One year has passed since the 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jina (Mahsa) Amini died at the hands of Iran’s morality police. On 13 September 2022, Amini was severely beaten and detained by the morality police in Tehran. On 16 September, she died of her injuries. Her death triggered an unprecedented uprising, shaking almost every corner of Iran.
Amini, originally from Iran’s Kurdistan region, was arrested for an alleged dress code violation. Iran’s controversial hijab law states that all women in Iran must wear a hijab in public. Clerics imposed the mandatory hijab law in Iran shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The morality police are the religious police of the Islamic Republic of Iran. They are tasked with enforcing Sharia law, including the Islamic dress code. Despite claims that the morality police had been disbanded following widespread unrest, according to reports Iranian authorities have increased their enforcement of the hijab laws. Two months ago, Iranian law enforcement officially announced the morality police were restarting patrols.
In the months following Amini’s death, Iran experienced the biggest anti-government protests in years, which were brutally suppressed by the security forces. Protests have since died down in Iran, and the authorities have reverted to their usual highly confrontational methods.
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