On September 16th 2022 in a hospital in Iran a woman by the name of Masha Amini died. She had arrived in the hospital reportedly due to a heart attack. But being a healthy 22 year old with no previous health problems her family began to question what they were being told. Just hours earlier Masha Amini had been arrested by the Iranian morality police for wearing her hijab incorrectly according to Iran law and was now suddenly dying in a hospital bed covered in dark purple bruises.    

     Within hours of her death people were flocking to the streets in protest, similarly to the BLM protests that rocked America in the summer of 2020. People flocked to the streets chanting death to the dictator and Masha Amini’s name. The protests are not about the hijab but the unjust treatment of women in Iran by the morality police.  

     These peaceful  protests quickly turned violent though when police began to shoot bullets into the crowd and drop canisters of tear gas along with firing water cannons at the protesters. This has resulted in the deaths of over 185 people including a 10 year old girl and the arrest and injury of thousands more. 

Due to the dangerous shut down measures taken by the Iran government the protests are commonly taking place on university campuses and after the sun has set. On the campus the students tend to avoid shouts that might be considered dangerous such as “Women, Freedom, and Life”. A student interviewed by the Washington Post said “I feel rage and loathing for the way people are being treated”. When referring to the death caused during the protest for the rights of women in her country. 

     These protests are unlike any others that have happened in Iran in the past decades. Historically speaking women’s rights protests have been squashed within a week. This is most likely due to all the deaths caused. Every time someone is killed it adds more fuel to the fire at the heart of these protests.

     With every passing day the protest grows stronger and the unrest in the country grows larger. Within the borders and across the generations people want the oppressive regime to be removed from power. One woman interviewed said, “we want them gone. I ask God every day to somehow demolish this regime”. The current regime has been in power since 1979 after the Islamic revolution which has been suppressing women’s rights in the region for 43 years. This includes dictating what they can and cannot wear, their education, and other freedoms.