"Woman, Life, Freedom"
The death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini, arrested for "improper" hijab, sets off the biggest challenge to the Islamic Republic in decades, led by women and the young.
- Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (A/HRC/55/67) — UN Human Rights Council (2024)
- Mahsa Amini protests — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Nobel Peace Prize 2023: Narges Mohammadi — Nobel Prize Outreach (2023)
On 13 September 2022 Iran’s “morality police” detained Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman visiting Tehran from Saqqez, for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. Her official name was Mahsa; her family called her by her Kurdish name, Jina. She fell into a coma and died on 16 September. A UN fact-finding mission later concluded that she died as a result of physical violence in custody.
- Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (A/HRC/55/67) — UN Human Rights Council (2024)
- Mahsa Amini protests — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Protests began at her funeral in Saqqez, where women took off their headscarves, and spread to more than a hundred cities under the slogan Jin, Jiyan, Azadî, which comes from the Kurdish women’s movement; in Persian Zan, Zendegi, Azadi: “Woman, Life, Freedom”. Schoolgirls tore up pictures of the Supreme Leader; women burned headscarves and cut their hair. The song “Baraye” (“For…”), stitched together from protesters’ tweets, became its anthem.
- Mahsa Amini protests — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (A/HRC/55/67) — UN Human Rights Council (2024)
The state responded with live ammunition, mass arrests and executions of protesters. Rights groups counted about 550 protesters killed; the crackdown was harshest in Kurdish and Baloch areas, notably in Zahedan on 30 September 2022. The UN mission found that some violations amounted to crimes against humanity.
- Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (A/HRC/55/67) — UN Human Rights Council (2024)
- The Nobel Peace Prize 2023: Narges Mohammadi — Nobel Prize Outreach (2023)
- Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (A/HRC/55/67) — UN Human Rights Council (2024)
A women-led uprising for dignity, bodily freedom and an end to the theocracy, met with killings, mass arrests, blindings and executions.
- Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (A/HRC/55/67) — UN Human Rights Council (2024)
- Mahsa Amini protests — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Amini died of a pre-existing condition, and the "riots" were organised by foreign enemies, the United States, Israel and Saudi-funded media, to destabilise Iran.
- Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (A/HRC/55/67) — UN Human Rights Council (2024)
She was a Kurdish woman, Jina, killed by a state that also denies Kurds their language and rights; the movement carried a slogan born in the Kurdish women's movement, and Kurdish towns paid one of the heaviest prices in the crackdown.
- Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (A/HRC/55/67) — UN Human Rights Council (2024)
Why it matters today
The movement changed what is normal on Iranian streets: many women now go out without headscarves in defiance of the law. It united Persians, Kurds, Baloch and others, and many Iranians, inside the country and in the diaspora, see it as the moment the young openly broke with the Islamic Republic. Its slogan has become a shorthand for a whole generation's hopes.
Kurds in Iran note that she was a Kurd, that the slogan was Kurdish, and that Kurdish regions bore some of the harshest repression. Calling her by her Kurdish name, Jina, matters to them.