Nor the justifications of the Tehran police commander, who yesterday denied that Mahsa Amini had been beaten while in custody; nor the telephone call from President Ebrahim Raisi to the family to ensure that he would investigate the death –“your daughter is my daughter”, he told them–, have been enough to calm the indignation unleashed in Iran after learning of the death of the 22-year-old years that on September 13 she was captured by the morality police for not dressing according to "Islamic canons".
Since Friday when the death was known, the protests have spread throughout the country. The last ones took place yesterday in Tehran, where a march was called at six in the afternoon on Hejab Street, the name given to the veil that covers women's heads, mandatory in Iran. Despite the great police deployment, which tried to prevent the attendees from getting together, a handful of women managed to remove their veils as a sign of protest, as has happened in other demonstrations in recent days.
Some versions of witnesses –supported by videos that began to circulate on social networks– affirm that policemen supported by members of the Basiji paramilitary body responded with violence. In the images you can see how they beat many women and their companions.
Hours earlier, the main universities in Tehran were also the scene of demonstrations, something not seen since 2019, when the country experienced a wave of protests in response to the unannounced increase in the price of gasoline.
At the time, the authorities responded with such violence that, according to Amnesty International, around 300 people were killed. “No to Gashte Ershad”, said some of the posters carried yesterday by young university students – women and men – witnesses in their daily lives of the abuses and abuses of this police force that carry out raids in the streets to supposedly control that women do not dress immorally.
“I was arrested for wearing my cloak short – as the trench coat that covers them is called – and I saw adolescents arrested and a woman beaten for protesting,” says Zohre, 30, who works in a department store. center of Tehran. Similar versions have been spread on social networks, where hundreds of women have recounted their experience with this police force, which is at the center of the debate; even voices considered radical, such as some parliamentarians, have questioned its existence.
Many say that this morality police has failed. More and more women from all backgrounds are looking to dress in a more relaxed way and away from black.
