The Iranian Association of Queen’s University held a commemoration on Monday, Sept. 16 marking two years since the death of Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16, 2022.
While visiting her family, 22-year-old Amini died in the custody of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after being arrested by the Islamic Republic’s morality police for wearing her hijab too loosely.
“[The Islamic Republic’s morality police] have been controlling women and enforcing religious dress codes using intimidation tactics and abuse for the past 45 years,” an event speaker said.
Amini’s death was the ignition to the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, which gained momentum in Iran and globally. The commemoration, held in Mackintosh-Corry Hall, included a documentary screening, speeches, and Iranian poems read by students. The commemoration concluded with a candle-lighting ceremony to honour the women affected by the ongoing struggle.
The documentary, How Mahsa Aminis death sparked the hijab protests that changed Iran by public affairs program Foreign Correspondent highlights the first-hand experiences of women and families living in Iran under a government that imposes many restrictions on women’s daily lives.
“I think this [her death] was another part of the wake-up call for so many Iranians, especially Irani women, who realized that if Mahsa could lose her life, simply for existing, that none of them were safe,” the same student said in their speech. “To give up is not an option when the fight inside Iran continues every day when a girl leaves her house without her mandatory hijab, not knowing who she would encounter that day.”
Women in Iran face legal discrimination in personal status matters, including marriage, divorce, inheritance, and decisions involving children. Under the civil code, husbands can dictate where their wives live and prevent them from holding certain occupations if deemed contrary to “family values.”
The ports Law restricts married women from obtaining ports or traveling without their husband’s written consent—this consent can be revoked at any time. The civil code allows girls to marry at age 13 and boys at age 15 and at younger ages if authorized by a judge, according to Human Rights Watch.
Cases of femicide are increasingly reported in media and social media, but Iran has no law on domestic violence to prevent abuse and protect survivors.
As reported by Shargh and based on official statistics, at least 165 women in Iran were killed by male family between March 2021 and the end of June 2023, an average of one killing every four days. From mid-March to mid-May of last year, so called “honour killings” saw 27 women reported as murdered—killings of women and girls perpetrated by family .
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