Mahsa Amini and the century-long struggle of Iranian women
Abdollah Fathi-Nejad
Immigration consultant
In September 2022, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police ignited a fire that still burns.
Immigration consultant
In September 2022, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police ignited a fire that still burns.
Her arrest for “improper hijab” sparked the historic Woman, Life, Freedom movement, drawing women and men into the streets to demand an end to compulsory veiling and gender apartheid.
For many outside Iran, this seemed like a sudden eruption. But it was the continuation of a struggle that began long before 2022—and long before 1979.
Iran’s state-supported march toward women’s equality began in the early 20th century under Reza Shah, who ruled from 1925 to 1941 and believed modernization required women’s active participation in public life.
His 1936 decree compelling women to unveil—though heavy-handed—was a watershed moment, symbolizing women’s entry into civic life after centuries of seclusion.
Under the Pahlavi shahs, especially Mohammad Reza Shah, who ruled from 1941 to 1979, this state-led transformation expanded into education, political participation, family law and the workplace.
Modern schools for girls expanded dramatically, and by the late 1970s women made up a growing share of university students, entering specialized fields from medicine to engineering.
In 1963, Iranian women won the right to vote and run for office. Within a decade, women held seats in parliament, served as cabinet ministers and worked as judges. The Family Protection Laws of 1967, expanded significantly in 1975, curbed polygamy, raised the minimum marriage age and substantially expanded women’s rights in divorce and child custody.
By the late 1970s, women were increasingly visible as doctors, lawyers, executives, pilots and business leaders.
Together, these advances transformed the legal and social position of Iranian women and brought greater equality within reach.
That progressive trajectory ended abruptly in 1979. While Ayatollah Khomeini cloaked his takeover in the language of prosperity and liberation, he delivered a theocratic counter-revolution.
The Family Protection Laws were dismantled, female judges were removed from the bench, the minimum marriage age for girls was lowered, and compulsory veiling was progressively imposed.
Iranian women resisted almost immediately. In March 1979, thousands marched through the streets of Tehran against compulsory veiling. Yet the West, eager to believe Khomeini’s moderate diplomatic promises, looked away as women’s hard-won gains were rapidly erased.
The consequences of that original betrayal continue to shape Iran, though the Islamic Republic’s methods have changed dramatically. In recent years, state security networks have intensified enforcement through measures including the Noor Plan, which stepped up enforcement of compulsory hijab.
Street-level coercion has increasingly been supplemented by technology and punitive restrictions. Authorities have used surveillance cameras, heavy financial penalties and other restrictions against women who defy compulsory veiling.
Yet this expanding apparatus has failed to break the population’s resolve. The civil defiance that followed Mahsa Amini’s death helped lay the groundwork for subsequent protests that again shook the Islamic Republic.
As an immigration consultant in Canada, I speak to many Iranians seeking to leave Iran. Again and again, they tell me the same story: they want a future where their daughters can study freely, choose their own paths and live without fear.
The history of Iranian women’s struggle also carries a lesson for the outside world. In 1979, Western leaders mistook a theocratic revolution for a movement that would deliver greater political freedom. Today, the West risks repeating its mistakes if it prioritizes short-term “stability” or narrow regional de-escalation agreements over fundamental human rights.
Supporting Iranian women is not a matter of international charity. It is also a strategic question. A secular, free Iran could fundamentally reshape the political and security landscape of the Middle East, reducing the forces that have fuelled proxy warfare and threatened vital maritime routes.
“I felt like a human being, that I had the right to choose and that others could no longer decide for me,” one woman wrote.
Most of the responses portrayed removing the headscarf not simply as a change in clothing, but as an emotional experience accompanied for many by anxiety over possible consequences.
Freedom and fear
Words including freedom, relief, lightness and power appeared repeatedly in the responses. Some said going without a headscarf gave them a sense of making their own decisions about their bodies and clothing.
But many described fear alongside that sense of freedom.
Some others said they initially carried a headscarf in their bags, repeatedly looked around while walking or worried about being confronted.
One woman recalled leaving home without carrying a scarf for the first time in November 2022.
“I was wearing a hooded puffer jacket so I could do something if I had to. It was the first time I had left home without taking a scarf with me, and my heart was racing with fear the whole time. But now wearing a headscarf feels unusual to me,” she wrote.
Another respondent said seeing other women without headscarves gradually reduced her anxiety.
“I was extremely afraid, but seeing people like me made me less frightened and gave me more courage,” she wrote.
Public defiance of compulsory hijab expanded after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022, three days after her detention by Iran’s morality police, triggering the nationwide Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
‘When the wind touched my hair’
Several focused on physical sensations that had previously been denied to them in public, including feeling wind in their hair or cool air on their face and neck.
One woman said going completely without a scarf and feeling the wind in her hair was so different that she regretted experiencing it at 40 rather than 20.
“The first time I sat behind the wheel wearing a T-shirt, I was about to cry,” another woman wrote. “Why did we have to wear so many clothes and suffocate in the heat? When the air touched me, I felt light.”
Another wrote: “When the wind touched my hair, face and neck, I enjoyed feeling it without having to fix my headscarf afterward or untangle the hair underneath it.”
