Mahsa Jina Amini: The Catalyst for Another Revolution
My name is Parmis. My parents moved to this country in their 20s to study and work, and eventually build a better future for themselves. They decided to stay here when I was born because they knew I had no future in Iran.
I woke up on the morning of 16th September to the news of Mahsa Jina Amini. A cold wave rushed through my body as I read the report that she had died due to allegedly being beaten for improper hijab. The mandatory hijab was instated in April 1983 by the Islamic Republic of Iran as a means to maintain modesty, consequently creating the “morality” police that patrol the streets for women who do not comply to these laws.
The call for modesty has also gone far beyond the veil. Imagine being arrested for walking with a male counterpart that is not visibly your father. Imagine being arrested for wearing a graphic t-shirt of the band you love. Imagine being arrested for practicing a religion that is not Islam. Let’s sit with that for a moment. Many communities, such as Baha’is, Orthodox Christians, Jews etc., who do not practice the Islamic faith are incriminated and persecuted which has resulted in a mass migration of non-Muslim Iranians out of the country. There is no peaceful coexistence. The forced nature of the Republic’s interpretation of one religion has resulted in the veil becoming a symbol of oppression. As the Iranian government has bastardised the veil, protesters use the symbolism of burning a veil to act against their contextual version of oppression. This is not a fight against Islam. It’s an endeavour to burn a system that oppresses its people in the name of Islam.
But why Jina? Why now? There are women who are reported to have have been allegedly tortured and killed at the hands of the morality police all the time, so that leaves the question: what makes Jina different? Her family risked their lives to speak out against the regime, which is a crime in itself. Her family took their grief and turned it into an outcry for the women in Iran. This Kurdish family brought the Kurdish feminist phrase “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi” into the limelight, which translates to “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi” in Farsi, and “Women, Life, Freedom” in English. The Kurdish political feminist movement has been using this phrase for decades and this has been a part of their activism.
Watching videos of Jina dancing in that glorious red dress haunts my mind every day as I think of the pain she must have endured whilst conforming to a version of herself that was a lie. A common phrase I heard amongst my friends when the news first came out was: “that could have been me”. Since her martyrdom, many others have also been killed in light of protests within Iran. Their names, their faces, their testimonies, their smiles, their histories have been shared on social media and every day since the 40th day since Jina’s murder, a ‘chehelom/چهلم’ has been held for the martyrs of the movement, and masses of people have gone to celebrate and mourn the lives of those who have risked it all for the future of Iran. As Iranian diaspora, it’s a disabling feeling seeing all of this behind a screen. I find myself constantly scrolling, listening and feeling my heart break with every name added to the list of those killed. It is normal to feel helpless, but we must continue to raise awareness. With the masses of false propaganda, the cover-ups, the silencing of microphones as fans chanted “Women, Life, Freedom” in the Iran World Cup matches, this must be bigger than the people.
When you see the photographs of female sports people taking their mandatory hijabs off, when you see the throat-tearing screams of women leading the protests in the West, when you see the anger in the faces of the Iranian football team as they refuse to sing the national anthem, know this is bigger than us. When my mother teaches the younger generation of Iranians in London ‘سرود اى ايران’ instead of this illegitimate national anthem and they sing it with such heart and soul that it brings chills to your body, it’s bigger than us. It’s for a better future for Iranians. We want to go home. To home, to safety, to a life where we’re not living in fear of not getting arrested and raped before we’re killed. I’m imploring you to learn about Iran because with every name that gets added to the list of children, women and men who are arrested and/or murdered, you remember that this is someones child, sister, brother, mother, father, aunt or uncle.
To Iranians: the united front is the most important thing to maintain right now. The fight is for all of us, not one of us and when this is all over and solved به اميد خدا; we need to maintain this unity.
To non-Iranians watching this unfold: listen, learn, share. Stay curious. Your support in raising awareness is the reason why global platforms and the UN are investigating the Iranian government.
By Parmis N.