Iranian girl takes off her hijab and just enjoys sports game.

Saturday, there were protests in western Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, who was 22. Iranian women were seen taking off their hijabs in public. Iran’s “Morality Police” arrested Amini for “improperly” putting on the hijab because her hair wasn’t completely covered. She was taken into custody by the “Morality Police.” On the way to a “re-education class” at a detention centre, she was beaten up in the police van.

Several videos from the rallies have gone viral on social media, showing people chanting against the government as they gather in Mahsa Amini’s hometown of Saqqez to mourn the 22-year-old who died in a hospital in Tehran.

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and activist, said in a video that went with his statement, “Women in Iran-Saghez took off their headscarves to protest the murder of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, by the hijab police.” People were yelling, “The same goes for the dictator. In Iran, it is illegal to take off one’s head scarf. All men and women are asked to stand together. Masih Alinejad said in another tweet, “After Mahsa Amini was laid to rest, security forces in Saqqez, Iran, opened fire on peaceful protesters. There have been a lot of hurt protesters. Hijab police have already killed a 22-year-old woman and are now shooting and using tear gas on people who are there to pay their respects. 

As the crowd chanted “Death to the tyrant!” about Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a few women took off their headscarves. Protests also went on late into the night in Sanandaj, the capital of the area. People shouted on social media, “Saqez is not alone; Sanandaj backs it up.” Women in Saqqez City took off their hijabs to protest having to wear a veil. Kairash, the victim’s brother, said that the police van got in the way of his sister and took her away. When Kairash tried to stop the police from taking away his sister, they beat him and bent his arm. When he finally got away, they told him that Mahsa would be taken to the station and given an hour-long “re-education lesson” before being set free.

Holly Dagres, an Iranian-American analyst, says that the Iranian government “knows very well” that more than half of the people don’t want to wear the headscarf. Dagres says that the fact that morality police are always walking around big cities like Tehran is proof of this. The government knows that if nothing is done, Iranian women will keep pushing the limits of what is acceptable to wear. 

Defiance on a small scale

Even though there have always been protests against the hijab, Dagres told Al Jazeera that the current uprising was started by one woman who stood on a busy street in central Tehran waving a white headscarf on a wooden stick. The photo of the woman quickly spread through social media. When she was apparently taken into custody by the police at the end of January, her case got a lot of attention. The Iran Human Rights Organization says that she was later set free on bail. In another video that went viral, an old woman walked with a cane through a snowy park before climbing up a standing fountain and waving a white scarf in the air.