Iran protests: who is Mahsa Amini, what happened to her - why Muslim women are joining anti-government dissent

On Sunday (25 September), five police officers were critically hurt and 12 individuals were arrested outside the Iranian embassy during demonstrations in London.

It comes as protests that originated in Iran have spread around the world in response to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Following her death on 16 September, hundreds of protests have occurred around the world - from Tehran to Paris and New York - with protestors calling for an end to Iran’s dictatorial dictatorship.

The London protest began outside the embassy before proceeding to Marble Arch and eventually to Maida Vale, where the Islamic Centre of England was targeted.

Crowds shouted "death to the Islamic Republic" and waved the former national flag of Iran, which was replaced by the present-day banner in 1980 to reflect the changes brought about by the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which resulted in the replacement of the Iranian royal dynasty with an Islamic Republic, supported by a wide range of Islamist organisations.

BUt what exactly happened to Mahsa Amini, and why has it sparked such outrage among Iranians and around the world?

Here is everything you need to know about her.

What happened to her?

Amini was arrested and allegedly tortured by the country’s “morality police” for wearing her hijab too loosely in the Iranian capital of Tehran.

Amini’s brother Kiaresh, who was with her when she was arrested, was told she would be brought to the detention centre for a "briefing lesson" before being released an hour later. He waited at the police station for two hours before being told that his sister had suffered a heart attack and a seizure.

According to witnesses, she was beaten while being transported to a detention centre in a police van. She then collapsed inside the station and died three days later in hospital.

Police claimed Amini died of a heart attack and that she was not abused. But her family say she had no history of heart problems, and that they were denied access to her body before she was buried.

Leaked medical scans have also led independent observers to diagnose that Amini possibly died from cerebral haemorrhage and stroke, and the facility where Amini was treated released a statement on Instagram that she was brain dead when she was admitted. That post has since been removed.

The United Nations has criticised the Iranian police forces’ handling of the situation, and demanded an investigation into the alleged murder in custody.

Why have people been protesting?

Protests have erupted across Iran and the world in response to Amini’s death. On social media, women can be seen ripping off their mandatory headscarves and setting fire to their hijabs.

Women are also recording and posting videos of themselves cutting their hair as a symbol of resistance.

By law, women in Iran must wear a headscarf (hijab) that totally conceals their hair when going out in public. The only other country in the world to impose such a law is Afghanistan, a ruling which was only reinstated with the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

Saudi Arabia lifted a similar law in 2018. The hijab is no longer obligatory by legislation there, though Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has stressed that women must still wear "decent and respectful attire.”

Struan Stevenson, a former member of the European Parliament for Scotland and the coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change, described the Iran’s clerical regime as “misogynist lunacy”, which has “even extended to a demand by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that women depicted in cartoons must wear a headscarf.

“Now, in Iran, even female animated characters cannot reveal their hair,” he wrote in The Scotsman.

“The murder of Mahsa Amini by the morality police may be the last straw,” he added. “It may be the spark that ignites the revolution which will sweep the turbaned tyrants in Iran from power.”