In Iran, a 22 year-old woman, Masha Amini, was arrested by the religious morality police of the Iranian government, for “improperly wearing her hijab.” On 16 September 2022, Masha Amini died, in a hospital in Tehran, having been – it is now widely accepted – brutally beaten by Iranian police. In response, protests have taken place all over Iran, calling for the removal of laws that make the wearing of the hijab compulsory.

Women are at the fore in a movement that is seen as having revolutionary potential. It is the extent of the commitment of young women to the cause that has struck real fear into the minds of Iranian Islamic fundamentalists.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and The Center for Human Rights in Iran have all condemned the Government and the police, with the latter declaring Amini “another victim of the Islamic Republic’s war on women”, and stating that the tragedy should be strongly condemned worldwide, to prevent further violence against women in Iran.

There have been unprecedented criticisms too from former President Mohammad Khatami and from Badri Hosseini Khamenei, the sister of the supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. With journalists being imprisoned, and a crackdown on independent media, including an attempted shutdown of the internet, it is very hard to get accurate information out of the country.

However, reports suggest that, so far, hundreds of people have been killed in the protests; that, in a gruesome expression of misogyny, Iranian armed forces are shooting at the faces, breasts and genitals of female protestors; and that the first known execution of an anti-government protestor has taken place.

Whether the barbaric fundamentalist Islamic regime can be toppled remains to be seen, but the situation is extremely volatile. And in that context, an old phrase springs to mind. Anything can happen.

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