Mahsa Amini Protests in Iran

Civil unrest and protests against the government of Iran associated with the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini (Persian: مهسا امینی) began on 16 September 2022 and are ongoing as of early December 2022.  Amini had been arrested by the Guidance Patrol for allegedly violating Iran's mandatory hijab law by wearing her hijab "improperly" while visiting Tehran from Saqqez.  According to eyewitnesses, she had been severely beaten by Guidance Patrol officers, an assertion denied by Iranian authorities.  As the protests spread from Amini's hometown of Saqqez to other cities in the province of Kurdistan and throughout the country, the government responded with widespread Internet blackout s, nationwide restrictions on social media usage, tear gas and gunfire.

Although the protests have not been as deadly as those in 2019 (when more than 1,500 were killed), they have been "nationwide, spread across social classes, universities, the streets [and] schools", and called the "biggest challenge" to the government of Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. as of 17 December 2022 at least 469 people, including 63 minors, had been killed as a result of the government's intervention in the protests; an estimated 18,480 have been arrested throughout at least 134 cities and towns, and at 132 universities.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed the widespread unrest not only as "riots" but also as a “hybrid war" caused by foreign states and dissidents abroad.  Women, including schoolchildren, have played a key role in the demonstrations. In addition to demands for increased rights for women, the protests have demanded the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, setting them apart from previous major protest movements in Iran, which have focused on election results or economic woes.  The government's response to the protests has been widely condemned.

Background

Since shortly after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Iranian women have been legally required to completely cover their hair in public with a hijab.  Enforcement of the unpopular law was eased during the 2013–2021 tenure of President Rouhani, but was then intensified under Rouhani's successor, the hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi.  Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, was arrested by the Guidance Patrol on 14 September 2022 because of an "improper hijab."  The police were accused of beating her and inflicting a fatal head injury; Amini was pronounced dead on 16 September. After a CT scan confirmed that Amini sustained head injuries, the head of Iran's morality police was suspended.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahsa_Amini_protests