Mahsa Amini

Some Lesser Known Facts About Mahsa Amini

• Mahsa Amini was an Iranian woman who is known for being killed by the police for not wearing the hijab appropriately.

• On 13 September 2022, she was travelling to Tehran with her family and was arrested by the guidance patrol for violating the public implementation of hijab regulations and for non-compliance of her hijab with government standards.

• When Mahsa was taken to police custody, her brother said that he heard his sister shouting because she was beaten by the police. Her brother also added that he noticed bruises on her head and legs when she was taken to Kasra Hospital. When she was admitted to the hospital, the doctors said that she was brain dead as she suffered a brain injury including bleeding from the ears and bruises under the eye. On 16 September 2022, she died after being in a coma for three days.

  

• After her death, protests broke out in various places including her hometown. Some people shouted slogans like “woman, life, freedom”, and “death to the dictator.” There were also protests outside the Kasra Hospital in Tehran, where she was admitted, but the security used pepper spray to suppress the protesters. Later, protests broke out in different cities against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strict dress code. Many people were killed by the police force during the protests. In some cities, women in the crowd burnt their hijab. The protests were taken out on social media as well. The hashtag #MahsaAmini became one of the most repeated hashtags on Persian Twitter. Some Iranian women took to social media to share videos of themselves cutting their hair for the protest.

• The Iran government stopped access to many apps including Instagram and WhatsApp to stop the protests.

• American actress Leah Remini took to Twitter to talk about the incident and said,
  

  Killing of Mahsa Amini is unacceptable under any circumstances, but the fact that she was arrested for wearing an inappropriate hijab makes it even more appalling.”

• Khaby Lame, also took to Instagram to condemn the death of Mahsa and said,
  

  The biggest war for women’s rights and human rights is happening in Iran. If you live on earth and remain silent, you will never be able to speak about women’s rights again.”

• The police denied any physical abuse to Mahsa and said that she suffered a heart attack after the custody was over. A video of her falling unconscious went viral after which the police officials said,
  

  Resuscitation was performed on the patient, the heartbeat returned and the patient was admitted to the intensive care unit. Unfortunately, after 48 hours on Friday, the patient suffered a cardiac arrest again, due to brain death. Despite the efforts of the medical team, they failed to revive her and the patient died.”

• Her father denied performing any Islamic prayers at her funeral. In a video that went viral on social media, her father said,
  

  Your Islam denounced her, now you’ve come to pray over her? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? You killed her for two strands of hair! … Take your Islam and go.”