Visiting Tehran, Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died in police custody, three days after her arrest by the Iranian morality police for wearing "inappropriate attire".
This photo of Mahsa Amini, transmitted to the Reuters agency by the parents of the young woman, has been around the world.
© Amini family via Reuters
According to the police, the young woman was "suddenly taken with a heart problem".
The NGO Amnesty International urges those responsible for his death, deemed "suspicious", to be brought to justice.
Activists claim that she received a fatal blow to the head.
The police assure her that there was "no physical contact" with the young woman.
State television is broadcasting excerpts from a video filmed at the police station to support this version.
01:50
Demonstration outside a University in Tehran, September 19, 2022, following the death of a woman in custody.
© via Reuters
But little by little, the demonstrations are multiplying throughout the country.
First in Saqqez, in Iranian Kurdistan, where Mahsa Amini is from, then in Tehran and in around thirty cities.
Women burn their veils in public, clashes take place with the police, causing several deaths and leading to numerous arrests.
03:22
Iran: several dead in the demonstrations after the death of Mahsa Amini © France24
Many personalities in Iran and abroad are beginning to vent their anger on social media.
In response, authorities block access to Instagram and WhatsApp, widely used apps in Iran, and accuse the United States and Iran's enemies of fomenting unrest in the country.
But the Iranian demonstrators are showing new audacity, as evidenced by numerous videos analyzed by the France 24 Observers team.
>> Iran: Protesters respond to police repression, unprecedented
Washington announces economic sanctions targeting the morality police and several security officials.
Protests continue on a daily basis.
For Bahar Makooi, a journalist with France 24, "the repression of the morality police has increased with the coming to power of the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi. Cornered by the economic crisis, the Iranian population, caught in a vice, expresses its anger in the street."
>> Iran: "Women no longer let themselves be done" in the face of growing repression by the morality police
At the call of the authorities, thousands of people marched on September 23 to defend the wearing of the veil.
On television, President Ebrahim Raïssi calls on the police to act "firmly" against the demonstrators and the head of the judiciary threatens to show "no indulgence".
"As in 2009, in the face of the 'green movement' against electoral fraud, or during the gigantic anti-government demonstrations of 2017 and 2019 (...), the Iranian authorities seem determined to nip in the bud any protest that calls it into question. question", writes Marc Daou, journalist at France 24.
>> Demonstrations in Iran: "The repressive machine of power is well run"
On the 26th, the authorities indicated that they had arrested more than 1,200 people described as "rioters", including activists, lawyers and journalists, according to NGOs.
The authorities announce the arrest of several foreigners in connection with the protest.
>> In Iran, protesters seeking support from the West
On the 27th, the players of the national football team show their solidarity with the victims of the demonstrations.
>> "Long live women": despite the risks, an unfailing commitment of Iranian footballers
On the 28th, Mahsa Amini's family lodged a complaint against the "authors of her arrest".
The province of Kurdistan, where the family is from, finds itself under more pressure than ever.
>> With the death of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian Kurds in turmoil
In Tehran, at the Sharif University of Technology - the equivalent of Polytechnique in France - some 200 students chant slogans hostile to the religious system of the Islamic Republic, as well as "Woman, life, freedom" or "Students prefer death to humiliation".
The riot police intervene violently and close the university.
01:20
Despite the crackdown, protest rallies continue at several Iranian universities, including Isfahan, Mashhad and Babol, reports France 24 Observers journalist Ershad Alijani.
Despite yesterday's brutal crackdown on students at Sharif University by Basij forces, protests at universities in Iran continue in several cities.⬇️ Isfahan University
video:@mamlekate #MahsaAmini pic.twitter.com/gibHl2it1A
— ERSHAD ALIJANI (@ErshadAlijani) October 3, 2022
From Istanbul to Paris, all over the world, demonstrations are multiplying in support of Iranian women and against the repression of demonstrators.
03:03
Mahsa Amini and repression in Iran © AFP
In France, feminists express their support and criticize the caution of the French government.
A protester in front of the Iranian embassy in Paris, October 9, 2022. Julien de Rosa, AFP
>> French feminists mobilize for Iranian women who demonstrate
In Tehran, the authorities maintain their version by publishing on October 7 an official medical report affirming that the death of Mahsa Amini is linked to a brain tumor and was not caused by beatings.
