On September 13, while traveling to Tehran to see family, a 22-year-old Iranian girl, Mahsa Amini, was arrested for “wearing inappropriate clothes” by the morality police, responsible for enforcing a dress code. strictly for women. Falling into a coma after her arrest, she died on September 16 in hospital. The day after, many Iranian women film themselves removing their veils around the tomb of Mahsa Amini, in solidarity with her. It’s the start of a revolt movement which has spread to the whole country, despite severe repression. Initiated by women, this revolt is joined by all categories of the Iranian population.
Images of women burning their veils and cutting their hair went around the world, as did those of repression of protests. More than 75 people have been killed and 1,200 demonstrators arrested since the start of the protest, according to a report provided Monday, September 26 by the authorities.
To talk about the situation of women in Iran and the protests, Geraldine Mayr receives the Franco-Iranian Sara Saidicorrespondent in Tehran from 2016 to 2019 and author of Portraits of Tehranand Massoud Salari, journalist at RFI.