Death of Mahsa Amini: a month of protests and repression in Iran

Published on: 13/10/2022 – 07:13 For nearly a month, the face of Mahsa Amini, who died in detention, has become the symbol of the revolt of thousands of Iranians against the compulsory wearing of the veil in Iran. After the waves of protest in 2017 and 2019, demonstrations follow one another in the four corners of the country and try to challenge the power of the clerics over Iranian society. Back on four weeks of anger. September 16 © Studio Graphique France Médias Monde Visiting Tehran, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, dies in police custody, three days after her arrest by the Iranian morality police for wearing “inappropriate clothing” . This photo of Mahsa Amini, transmitted to the Reuters agency by the parents of the young woman, has been around the world. © Amini family via Reuters According to the police, the young woman was “suddenly taken with a heart problem”. The NGO Amnesty International urges those responsible for his death, deemed “suspicious”, to be brought to justice. Activists claim that she received a fatal blow to the head. September 17-19 © Graphic Studio France Media World The police ensure that there was “no physical contact” with the young woman. State television is broadcasting excerpts from a video filmed at the police station to support this version. 01:50 Demonstration outside a University in Tehran, September 19, 2022, following the death of a woman in custody. © via Reuters But little by little, demonstrations are multiplying throughout the country. First in Saqqez, in Iranian Kurdistan, where Mahsa Amini is from, then in Tehran and in around thirty cities. Women burn their veils in public, clashes take place with the police, causing several deaths and leading to numerous arrests. 03:22 Iran: several dead in the demonstrations after the death of Mahsa Amini © France24 22 September © Graphic studio France Media World Many personalities in Iran and abroad are beginning to express their anger on social networks. In response, authorities block access to Instagram and WhatsApp, widely used apps in Iran, and accuse the United States and Iran’s enemies of fomenting unrest in the country. But the Iranian demonstrators are showing a new audacity, as evidenced by numerous videos analyzed by the France 24 Observers team.>> Iran: demonstrators respond to police repression, unprecedentedWashington announces economic sanctions the morality police and several security officials. Protests continue on a daily basis. For Bahar Makooi, a journalist with France 24, “the repression of the morality police has increased with the coming to power of the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi. Cornered by the economic crisis, the Iranian population, caught in a vice, expresses its anger in the street.”>> Iran: “Women no longer allow themselves to be pushed around” in the face of increasing repression by the morality police September 25 © Studio Graphique France Médias Monde At the call of the authorities, thousands of people march along the September 23 to defend the wearing of the veil. On television, President Ebrahim Raïssi calls on the police to act “firmly” against the demonstrators and the head of the judiciary threatens to show “no indulgence”. “As in 2009, in the face of the ‘green movement’ against electoral fraud, or during the gigantic anti-government demonstrations of 2017 and 2019 (…), the Iranian authorities seem determined to nip in the bud any protest that calls it into question. question”, writes Marc Daou, journalist with France 24.>> Demonstrations in Iran: “The repressive machinery of power is well run”On the 26th, the authorities indicated that they had arrested more than 1,200 people qualified as “rioters”, including activists, lawyers and journalists, according to NGOs. The authorities announced the arrest of several foreigners in connection with the protest.>> In Iran, demonstrators in search of support from the WestOn the 27th, it was the players of the national football team who showed their solidarity with the victims of the demonstrations.>> “Long live women”: despite the risks, an unfailing commitment by Iranian footballersOn the 28th, Mahsa Amini’s family lodged a complaint against the “authors of her arrest”. The province of Kurdistan, where the family is from, finds itself under more pressure than ever.>> With the death of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian Kurds in turmoil October 2 © Graphic Studio France Media World In Tehran, at the University of Sharif technology – the equivalent of Polytechnique in France – some 200 students chant slogans hostile to the religious system of the Islamic Republic, as well as “Woman, life, freedom” or “Students prefer death to humiliation”. The riot police intervene violently and close the university. 01:20 Despite the crackdown, protest rallies continue in several Iranian universities, including Isfahan, Mashhad and Babol, reports Ershad Alijani, journalist for France 24 Observers. October 7 © Graphic Studio France Media World Istanbul in Paris, all over the world, demonstrations are multiplying in support of Iranian women and against the repression of demonstrators. 03:03 Mahsa Amini and repression in Iran © AFP In France, feminists express their support and criticize the caution of the French government. A protester in front of the Iranian embassy in Paris, October 9, 2022. Julien de Rosa, AFP >> French feminists are mobilizing for Iranian women who demonstrate In Tehran, the authorities maintain their version by publishing an official medical report on October 7 claiming that Mahsa Amini’s death is related to a brain tumor and was not caused by beatings. October 10 © Graphic Studio France Media World After a month of demonstrations and repression, protest against the mullahs’ regime continues. If the obligation to wear the veil is at the heart of the movement, it now rallies workers in the industrial sector. Videos shared by Persian-language media based outside Iran show workers burning tires outside the Asalouyeh petrochemical plant in the southeast of the country. Other strikes are observed in factories in Abadan (west) and Kengan (south), according to the organization Iran Human Rights (IHR). 04:01 Protests continue in Iran, a month after the death of Mahsa Amini. This 22-year-old Iranian Kurd had been arrested by the morality police for letting strands of hair protrude from her veil. © France 24 At least 108 people were killed in Iran in the repression of the demonstrations triggered almost a month ago by the death of Mahsa Amini, this NGO indicated on Wednesday October 12. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reaffirmed that “enemies” were involved in the riots, again pointing the finger at “foreign agents”.