Who is Mahsa Amini, the Iranian woman whose death sparked anti-regime protests?

Mahsa Amini it was the spark that ignited the flame of the women’s rebellion in Iran. In September 2022, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian girl was detained by the Iranian ‘Morality Police’ for not wearing the hijab or Islamic headscarf properly. Later, it emerged that he had died, something that, according to the authorities of the regime, was due to a “heart attack”.

After being arrested, Mahsa’s family was informed of her transfer to a headquarters of the ‘Morale Police‘, I wanted to give a “education and guidance class” to the young woman. Two hours later, Mahsa’s brother realized that his sister was being taken to a hospital by ambulance, a situation that came after he and other witnesses heard screams from outside that headquarters. “Han killed someone,” was heard.

From that moment on, the voices demanding (and continue to claim) began to increase. the end of the compulsory use of the hijab, as well as the repression of the ‘Morality Police’ against women. In a matter of hours, thousands of Iranian women joined a movement on social media in which they cut their hair and burned their headscarves in further protest against a case that was considered from the beginning as an abuse.

The family continued to defend that the young woman was arrested and tortured by the authorities. Despite attempts to hide what happened, Iran ended up eliminating the “Moral Police” that was involved in that situation.

Since then, demonstrations have taken place in Iran, with thousands of women taking to the streets despite police repression. According to NGOs, four people have been executed, at least 500 have died and 15,000 have been detained because of these mobilizations.

In this time, it has come to see Iran’s state television hacked with an image of Ali Khamenei in flames, with the message ‘Your hands are stained with blood’. When the attack ended, lasting about 10 seconds, the presenter who was hosting the program that was being broadcast said: “Viewers, I invite you to follow the rest of today’s news.” In the hack, two words that have been seen in all these protests were also seen: “Woman” and “Freedom”.

Hostilities have spiked again this week with cases of poisoning of Iranian girls, with more than 1,000 intoxicated students after perceiving a smell of rotten orange and cleaning products. For the Government of Iran, this is yet another attempt to revive the protests over Mahsa’s death, branding the cases as “psychological contamination“.

Later, specifically on Monday, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, conceded pardon to more than 80,000 prisoners, including people detained during the protests. In the appearance of this pardon, the authorities once again exempted the security forces from the death of Amini, acknowledging excesses during the repression of the protests.

Iran also suspended the publication of the newspaper’sazandegui‘, critical of the Government and linked to the reformist party of the same name, for the publication of “false content”. The decision has been adopted by the Press Supervisory Council, which has indicated that it is due to the “insistence” of the media at the time of “post fake content” and for “worrying public opinion in recent months,” according to the Iranian news agency ISNA.

Ana Baneira and Santiago Sánchez, Spaniards detained in Iran

Two Spaniards have experienced firsthand the harshness of the Iranian regime. Ana Baneira Suarez, 24, was detained in Iran until February 26. Despite the fact that at one point it was thought that she had been part of the protests over Masha’s death, she herself confessed that she was arrested while she was “refueling at a gas station.” “My reason for entering Iran was basically to continue my backpacking trip,” she explained, making it clear that she is not an activist “by any means.”

Who is still in Iran is Santiago Sanchez Fucker, arrested after visiting Amini’s grave. His family and friends assure that they maintain recurring telephone contact with him. Sánchez was detained in the Kurdish city of Saqqez in October 2022 during his journey on foot from Spain to watch the World Cup in Qatar after visiting and photographing the grave of Mahsa Amini.