Mahsa Amini, a new symbol of young Iranian women

She was arrested in Tehern for wearing the veil wrong, which has sparked protests against the authorities

The indignation of many Iranians, especially the youngest, does not cease after the burial of Mahsa Amini. In addition to protests in the Kurdish region where the girl was from, students from three universities in Tehran mobilized this Monday to denounce both the way in which the Orientation Patrols treated Amini and the reason What motivated his fatal arrest?. Meanwhile, the authorities continue to deal with the controversy in order to cushion its impact.

“Your daughter is like my own daughter and I feel as if this incident happened to one of my loved ones. I share with you the pain of this ordeal,” the hardline president posted. Ibrahim Raisi on social media on Sunday. It was a conciliatory message of condolence from the leader who last August, between calls from activists to protest against the compulsory nature of the veil, had decreed tougher sentences for the so-called ‘bad veil’.

Last Tuesday, one of the units of the also known as the Moral Police deployed in Tehran arrested Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old girl was in the capital on a family visit. According to witnesses, the agents violently put Amini in one of her vans along with other girls. After entering the police station, according to official sources to receive a “re-education course” on modesty, the young woman suffered a still unknown mishap. Amini left there by ambulance and arrived at the hospital with no vital signs. I died on Friday.

The hard-line government has ordered an investigation into the procedures that led to the tragic outcome. The initial version of the Police is that Mahsa Amini I suffered a heart attack while at the police station. To support this argument, the Police Headquarters in the capital has called a press conference on Monday in which it has shown an extended version of what the security cameras recorded in the barracks where the girl was taken. As she clarified, the van that transported her did not have a camera.

The Police have insisted that there was no physical abuse. In the images broadcast, it is clearly seen how a female suddenly faints while being reprimanded by an official for her clothing, and later a medical team arrives to attend to her. However, the presence of cuts in the tape, the difficulty of identifying the person who appears with the naked eye and the distrust of many Iranians in their authorities have given rise to all kinds of doubts about the authenticity of the tape.

Consequently, The protests have moved this Monday to educational centers in Tehern. According to the agency Tasnim, close to the Revolutionary Guard, a large group of students have gathered at the Amir Kabir University, at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Tehran, at the Shahid Beheshti and at the Allameh Tabataba’i. In the demonstrationswith dozens of participants, slogans have been heard both against police action and against the authorities and their imposition of the religious veil in public space.

In some cities of the Iranian provinces of Kurdistan Y Azerbaijan Oriental protests have also taken place, which in some cases have ended in violent clashes with riot police. Mahsa Amini was from Saqez, a village with a Kurdish majority that was also the scene of protests last Saturday where women symbolically removed their veils to demand the end of compulsory.

Criticism of the government has spread to social networks, where Iranian celebrities have been posting messages critical of the persecution of the “bad veil” and the treatment of Amini since the case was known. In the last few hours, some activists have started a protest action consisting of recording themselves cutting their hair. For these, the problem is the imposition of the veil, a piece of clothing elevated to a symbol of the primacy of the Iranian Islamic Republic. This fact makes it difficult for the rigorous authorities to give in to its obligation, despite the fact that there are factions of the clergy, of a reformist nature, prone to its voluntary use and out of religious conviction.

Outrage over Mahsa Amini’s death has permeated, for one reason or another, a wide spectrum of Iranian society, particularly in a considerable part, middle class and lay tendency. His main complaint is the obligatory nature of the veil and the increasingly abundant presence of patrols on the streets, capable of applying coercion harshly for walking around in tight pants or showing one’s hair. This episode has added to the difficult economic conditions many Iranians are going through due to sanctions and mismanagement.

without specifically addressing the question of the veil, the authorities have promised to address the training of police forces and procedural guarantees. Early this Monday the rumor began to spread that the person in charge of the Tehran Guidance Patrols He had been relieved of his post. However, according to Iranian media, Colonel Ali Sabahi, head of the Information Center of the Tehran Metropolitan Police, limited himself to not taking the information for granted, although he did not deny it either.