September 18, 2022
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday, 13 protesters were wounded when security forces opened fire on them outside the house of the governor in Saghez, Iranian Kurdistan. This, according to the Hengaw human rights organization. The demonstrators were expressing their fury over the death in police custody of Mahsa “Zhina” Amini, 22, a Kurdish young woman who was visiting the capital, Tehran, with her parents when she was arrested by the religious police for not completely covering her hair with her headscarf. Having locks of hair peak out over the forehead is referred to by Iran’s Shiite hardliners as “bad veiling” (bad-hejabi), and is a crime. Popular protests among activist women against the veiling requirement in recent years have caused Iran’s theocratic government to crack down on women more fiercely than ever before.
