The images coming out of Iran are remarkable. Women are ripping off their hijabs and burning them in public. They’re dancing in the streets and shaking their freed hair as onlookers whoop and cheer. These are stunning acts of defiance in a theocratic state in which women are expected to mildly, meekly accept their status as covered-up second-class citizens.
Of course these heart-stirring protests are a response to something unimaginably awful: the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa, a beautiful 22-year-old Kurdish woman from the city of Saqqez in Iranian Kurdistan, was arrested by the morality police in Tehran last week for failing to wear her hijab in the ‘appropriate’ way. She slipped into a coma while in police custody and died three days later.
The police say she died due to a heart condition. Her family insist she didn’t suffer from any such ailment. It is now being reported, including in the Guardian, that a CT scan of Mahsa’s head shows a fracture, haemorrhage and brain edema.
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