November 16th, 2022 marked two months since the assassination of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, one of the many Iranian women killed over the increasingly restrictive hijab regulations on the country. Even though the hijab regulation laws were not enforced for a long time in Iran, since its implementation in 1983, the laws progressively got more prohibitive over the years.  Now, with the imposing of the Modesty Guard over the country, the torturing and killing of women, like Sepideh Rashno (28) and Nika Shakarami (16), for not following and going against the regulations, has turned into a constant in the daily life of Iranian citizens.

It’s worth mentioning that, while the crimes committed against these women are said to be backed up by the Islamic religion, the laws applied in most Muslim countries do not reflect most of the real beliefs of Islam. Usually, the misogyny implemented within these societies is a practice that comes with the male dictatorships that have been ruling these nations for centuries. The urge to control the way of living, especially of the women, can be seen in most countries throughout the Middle East and Africa, like Afghanistan, for example. The cruelty that goes against the female population from these lands was already a well known fact for a long time, but the issues in Iran rose up the last straw for the social groups who fight for Muslim and Women’s rights all over the world.

Protests arose all over the world, including countries in Europe, Latin America and, mostly, in Iran. These protests included big mobs in the streets, where Muslim girls would burn their hijabs in front of the morality police to show their rights as humans, but mostly as women. They also included women all over the world shaving their heads and cutting their hair in support of the victims. Many Iranian men joined in the movement, and would help protect the women from the police.

Aside from the in person manifestations that happened in many countries, the Iranian women’s movement gained a pretty big space in social media, with people posting to bring awareness to the situation and also doing their individual protests on their profiles. Currently, this issue has not been resolved and the conflicts are ongoing. Iranian men and women are continuing their protests, but not without grave consequences. Many people have died protesting the death of Masha and the rights of Iranian women, and Iran has announced that up to 15,000 jailed protesters may be given the death penalty and killed for their participation in the protests, one of the most prominent one being that of the footballer Amir Nasr-Azadani (26), who’s facing trial after protesting.

Iranian rights and women’s rights are in jeopardy and the Iranian government is doing what they can with a show of force to stop people from protesting and to get the Iranian people to follow the laws they have put into place.