The accounts come as messages sent to Iran International in recent days described the return of morality patrols and increased pressure on women in cities including Isfahan, Rasht, Fuman, Mashhad and Neyshabur.
Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, a member of Iran’s Expediency Council, another the Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s father-in-law said on September 9 that the Islamic Republic could not enforce its hijab requirements as extensively as it wanted because of “war conditions,” describing the situation as more difficult than in 1980s.
Grief and solidarity
For some, taking off the headscarf brought the dead with it.
One woman wrote that the experience did not bring a sense of freedom because she remembered the “heavy price” young people had paid. Others recalled crying or experiencing happiness and grief simultaneously.
Solidarity between women also featured prominently.
A middle-aged woman in Pardis, near Tehran, said she was among the first women of her age there to remove her headscarf.
Another recalled girls periodically giving her chocolates with notes thanking her for her courage.
“I will never forget the smile I had at that moment,” she wrote.
Others described smiles and encouragement from women they did not know, while some said simply seeing others without headscarves helped their fear subside.
For some women, there was no defining first time. Years of gradually pushing back against compulsory hijab had blurred that boundary, while others said workplace rules, restrictions on clothing or decades of habit still kept them from abandoning the headscarf altogether.
The responses also showed how the experience stretched across generations. A 70-year-old woman said she had stopped wearing a headscarf completely at 60. Another, born in the 1960s, described removing it as unexpectedly recovering a piece of her youth.
“I couldn’t believe I was feeling like a teenager again,” she wrote.
The person was shot with a Kalashnikov rifle from about 20 meters away in the central city of Isfahan on the evening of January 9, according to an informed source.
“The infection at the wound site is still continuing, and a problem with the tissue flap means another surgery is necessary,” the source said.
The bullet shattered bone and severed a nerve and tendon in the leg, leaving some of the damage permanent.
What followed the shooting began a medical ordeal that has stretched across months, repeated hospital admissions and operating rooms.
Iran International is withholding the individual’s identity and the names of the hospitals involved because of security concerns.
Shot, taken away and left in a gutter
Security forces put the badly wounded protester into a vehicle after the shooting. But the patient never reached hospital in that vehicle.
Believing the wounded person had died, the forces left them in a roadside gutter.
“Some time later, someone found the protester and took them to a hospital,” the source said.
The patient was still alive, but in critical condition.
Doctors administered 18 units of blood in an effort to save the protester’s life.
After the condition partially stabilized, the person was transferred to another hospital. There, the medical emergency collided with another problem: the presence of intelligence forces.
Agents at one point prevented orthopedic doctors from entering to perform surgery.
Medical staff nevertheless secretly arranged to transfer the patient to the operating room.
A wound that would not heal
Surviving the shooting was only the beginning. The bullet had extensively shattered the bone in the leg, while exposure of the open wound to contamination contributed to a severe infection.
The patient remained in hospital for about four months.
Doctors used vacuum-assisted therapy to treat the wound and an external fixator to stabilize the severe bone injury. Surgery followed surgery.
Discharge from hospital did not bring the treatment to an end. The protester repeatedly had to return as doctors continued trying to treat the damage and control the infection.
A tissue flap – skin and underlying tissue transferred to reconstruct the damaged area – has since developed complications, making yet another operation necessary.
It will be the 26th.
Months after the shooting, the infection remains uncontrolled and protester’s life continues to move between home, hospital and the operating room.
Treatment under security pressure
The physical injuries are only part of the difficulty surrounding the treatment.
The wounded person works in an administrative position at a government institution, and concern that the circumstances of the injury could become known has added to the difficulties surrounding treatment.
The account is one of several received by Iran International describing protesters facing prolonged treatment after being wounded during the January demonstrations.
The family of a 34-year-old demonstrator wounded in Qazvin previously told Iran International that the patient underwent more than five operations after being shot in the lower leg with live ammunition and had to pursue parts of the treatment secretly and at considerable expense.
The report states that senior officials directed, executed, and subsequently covered up acts that constitute crimes against humanity.
The findings are based on interviews with 270 witnesses, analysis of over 2,000 videos, and leaked official Iranian government documents.
"Amnesty International unequivocally opposes violations of international law by all parties and rejects any attempt to instrumentalize the suffering of victims of human rights violations in Iran to justify unlawful attacks that inflict further civilian harm," said Secretary General Agnès Callamard at the report's press launch, addressing both state repression and broader regional conflict.
Calls for international criminal prosecutions
Amnesty International identified 87 Iranian officials, including top IRGC and police commanders, who it said should be investigated for crimes against humanity under superior responsibility principles. Amnesty said that it shared its findings and the list of identified officials with Iran's leadership prior to publication but received no response.
"This investigation exposes the layers of command and coordination behind the Iranian authorities' deadly protest crackdowns," Callamard said. "The agents on the streets operated within a hierarchical and coordinated chain of command linking them to officials who directed, enabled, facilitated and supported crimes committed on a massive scale. It is beyond time to establish an international criminal justice mechanism for Iran before another protest massacre."
