Iran schoolgirls join protests over Mahsa Amini death as classrooms stage rebellions
- Iranian schoolgirls have come to the fore in protests over Mahsa Amini, who died while in the custody of morality police
- Students have removed their hijabs and staged sporadic rallies in defiance of a lethal crackdown by Iran’s security forces
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Schoolgirls without headscarves chase male official from campus as protests continue in Iran
Teenage schoolgirls are joining women-led protests in Iran over the country’s Islamic dress code in what’s emerging as one of the largest feminist uprisings in the history of the modern Middle East.
The demonstrations were triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who collapsed into a coma and died after being arrested by Iran’s so-called morality police for allegedly flouting strict rules on what women can wear.
So far in weeks of protests the bravest displays of defiance, including burning headscarves and cutting hair in public, have come from Amini’s own cohort, Iran’s Generation Z.
But in the past few days, an even younger group has made itself heard.
The girls have been shown in several videos that went viral on social media not observing hijab – the Arabic word used to describe rules of modesty in Islam – or wearing maghnaeh, the Persian word for specially-designed head coverings worn as part of uniforms in schools, banks and various state jobs.
In the clips, the girls have their backs to the camera and hair uncovered as they sing slogans and anthems from the protests, including the most widely used refrain “women, life, freedom”, a political chant popular in the Kurdish region where Amini lived.