Year Ender: How a 'custodial death' took women to anti-hijab protests in Iran

Iran Anti-Hijab Protests: Mahsa Amini was arrested, allegedly for wearing her hijab (headscarf) loosely, at the point of entry of the Shahid Haghani Expressway of Tehrah.

An unsparing regime known to crush dissent with an iron fist pulled out all its administrative levers to tamp down on protests by a band of women standing up for their rights and dignity. However, all it did was fan the fire.

Iran Anti-Hijab Protests: A woman holds a placard with a picture of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini during a protest against her death. (AP)

The alleged custodial death of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who had come visiting her brother in Tehran on September 13, 2022, fell in the crosshairs of the country's so-called morality police instead. She was arrested, allegedly for wearing her hijab (headscarf) loosely, at the point of entry of the Shahid Haghani Expressway of Tehrah and hauled away by the Guidance Patrol, known locally as the Gasht-e Ershad.

She was turned over to the custody of the country's Moral Security where she died three days later, allegedly after slipping into a coma.

While the regime claimed Amini died of a heart failure, her family members alleged a cover-up saying she had been murdered.

According to Al Jazeera, however, Amini, post her detention by the specialist police unit, suffered a heart attack and was immediately taken to hospital with the cooperation of the country's emergency services.

The flames of civilian fury that were lit on September 17, after Amini's funeral at her native Kurdistan province in Iran's northwest, spread to 80 cities, including Tehran, in no time.

As the protests swelled, the regime, quite literally, rolled out the cavalry, with police in full riot gear unleashing a brutal crackdown on the dissenters.

Viral videos of the country's riot police cracking down on peaceful assemblies against the regime drew global censure.

According to reports, the civilian unrest that followed Amini's death saw multiple arrests and, at least, 17 deaths.

However, the protest fire had, by then, become a global movement, with Iran's strict enforcement of dress codes for women, especially the hijab rule, being called into question.

And, in what became a feature of the street protests that followed Amini's death, women set their hijabs on fire and chopped their hair in a show of solidarity with one of their own who refused to stand down and yield to the dictates of the 'morality' police.

While their unforgiving manner of enforcing dress codes has been frowned upon, Iran's 'morality' police, which according to media reports, dedicated themselves to setting headscarves right and shoving the morality pill down defiant throats, attained global notoriety of the kind that it, perhaps, never had, in Amini's wake.

As the protests raged in the country and beyond, the Amnesty International, a global human rights watchdog, came out with a statement saying, "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."

Viral videos of women protesters shouting anti-government slogans at a gathering in Saqqez, the hometown of Amini, touched off a fire that soon engulfed the country.

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and activist, in September shared a video on her social media account of women snipping off their hair in solidarity in Amini. She tagged the video with a message that read, "Iranian women show their anger by cutting their hair and burning their hijab to protest against the killing of #Mahsa_Amini by hijab police."

The alleged custodial death of the 22-year-old woman over a dress code violation also drew the red eye of other world bodies such as the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU).

The UN, according to an Al Jazeera report, demanded an independent investigation into Amini's death.

UN experts strongly condemned the death of the 22-year-old in police custody after her arrest for allegedly wearing an 'improper hijab'.

In a press statement, the UN Human Rights Office said the experts also denounced the violence directed at peaceful protesters and human rights defenders, demanding accountability for Amini's death in cities across the country by Iranian security forces.

They urged the Iranian authorities to avoid further unnecessary violence and immediately stop the use of lethal force in policing peaceful assemblies.

"We are shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Amini. She is another victim of Iran's sustained repression and systematic discrimination against women and the imposition of discriminatory dress codes that deprive women of bodily autonomy and the freedoms of opinion, expression and belief," an expert said.

In October, a month after the death of Amini, a European lawmaker cut off her hair during a debate in Parliament to express solidarity with the protesting Iranian women.

Addressing a EU debate in Strasbourg, Swedish politician Abir Al Sahlani said, "We, the people and the citizens of the EU, demand an unconditional and immediate stop of all the violence against men and women in Iran."

Around the same time, in a statement issued by the White House, US President Joe Biden said his country will continue to hold Iranian officials accountable and support the rights of people to protest freely.

"The United States will be imposing further costs on perpetrators of violence against peaceful protestors. We will continue holding Iranian officials accountable and supporting the rights of Iranians to protest freely," Biden said in a statement.