The report warned that impunity for the 2022 crackdown directly enabled subsequent mass atrocities, warning that state suppression of demonstrations earlier this year bore the same hallmarks on an even wider and deadlier scale. Amnesty urged the UN General Assembly to establish an independent international criminal justice mechanism to prosecute responsible officials.
High-ranking officials named for criminal investigation
Among the top-tier officials listed for criminal investigation under command responsibility principles are Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on February 28, 2026, during military strikes, and former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri, who died on June 13, 2025.
Other key figures identified in the report include Ahmad Vahidi, who served as Minister of Interior during the 2022 crackdown and was subsequently appointed General Commander of the IRGC, Deputy Interior Minister for Security Majid Mir-Ahmadi, Tehran IRGC Commander Hassan Hassanzadeh, and Tehran Deputy Prosecutor Mohammad Shahriari.
Leaked documents show early surveillance directives
Minutes from confidential security meetings show that within 48 hours of Mahsa Amini’s death in custody on September 16, 2022, state officials focused on controlling the public narrative and suppressing online protests. Security chiefs discussed strategies to secure public statements from Amini's father to support the official explanation of her death.
A government resolution dated September 18, 2022, assigned the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit to monitor athletes and political figures. The same document tasked the Ministry of Intelligence with tracking actors, artists, and opposition movements.
Written orders drove escalation of lethal force
Written instructions issued by the General Staff of the Armed Forces on September 21, 2022, ordered security forces nationwide to deliver a "firm and severe response" to demonstrations. Of the 326 fatalities documented during protest dispersals or in militarized zones, 178 occurred within the first two weeks of the crackdown.
Amnesty documented a total of 377 protest-related deaths, including 56 children. State authorities have officially acknowledged only 202 deaths and falsely attributed most fatalities to "rioters" or "armed terrorists" despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Security forces used assault rifles, machine guns, and shotguns loaded with metal pellets at close range, while kinetic impact munitions caused severe long-term physical injuries and loss of vision among survivors.
Disproportionate impact on ethnic minorities
Baluchi and Kurdish protesters and bystanders accounted for 62% of all recorded deaths during protest dispersals, despite representing a much smaller share of Iran's overall population.
Operational guidelines detailed the deployment of Basij militia units and motorcycle patrols of up to 40 vehicles per battalion to maintain street control and prevent anti-government slogans from being written in urban centers.
Systemic detention abuses and judicial cover-ups
The investigation documented widespread torture, beatings, rape, and sexual assault against detained protesters, including minors. Internal judicial communications show that prosecutors classified formal rape complaints against IRGC agents as "completely secret" and instructed staff to close files over time without citing security agencies.
When lower courts delivered murder convictions against security personnel, higher authorities intervened to overturn the verdicts, reclassify the killings as unintentional, or reduce prison sentences. State courts also penalized bereaved families by withholding statutory financial compensation and attempting to coerce false television confessions attributing deaths to opposition groups.
The general shutdown followed a joint call by an alliance of Iranian Kurdish political groups for businesses to close and workers to stay home on the anniversary of the 22-year-old’s death in morality police custody, an event that ignited the nationwide Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
Tensions were highest in Saqqez, Amini's hometown. Authorities deployed heavy security around the city and the nearby Aichi cemetery, where she is buried.
Local rights group Kurdpa reported that authorities released water from the nearby Cheragh-Veis dam for a third consecutive year to submerge secondary routes to her grave, while installing elevated structures to mount additional surveillance cameras along the main road.
Strikes and heavy military presence
Videos and messages sent to Iran International showed shuttered markets across Saqqez, Sanandaj, Oshnavieh, Bukan, Paveh, Divandareh, Kermanshah, and Marivan.
Residents and human rights monitors reported riot police, military convoys, and heavily armed units, some equipped with mounted machine guns, patrolling key commercial corridors. Rights group Hana said security forces actively pressured shopkeepers to reopen their businesses and reported a distinct slowdown in internet services in the region.
The shutdown was preceded by a pre-anniversary crackdown. Rights monitor Hengaw reported that at least 20 young people were arrested in Oshnavieh ahead of Wednesday. Additional military units and anti-riot convoys were seen moving from Divandareh into Saqqez on Tuesday evening.
Beyond the western provinces, residents in Isfahan, Rasht, Fouman, Mashhad, and Neyshabur sent reports to Iran International detailing an increased presence of morality patrols, hijab monitors, and plainclothes security personnel enforcing strict dress codes.
Solidarity behind bars
Prominent political prisoners also backed the strike. Four female prisoners, Zeinab Jalalian, Varishe Moradi, Sakineh Parvaneh, and Matlab Ahmadian, announced a one-day hunger strike on Wednesday in support of the economic shutdown, calling it "the most civil form of expressing protest" in a message distributed by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network.
Dayeh Sharifeh, the mother of executed political prisoner Ramin Hosseinpanahi, also endorsed the action, saying: "We keep the pursuit of justice alive; we neither forgive nor forget."
Amini died in September 2022 after being detained in Tehran over alleged violations of Iran's mandatory hijab rules. Her funeral in Saqqez sparked months of widespread anti-government demonstrations that grew into one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic in decades.
