A young woman’s death in custody in Iran on September 16 has sparked nationwide protests. Mahsa Amini’s fatal injuries resulted from an arrest and beating by the country’s hijab police, which enforces the mandatory and “correct” way of wearing the hijab. The protesters have caught the world’s attention by chanting what sounds like a revolutionary slogan: “zan, zendegi, azadi” (woman, life, freedom). Other slogans target the regime: “An Islamic Republic, we don’t want, we don’t want.”
Despite the scale of recurring protests in Iran, some people still cast doubt on the idea that these events have mass support in this vast and populous country. So, how extensive is Iranians’ discontent with the mandatory hijab and the regime that imposed it after the 1979 Islamic Revolution?
