As Iran’s anti-hijab protests escalate, diaspora speaks out on ‘terrible memories’

The death of Mahsa Amini while in custody by Tehran’s morality police has outraged not just people in the country but overseas Iranians

Some say the event has triggered painful memories for them, while others note women like Amini are doubly oppressed because ‘as a Kurd, you are always a second-class citizen’

Reading Time:4 minutes

The death of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini and hijab-burning protests across Iran in recent days have invoked painful memories among some millennial Iranian women in the diaspora of the hard line on women’s public life and similar past episodes of bloody unrest in Iran. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:00pm, 24 Sep 2022Updated: 2:18am, 21 Apr 2023

Names have been changed to protect interviewees’ identities

Gisou*, an Iranian scientist in Europe, had never been vocal about politics in her home country Iran. But the death of a 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police in Tehran for violating the country’s Islamic dress code, was a tipping point for Gisou.

“The main reason I left Iran was because of the hijab. I could not live in that society any more,” said Gisou, who also pointed to dress requirements in Iranian universities, which ban women from wearing nail polish or colourful clothes.

“It’s just outrageous to me,” said Gisou, who requested not to reveal her name and location, fearing for her and her family’s safety.

“That could have happened to my sister because my sister has already been caught by morality police in Iran twice,” she told This Week in Asia. Her sister was fined for allegedly not wearing a hijab properly while driving and had to write to the police promising not to repeat the act.

People demonstrate during a candlelit vigil following the death of Mahsa Amini, also known as Zhina, outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles. Photo: Reuters

The death of Amini, who also went by her Kurdish name Zhina, and hijab-burning protests across Iran in recent days, have invoked painful memories among some millennial Iranian women in the diaspora of the hard line on women’s public life and similar past episodes of bloody unrest in Iran.