Getting "tough" with Iran won't help the rising women's movement — it may destroy it
A protester holds a portrait of Mahsa Amini during a demonstration in her support in front of the Iranian embassy in Brussels on September 23, 2022, following the death of an Iranian woman after her arrest by the country's morality police in Tehran. (KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. policy always defaults to sanctions and threats whenever unrest emerges in Iran. That's exactly the wrong idea
On Sept. 16, Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman of Kurdish ethnicity, was arrested by Iran's "morality police" for violating the law that requires women to wear a headscarf (hijab). While Amini was in police custody, shocking images surfaced of her in a hospital bed, apparently bruised and battered. Hours later, she was dead.
Protests quickly erupted across 80 cities in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Demonstrators gathered to cut off their hair, burn their hijabs and seize control of their streets, if only temporarily. They chanted, "زن، زندگی، آزادی" — "Women, life, freedom."
Days later, video of another woman went viral, showing 20-year-old Hadis Najafi chopping off her uncovered blonde hair in front of Iranian police. She was praised for her bravery online and became a symbol of the women's uprising overnight. On Sept. 25, Najafi's family released images from her funeral: She had been shot numerous times by Iranian security forces, through the neck, face, hand and heart.
There is no way to know how many lives have been lost since Amini's killing. Amnesty International has reported at least 41 deaths, including at least four children, since the start of the protests, but no official numbers have been released. As with any news of civil unrest in Iran, the first response from Western governments has been sanctions.
