Her name was Jîna Amini: That matters

Demonstrators hold up placards with images of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini who died while in the custody of Iran's morality police, during a demonstration in support of women and the Iranian protesters, on September 28, 2022. (JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images)

"Life." That's what Jîna Amini's name meant in Kurdish, her native language. But after her death at the hands of Iran's "morality police" last month, the world began to know Jîna by what she considered her government name, Mahsa. 

Protests have erupted across the Middle East and the rest of the world for women's liberation with the rallying cry "Women, Life, Freedom" or "Jin Jiyan Azadi." But what many people don't know is that this phrase originated with a movement called Kurdistan Women's Liberation in Turkey in 2006.