After a month of demonstrations and repression, the contestation of the mullahs' regime continues.
If the obligation to wear the veil is at the heart of the movement, it now rallies workers in the industrial sector.
Videos shared by Persian-language media based outside Iran show workers burning tires outside the Asalouyeh petrochemical plant in the southeast of the country.
Other strikes are observed in factories in Abadan (west) and Kengan (south), according to the organization Iran Human Rights (IHR).
04:01
Protests continue in Iran, a month after the death of Mahsa Amini.
This 22-year-old Iranian Kurd had been arrested by the morality police for letting strands of hair protrude from her veil.
© France 24
At least 108 people were killed in Iran in the repression of the demonstrations triggered almost a month ago by the death of Mahsa Amini, this NGO indicated on Wednesday October 12.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reaffirmed that "enemies" were involved in the riots, again pointing the finger at "foreign agents".
Oct 16 © Graphic studio, France 24
On the night of October 16 to 17, climber Elnaz Rekabi, 33, appears with a simple scarf tied around her head, and not with the traditional hijab, at the Asian climbing championship, organized in South Korea.
A clear breach of the dress code of the Islamic Republic of Iran which imposes the wearing of the hijab on all female athletes, even abroad.
Immediately, the image goes around the world and, on social networks, dozens of supporters of the movement hail a "heroine".
In the hours that followed, while the athlete no longer gave any sign of life, concern grew around the consequences of his gesture.
Elnaz Rekabi finally posts a message on Instagram in which she apologizes for the "concerns" caused and insists that her bare-headed appearance was "unintentional".
>> Iran: What happened to climber Elnaz Rekabi who competed without a veil?
"I have been a member of the Iranian Climbing Federation for twenty years. I apologize for the concern I caused regarding the situation (in Iran). During the final of the Asian Championship, there was a programming error: they called me at the last moment to climb the wall. There was a mistake in the way I dressed. I'm going back to Iran as planned," she explains.
Since then, doubt remains as to whether the athlete wrote this text freely, or even if it was indeed she who posted it.
Oct 26 © Graphic studio, France 24
Forty days after the death of Mahsa Amini, a time that traditionally marks the end of the period of mourning in Iran, thousands of people gather at the grave of the young woman, in the cemetery of the city of Saqqez, in Kurdistan - her province of origin.
Yet Iranian authorities have tried to avoid any ceremony, going so far as to threaten Mahsa Amini's parents if they hold a commemoration, activists say.
A few hours before this rally, Iranian justice had also announced that it had officially charged more than 300 people, bringing to more than 1,000 the number of individuals prosecuted for having participated in demonstrations in the country.
Thousands of protesters march towards Saqqez, the hometown of Mahsa Amini, on October 26, 2022. © Hengaw, Twitter
November 9 © Graphic studio, France 24
Over the weeks, many celebrities join the protesters.
Among them, the famous actress Taraneh Alidoosti, known in particular for her role in "The Salesman" - Oscar for best foreign language film, in 2017.
With 8 million subscribers on Instagram, she publishes a portrait of herself displaying her long brown hair in the open air and holding a sign on which one can read ""woman, life, freedom", the slogan of the protesters, in Kurdish – the mother tongue of Mahsa Amini.
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by Taraneh Alidoosti (@taraneh_alidoosti)
This is not the first time Taraneh Alidoosti has openly challenged the Iranian regime.
From the day of Mahsa Amini's death, September 16, she had indicated that the young woman had died "without having done anything".
The actress also published a short poem, still in Kurdish: "Your last absence, the songbird migration, is not the end of this rebellion."
13 © Graphic studio, France 24
For the first time, a person accused of having participated in the "riots" has been sentenced to death by a court in Tehran, announce the Iranian judicial authorities.
The latter is presented as "an enemy of God" and guilty of "corruption on Earth".
“Two very vague concepts which leave a very large margin of maneuver to the judges. Considered as exceptional laws, they make it possible to sentence to death in hasty trials behind closed doors, depriving the accused of a lawyer or witnesses”, recently explained to France 24 the Franco-Iranian lawyer, Hirbod Dehghani-Azar.
