It’s been two years since Mahsha Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman from Shakez in northwestern Iran, paid with her life for the unruly tufts that protruded from her loose hijab.
She was arrested in Tehran by the infamous Moral Police of the Islamic Republic of Iran for violating the “dress code”. She was accused of not making “proper use” of the Muslim head and neck covering.
She suffered grievous injuries while in custody, for an alleged offense beyond the comprehension of a free human mind. She was taken to the hospital in a comatose state. Just three days after her arrest, she was clinically dead.
The calendar showed September 16, 2022. The theocratic regime of Tehran described her death as an “unfortunate event”. She has since faced mass mobilizations for women’s rights and democratization in Iran.
Until today, impunity for the crimes of the Iranian regime prevails, Amnesty International points out in a new report. There is no official account of the violent repression.
Human rights groups such as Iran Human Rights – which has members inside and outside Iran – estimate that at least 551 people have been killed. The dead include many women and at least 68 children. The total number of injured is unknown.
Thousands of protesters have meanwhile been detained, for offenses such as “war against God” and “corruption of the land”, which carry the death penalty in Iran.
At least ten protesters have already been executed, following express trials widely criticized by the West and human rights groups as a travesty.
This year alone, meanwhile, executions in Iran have exceeded 400 – 15 of them women – which were officially related to criminal cases, but interpreted as a means of intimidation.
Choking cord
With a report by the Human Rights Council, the UN has named Iran as responsible for the death of Makhsa Amini. For trying to cover up the truth. For bullying her family. For lack of impartial investigation.
It also cited evidence of widespread human rights violations during the crackdown on anti-government protests in 2022 and 2023.
Many of these amount to crimes against humanity. Until today, nothing has changed.
The Iranian population continues to live “under the yoke of violent repression” and the authorities are intensifying the “war on women and girls”, Amnesty International stresses in its new report. Patrols to enforce the Islamic dress code have increased significantly, he points out.
Not coincidentally, since last April—when Israel and Iran exchanged direct missile strikes and the Middle East teetered on the brink of a regional war—Iran’s Law Enforcement Administration launched the national “Noor” campaign, emphasizing the use of the hijab. .
In anticipation of the second black anniversary of Mahsha Amini’s death, the Iranian authorities have imposed a suffocating cordon of surveillance in various cities. The focus is on the hometown of the murdered Kurdish woman, Sakez, in Iranian Kurdistan.
Additional cameras were installed on the streets to monitor the population. Controls of public spaces were intensified.
Government agencies rushed to organize events designed to project an image of normalcy in the city. Tensions in the region have been simmering for some time, and the last thing the regime in Tehran would want is another outbreak of pent-up popular anger.
And especially in a critical period, where the theocratic regime of Iran is facing uncomfortable geopolitical dilemmas for the second time this year.
Tightrope balances
A month and a half after the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniya in Tehran, threats by the theocratic regime of Iran of harsh retaliation against Israel have yet to materialize.
A series of conflicting messages and developments, as well as a looming rich background, indicate that the Tehran regime is maintaining its traditional “strategic patience” abroad.
In the background are the ongoing negotiations for a ceasefire in the martyred Gaza Strip and the release of hostages.
It is also the cynical political gamble of the far-right, warmongering Netanyahu government in Israel with pre-election liquidity in its strongest ally, the US.
In the meantime, the official assumption of the Iranian presidency by the moderate Massoud Pezeskian in August has “clouded the waters”.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has left the door open to negotiations with the West over his country’s rapidly expanding nuclear program.
But the climate has worsened sharply with a new round of Western sanctions, under the weight of accusations that Iran is supplying ballistic missiles to Russia for the war in Ukraine, which is now entering a critical juncture.
At the same time, the risk of generalization of the Middle East conflagration, which could threaten the stability (and) of the Iranian regime, has not been abated.
However, the advanced age and the prospect of succession of the 85-year-old Ayatollah Khamenei remain a key factor of concern in Tehran.
For the rest, as the second anniversary of Mahsha Amini’s death approached, it became increasingly apparent that the new president’s campaign promises for internal reforms in Iran would be practically empty words.
One of them was the relaxation of the law on the mandatory use of the hijab.
