Iranian men protest for Mahsa Amini: “My friend was detained just like her”

Posted on : 2022-10-21 10:39 KST Modified on : 2022-10-21 10:39 KST
Men are joining in on the protests in Iran that have arisen in the wake of the death of a 22-year-old woman, and voicing how the totalitarian government has hurt them as well
A man chants along with others during a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Oct. 18 following the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police. (Reuters/Yonhap)
A man chants along with others during a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Oct. 18 following the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police. (Reuters/Yonhap)

Editor’s note: Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died in Tehran on Sept. 16, at the hands of the country’s morality police, who deemed she wasn’t wearing her hijab properly. When doctors who had reviewed her treatment records raised the possibility that she’d been beaten to death, the women of Iran were enraged. The very next day, anti-government protests coalesced under the slogan of “women, life, freedom.” Those protests are now in their second month.

So far, more than 200 people have died in those protests, and everyone from middle and high schoolers to people who lived through the Islamic Revolution in 1979 has taken to the streets. Why are these Iranians continuing their courageous protests?

Koo Gi Yeon, a research professor at the Seoul National University Asia Center who studies the younger generation in Iran, posed that question to people who have taken part in the protests for the Hankyoreh’s series “The Lions of Tehran.”

People hold up their hands at a march in Washington, DC, on Oct. 15 held in solidarity with the ongoing protests in Iran. (AFP/Yonhap)
People hold up their hands at a march in Washington, DC, on Oct. 15 held in solidarity with the ongoing protests in Iran. (AFP/Yonhap)

The death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who was caught in a hijab crackdown in September, has sparked a fire within many Iranian women, which has then gone on to fuel continued protests. Angry women who believe that they could’ve just as easily been the ones killed have heroically thrown off their hijabs and burned what is nothing more than a false symbol of republicanism.

Iranian men are standing next to the teenage girls and women in their 20s who are casting off their hijabs and tying up their hair. They are protesting with the women for all their many “sisters.” Ali Ledger (a pseudonym), a 25-year-old man who came to study in Korea after becoming infatuated with the country’s culture, posts about the protests on social media day and night. I asked Ledger, who attends solidarity protests every weekend in Seoul, why he’s joining the anti-hijab protests.

“Mahsa Amini’s death may have started everything, but this protest is the successor of the many other protests that have happened for years. It’s a culmination of the people’s wrath,” he replied.

Back during the Green Wave, a political movement in Iran that was triggered by what many considered to be a fraudulent election in 2009, Iranians believed that they could achieve change even in an Islamic regime.

They now know that nothing can be changed while the current system still stands.

“The people are full of anger,” said Ledger. “This anger is motivating them to rush out to the streets. The anger is so great, people are not afraid of a regime that is threatening them with death.”

Iranian men have also been oppressed. The infringement of the right to self-determination that occurs due to the imposition of Islamic norms affects men and women alike. Men cannot wear shorts and cannot even hold hands with their significant others in public. The morality police not only arrest women, but men, too.

Ledger has also been subject to crackdowns.

“I was taking a walk with a friend in a park, and we got stopped by the [morality] police who were making their rounds. ‘Why are you, an unmarried man and woman, walking around together? What kind of relationship do you have?’ they asked. We were put in a van and were sent to an education center.”

People in Istanbul, Turkey, protest outside the Iranian Consulate on Oct. 17. (EPA/Yonhap)
People in Istanbul, Turkey, protest outside the Iranian Consulate on Oct. 17. (EPA/Yonhap)

Ledger was released almost immediately, but the woman he had been with was subject to more rigorous questioning.

“They claimed that she was dressed inappropriately. It was as if they were trying to find reasons to fine her. I’m sure that’s how Amini got arrested in the first place.”

Iranian men are also testifying about how they’ve been hurt by the oppressive totalitarian regime.

Mohammad (a pseudonym) was born in 1981, a mere two years after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and was educated as a “Muslim kid.” He calls his generation a “suppressed” generation, who grew up in a repressive social environment.

“Iran’s government system has not changed for the past 40 years,” he said. “The totalitarian regime has ignored most democratic opinions. My generation had no choice but to accept that.”

The older generation had no choice but to lie low and hide under a mask, pretending that everything was okay. The “Internet generation” leading the current protests is different.

“Teenagers and people in their 20s grew up watching how their foreign peers were living via the Internet and various satellite TV channels every day. Do you think such a generation will listen to whatever conservative religious leaders say? They are not afraid of death as they do not believe they have a future.”

The current situation is dire and nothing but precarious, but Ledger pledges to bring back the “real” Iran and show how much Iranians yearn for democracy.

“I will persevere for the freedom of Iran,” he told me.

By Koo Gi Yeon, research professor at Seoul National University Asia Center

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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