Diako Alavi, a high-school teacher from Mahsa Amini’s hometown of Saqqez, witnessed the first protests following Amini’s death in police custody after she was arrested for improperly wearing the veil. Alavi, who knew Amini’s family, took part in the demonstrations alongside his students before he was also arrested by the Iranian authorities.
I was a high-school English teacher in Saqqez (in Iranian Kurdistan), where Mahsa Amini lived. We called her “Jina” (her Kurdish name). I know her family well. Saqqez is a small city of 50,000 people, and her father is retired from the local social services; everyone respects him. When I learned that his daughter was in a coma after having been hit in the head repeatedly by the morality police, I was immediately worried. The news began to travel around the town and emotion spread. Her parents asked us all to pray for her.