A few days before this sentence, on November 7, 227 of the 290 deputies who make up the Iranian Parliament had demanded that justice apply severe repression to protest movements by using the law of retaliation against these "enemies of God".
21 © Graphic studio, France 24
In their opening World Cup game against England, all eyes are on the Tim-e-Melli players with one question: will they show their support for the protests?
The national team finally expressed tacit support for the protests in their country.
Shortly before kick-off, the eleven Iranian players present on the lawn of the Khalifa stadium refrain from singing their national anthem, their faces completely impassive.
At the same time, in the stands, Iranian supporters brandished signs "women, life, freedom".
These are quickly removed.
The selection will finally sing the national anthem in its second match, four days later, against Wales.
01:11
Until the elimination of the country from the competition, the protest movement which is shaking Iran is also causing strong tensions between supporters, notes in Doha our special envoy Romain Houeix.
While some want to use the Mondial-2022 to protest, others – pro-regime – assure that these demonstrations have no place in Qatar.
>> "Football has no meaning when children are killed in Iran": report from Iranian supporters
On November 30, scuffles broke out between Iranian supporters after the country's defeat by the United States.
Several of them sporting t-shirts referencing women's freedom say they were assaulted by pro-government activists, and some were injured.
Dec 3 © Graphic Studio, France 24
The announcement causes surprise.
On December 3, the Iranian Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri assures, via the official Isna news agency, that the morality police, at the origin of the arrest of Mahsa Amini, have been abolished.
If the declaration is initially perceived as a retreat of the regime in the face of the demonstrations, specialists in Iran call for caution, seeing it rather as an attempt at diversion on the part of power on the eve of a call for a new three-day nationwide strike.
"The morality police have not been abolished in Iran", notes historian specializing in Iran Jonathan Piron.
"The words of the Attorney General were ambiguous, they were misinterpreted. The obligation to wear the veil in Iran is not questioned by the authorities and the power makes no concessions on this subject, it continues its repressive logic ."
>> Protests in Iran: "The tipping point has not been reached but it is not far"
Dec 7 © Graphic Studio, France 24
Some youth organizations had called for it to be turned into a "Day of Terror for the State".
On December 7, on Student's Day, which commemorates the deaths of three students killed by the Shah of Iran's security forces in 1983, students again take to the streets to protest after the death of Mahsa Amini.
All day long, they march and chant slogans against the regime in several cities of the country, sometimes despite a strong presence of security forces.
"Tremble, tremble, we are all together", protesters at the Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran, for example, proclaim in a video published by the online media 1500tasvir.
On this occasion, the ultra-conservative president Ebrahim Raïsi goes to a campus in Tehran.
In front of a visibly hand-picked crowd, he salutes the attitude of the "sharp students who did not allow there to be a riotous atmosphere at the university".
This day of mobilization comes in the midst of a three-day national strike.
In parallel with the student mobilization, stores remain closed in around fifty cities across the country.
Dec 8 © Graphic Studio, France 24
Repression takes a new step in Iran.
At dawn, Mohsen Shekari, a 23-year-old protester, was hanged in a Tehran prison in the greatest secrecy.
He is the first convict executed since the beginning of the protest movement, accused of having stabbed and injured a paramilitary.
Human rights NGOs are immediately sounding the alarm, fearing mass executions as Iran executes more convicts than any other country except China, according to Amnesty International.
More than 500 people were executed there in 2022, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights, based in Norway.
Four days later, on December 12, the judicial authorities announced a second execution, this time publicly.
Majid Reza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged at dawn, just 23 days after his arrest.
According to state media, he was accused of stabbing to death two members of the security forces and wounding four others.
“This killing is intended to be a brutal illustration that the regime is ready to kill and it wants to let it be known,” reacted to France 24 Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR).
>> Protesters executed in Iran: "The regime is ready to kill and it wants to make it known"
A total of 27 individuals are on death row in connection with the protests, according to a tally by Amnesty International.
At least 458 people were also killed in the repression of the demonstrations, according to a report established by IHR, and at least 14,000 were arrested according to the UN.
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