Mahsa Amini's killing, state violence, and moral policing in Iran

Abstract

Iranian cities have been the scene of daily antigovernment protests by young women and men since September 16, the day Mahsa Jina Amini died in the custody of the “morality police” in Tehran. Over the next weeks, the waves of protests snowballed as the often very young demonstrators poured into the streets in some 160 cities, chanting antiregime slogans. Many women removed their mandatory headscarves at street protests to call for an end to the dual life forced upon them by the state's dress code. The protesters’ anti-authoritarian outrage met with broad public sympathy, moved beyond the discontented middle classes, and engaged significant segments of working-class youth and the ethnic Kurdish and Baluchi communities. However, workers, teachers, and other sectors of organized labor, who saw no immediate victory in sight, did not join the call for a national general strike. An estimated 500 demonstrators were killed, including 67 children, and more than 15,000 people were arrested. Three months of ongoing protests in Iran have garnered more international sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Though initially shaken, regime has doubled down in its brutality to eliminate the movement. The regime's reluctance to reform has convinced many observers that new waves of protest will follow, converging to break Iran's political impasse. This article outlines an analytical lens for understanding the movement's cultural transformative power as well as its challenges in achieving its political goals. I examine four critical aspects of this protest movement to explore where it stands in Iran's recent political turmoil. These include the radicalization of politics in Iran due to rising state violence over the past decade, the growing number of forced veiling dissidents, the contribution of the youth crisis to the protests, and finally, the confluence of ethnic outrage with women's and youth anti-authoritarian politics.