Today marks one year since the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who was stopped by the morality police for not wearing her headscarf properly. Three days after her apprehension, Amini died in a hospital. The waves that her death created still linger in the minds of Iranians. 

Following Amini’s death, subsequent events paved the way for a renewed movement of defiance, protest and anger against Iran’s oppressive regime. But underneath the anger that surrounds Amini’s unjust death lies the grievances of entire peoples that stem from their stolen liberties for the past 44 years. 

Established as a Muslim country, Iran underwent an Islamic revolution in 1979. The revolution ended Iran’s westernized period and ushered in an oppressive era that placed harsh restrictions on women. Since the revolution, Iran’s regime has tracked a history of treating civilians with brutal violence. Iranians often view news of violence in Iran with detachment due to its frequency over the years. 

“People dying in the Islamic Republic of Iran — it’s not anything new,” Bahar Sodeifi (11), whose parents immigrated from Iran, said. “People being killed over political reasons is nothing new. So [when I heard about the death of Mahsa Amini], I [told my mom], and my mom was like, ‘Oh wow, that’s sad.’ But, it’s happened so much, we’ve sort of become desensitized.”

On one level, Iran’s protests question the headscarf’s meaning and whether women should be forced to follow such religious obligations. The lack of bodily autonomy for Iran’s women remains to this day. 

“Even though [the headscarf] is in a large religious context, if you take [wearing the headscarf] out of a religious context, different people like to show different amounts of their body and think it’s appropriate to show different amounts of their body,” world history teacher Bronwen Callahan said. “Within Islam and in the Middle East, [they include] hair as a body part and as part of your modesty.” 

Following Iran’s Islamic Revolution, mandates forced women to conceal themselves in public. In addition to the headscarf, authorities restrict music and dancing. 

Middle school math teacher Kathy Pazirandeh lived in Iran through college. 

“We always wore a headscarf, a long coat, no talking to boys — not even for notes. Everything was private and secret,” Pazirandeh said. “There was no music, no dancing. One time a girl in my dorm was singing, and we were all reprimanded for it. [Living in Iran], it’s like living in a big jail.”

The sudden eruption of Iran’s protests following Amini’s death revealed the people’s building resentment toward the regime. Mahsa Amini’s murder served as the final tipping point for the Iranian people’s toleration of an unjust system.  

“Everything in Iran’s system, there’s no fair trial, there’s no written rules,” Bahar said. “It’s a dictatorship — there’s no other way of putting it. So even someone who’s been in Iran their entire life — my aunt, for example — still has no idea how the morality police function. Here, [in America], you can go to a dot gov website and search up what rights you have. There’s no such thing in Iran.”

Iran’s youth stand at the forefront of the country’s pursuit of liberty. Thousands of young people have taken to the streets, dancing, singing, burning their hijabs and defying authorities. 

“My aunt was saying, ‘If I was younger, I would be full-fledged in the protest, because when you’re young, what do you have to lose?’” Bahar said. “My aunt has her kids to lose, but when you’re young, if [you] don’t have your freedom, [you] don’t have anything to lose, so they’d rather be killed, raped and tortured, which is so respectable.”

Despite the power of the Iranian regime, pushback has amounted to change. Mahsa Amini’s death amplified the small acts of resistance that many citizens partook in beforehand. 

“When I was in Iran, I never wore a scarf,” Bahar said. “I just had it with me in case I saw police because that’s the whole Iranian spirit: resistance, resistance, resistance. But now, people don’t even carry the scarf with them. Before the protests there was a little more fear of being caught breaking the government’s idiotic laws. Now, there’s a little bit less of that.”

Pazirandeh echoed Bahar’s sentiments. In contrast to her time living in Iran, the foregoing of the headscarf by many Iranian women is new.  

“[Taking off the headscarf], that’s completely new,” Pazirandeh said. “Specifically in wealthier neighborhoods, 20-30% of the ladies don’t wear scarfs anymore — [the morality police] can’t put that many people in jail.”

Whether the protests will amount to change remains uncertain. 

“There’s been a very, very intense regime in Iran for a very long time that has really suppressed a lot of people in Iran,” co-founder of Middle Eastern Student Association Sonya Apsey (12) said. “Finally seeing this pushback is really, really inspirational for me. But also, it’s not the first time there’s been a pushback against the government, so I honestly can’t say how this is going to end.”

Pazirandeh witnessed Iran’s “morality police” and laws firsthand and is uncertain about the future. 

“I can see some changes, but it will take a long time for more change to happen,” Pazirandeh said. “[However], people, [now], are more brave and willing to stand up. The impact [that these events have had] on a lot of women — I like that. [They] woke up and said, ‘We can stand up for our rights.’”

Iran’s regime remains, and the demonstrations put up by Iran’s people in the last year stand as the most significant movement in the country’s history since the revolution. With 20,000 arrests, over 500 deaths and hundreds of citizens in consideration for the death sentence, Iran’s people continue to fight against the regime. Permanent change in Iran’s regime remains uncertain, but despite the many limitations imposed upon the Iranian people, it may be only a matter of time until the next revolution. 

“It’s what an oppressive regime does: take away every right from you and blame you for any reason they can come up with,” Pazirandeh said. “They take every little right from you, a little here, a little there, and it all just adds up. The country was ready to burst with the oppression they’ve gone through. [Mahsa Amini’s death] was just the match that caused the big fire.”