SAFIN HAMED
On Sept. 13, Iran’s morality police arrested a 22-year-old woman in Tehran for allegedly wearing her hijab too loosely in public, a violation of the country’s dress code. Mahsa Amini was beaten in detention, her family says, and died three days after falling into a coma.
Her death has sparked mass anti-government protests across the country—the largest swell of resistance against the Islamic Republic in years—and violent crackdowns on the demonstrations have killed as many as 35 people.
In footage shared on social media, women are taking to the streets and removing their headscarves in defiance of the oppressive law. Some dropped their veils into a bonfire, others flouted the law by cutting their hair.