It is possible that Iran’s theocratic system is about to crumble. If it happens, we will have Iranian women to thank. Iranian women have been resisting the regime’s morality laws for years. There was the Green Movement in 2009. There was the White Wednesdays movement in 2018, as well as the No2Hijab protests earlier this year, where women shared selfies and videos of themselves in public without headscarves. There have even been vigilante attacks on the clerics.

The new wave of protests began with the death of Mahsa Amini on September 16. Amini was a 22-year-old woman from Kurdistan who was in Tehran to visit family. Iran’s Islamic morality police arrested her, supposedly for wearing her hijab incorrectly, and beat her to death while she was in custody.

Amini’s murder was the spark that ignited an explosion of popular rage. In the days since her death, massive protests have spread like wildfire across the country. Iranian women are burning their hijabs in the street and chopping off their hair in symbolic protest. Protesters are chanting, “Women, life, freedom!” and “Death to the dictator!” in reference to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Read more