They marched through the streets of Tehran, bareheaded, to defy the Islamic Republic’s brutal repression. Two years after Mahsa Amini’s death on September 16, 2022, after she was arrested by morality police for wearing a hijab deemed “inappropriate,” activists from the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement continue to fight for their rights in Iran. The 2022 uprising, which shook the foundations of the regime, cost the lives of hundreds of protesters and led to the arrest of more than 22,000 people, according to the UN.
Despite the arrival in power of a new government led by Masoud Pezeshkian, described as a “reformer”, the repression remains brutal in 2024. If the demonstrators no longer take to the streets, a “silent revolution“continues, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI)based in New York. More and more women are practicing civil disobedience by refusing to wear the compulsory hijab, which has become a symbol of oppression, and are making their anger heard even in Iranian prisons.
An increasingly brutal regime towards women
Despite the movement’s roots “Women, Life, Freedom” in Iran since 2022, the demands have remained unanswered and the repression has worsened. In April, the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, expressed his irritation at the non-respect of the wearing of the hijab, during two public speeches, reports France 24.The authorities have “strengthened repressive measures and policies through the so-called ‘Noor’ plan [“lumière”]encouraging, sanctioning and approving human rights violations against women and girls who defy the compulsory wearing of the compulsory hijab”according to UN experts.
Since then, reports of violence against women arrested in the street for refusing to cover their heads have multiplied. In July, Arezou Badri was seriously injured after police officers fired on her car as they attempted to seize the vehicle to enforce the veil laws, reports the BBC. The same month, a video Surveillance footage from Tehran shows officers violently arresting two teenage girls without headscarves. The mother of one of them, Nafas Hajisharif, 14, said she found her daughter with “bruised face, swollen lips, marks on the neck and torn clothes”during an interview with Iranian media Ensaf News, relayed by the Iran International website.
“Over time, the regime has sought to be more brutal. Lately, the morality police have hired many women to be able to beat, harass and arrest girls, including by means such as electric shocks.”confirms Mona Tajali, a researcher on gender and political issues in Muslim countries, particularly in Iran, at Stanford University (United States).
“The obligation to wear the veil is one of the first laws of the regime. If it were to disappear, it is the Republic that would collapse.”
Mona Tajali, specialist in gender issues in Muslim countriesto franceinfo
Expert concerned about new project aimed at “using surveillance, artificial intelligence and many other technologies to identify women who are not dressed properly in order to find them, punish them, or even imprison them”.
Repression also fell on academics, who were at the forefront of the protests at the beginning of the movement. “For two or three weeks now, massive police operations have been taking place in Iran. I have no news from most of the young people I worked with. They were arrested simply because they attended my virtual meetings.”worries Mahnaz Shirali, sociologist, political scientist and author of the book Window on Iran, the cry of a gagged people.
Violence has also increased abroad in an effort to silence dissidents. Iranian security services are targeting those outside the country who are accused of stirring up internal divisions, the Washington PostAccording to the American daily, the country is considered by Western officials as one of the most dangerous in the repression of its diaspora. A phenomenon far from sparing France. “I keep getting messages threatening to kill me or kidnap me. There is an army of police officers protecting me from them.”confirms Mahnaz Shirali.
Female activists targeted for severe reprisals
A few months before the second anniversary of the protests, the repression led by the judiciary against Iranian women activists has also intensified. Among the many cases, the sentencing of twelve feminists to sentences of up to 21 years in prison, reports the CHRI.
The organization alerts on the conditions of detention of these women before their trial and denounces sexual violence. “Some activists were tortured, sometimes in order to obtain false statements”explains Bahar Ghandehari, communications director at CHRI. It refers to a letter from the Kurdish Pakhshan Azizi published by the NGO HengawToday sentenced to death, the activist testified to the violence she suffered during her interrogations: “Hanged several times”, “beaten”, “insulted”, “humiliated”, “placed in solitary confinement for five months, the terrible white torture“.
Pakhshan Azizi, like human rights defender Sharifeh Mohammadi, was recently convicted of “armed rebellion against the state” on the “Basis of false accusations“, denounces Bahar Ghandehari. According to her, this sentence is “a clear attempt to suppress peaceful activists”.
Since the beginning of the repression, the regime has used the death penalty as a tool of “terror” in order to “silence the Iranian people”, according to the NGO’s communications officer. “In Iran, it is mainly men who are sentenced to death. But since the start of the revolts, we have seen that women are also being targeted.”points out Bahar Ghandehari.
Since the beginning of the year, 421 people have been executed, including 15 women, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR). In 2023, there were at least 834 executions, a figure up 43% compared to 2022 and a record since 2015, according to a report published by IHR and Together Against the Death Penalty.
A silent revolution that is gaining ground
In 2023, the regime’s brutal crackdown had slowed the continuation of protests. But could Iranians take to the streets again in 2024? Mahnaz Shirali remains skeptical. “LSocial movements of this kind cannot maintain the same pace in the long term. However, The cry of the Iranians, who cannot bear the way they are treated, is still present”underlines the sociologist.
Mona Tajali observes a new form of protest: “One of the most visible proofs of resistance is the appearance of unveiled women more and more frequently in public spaces.” Added to this rejection of the hijab are recurring strikes. “Last week, nurses took to the streets to protest their working conditions. Before, it was teachers and farmers”lists Mahnaz Shirali.
During the presidential campaign, All candidates sought to distance themselves from the regime’s violent methods. A sign that shows that the movement “gaining ground”, according to the New York Times. “The protest for women’s freedom has changed society. Women are more resistant and people are more inclined to speak out against the government. The Islamic Republic has seen this and is afraid of it.“, assures Bahar Ghandehari.
The low turnout in the presidential election also “showed that the people had had enough, that they did not agree with the regime and that they were going to try to deprive the government of its legitimacy by ignoring the ballot boxes,” analysis Mona Tajali.
“In the past, we fought with the morality police over ill-fitting veils, today it’s because we don’t wear them at all anymore”summarized the Iranian-German journalist Gilda Sahebi in July 2023, in the German weekly The Time.