposition of strict veiling laws drew immediate censure from the Iranian people, who took to the streets en masse to voice popular opposition to the new Islamic measures.

While nearly 100,000 Iranians took part in the protests against mandatory veiling for women, Islamic cleric authorities continued to rule over the nation in a draconian manner, even creating a morality police to monitor conduct in the public sphere. Officially known as the Gasht-e Ershad (Guidance Patrols), the Iranian morality police are responsible for enforcing compliance with the strict legal provisions for “proper clothing” as dictated by the clerical authorities. Morality police officers have the ability to arrest, fine, or flog women for various offenses, such as showing too much hair, wearing too much makeup, or wearing too revealing or form-fitting clothing.

As the Islamic Republic of Iran solidified its tight control over the nation, its new draconian legal system based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law, increasingly marginalized women and took away many basic freedoms. While Iran’s clerical authorities have been effective in stamping out most opposition against compulsory veiling, an online movement in 2014 called “My Stealthy Freedom” saw thousands of women posting pictures and videos flouting their hijabs. Since then, the widespread, popular anger around veiling laws has been stifled by Iran’s security forces, in particular the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), until Mahsa Amini’s death catalyzed the Iranian people to take action.

Supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini demonstrate in Tehran in the leadup to the Islamic Revolution (Dec. 10, 1978).

Source: Michel Lipchitz / AP News

The ongoing protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s deaths have exposed the latent resentment in Iranian society for the strict Islamic legal code, especially in regards to the compulsory veiling of women. Sanam Vakil of the Chatham House think-tank argues that this week’s demonstrations speak to "a deep sense of popular anger, directly connected to the very tragic death of Mahsa Amini, but also shed light on the groundswell of issues that ordinary Iranians face every day related to security, freedom." While Vakil does not discount the significance of the protests, she does not qualify the recent turmoil as “an existential challenge to the regime ... because the system in Iran has a monopoly of force, a well-honed security strategy that it is already implementing."⁴

Although it is unlikely that the demonstrations will deal much tangible damage to the entrenched Islamic government of Iran or bring about any meaningful reforms to veiling laws, the protests have united many Iranians and brought important visibility to the issue. Social media has greatly enhanced the public awareness of Amini’s death and of Iran’s veiling laws: the Persian hashtag #MahsaAmini has received over 3 million mentions on Twitter. While gathering support on social media is critical to attacking the institutions which perpetuate Iran’s repressive veiling laws, it is unlikely that the clerical authorities will be flexible to reform.

Still, the civil demonstrations are extremely powerful and have grown far larger in size and scope than previous protests against mandatory veiling in Iran and include not just women, but also many men. "The fact that many men are joining the protests shows that the society has shifted to more progressive demands," argues Mehrdad Darvishpour, an Iranian sociologist. Additionally, these protests seem to transcend class boundaries and supersede local ethnic conflicts, thus Darvishpour claims "we are witnessing the birth of a mega-movement.”⁵

In many ways, the massive demonstrations in Tehran and other cities, now in their ninth day, have revealed just how far women are willing to go for their personal freedoms, even if it means they could be put in harm's way. In Tehran, women are publicly burning hijabs and shouting “death to the dictator," brazenly calling out Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. As protests intensify across Iran in the coming days and security forces crack down further on dissidents, it is clear that Iran has reached a critical point in its history that will determine whether the strict Islamic establishment will remain standing or whether women will prevail in their fight for freedom.

1. Lu, C. (2022, September 21). Protests erupt in Iran. Foreign Policy

2. Al Jazeera. (2022, September 20). UN calls for 'impartial' investigation into Iranian woman's death. News | Al Jazeera.

3. Bayat, Asef (2013, September 26), 'The Making of Post-Islamist Iran', in Asef Bayat (ed.), Post-Islamism: The Changing Faces of Political Islam (2013; online edn, Oxford Academic)

4. Thomson Reuters. (2022, September 20). Protests flare across Iran in violent unrest over woman's death. Reuters.

5. Rahimpour, R. (2022, September 23). Iran grapples with most serious challenge in years. BBC News.