“Basij guards, you are our Daesh!”, chanted parents outside an Education Ministry building in western Tehran on 4 March, likening Iran’s security forces to the Islamic State.
Iran’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, was recently quoted in local media remarking that the country’s morality police had been “shut down”. Montazeri’s comments came as nationwide protests entered their third month, sparked by the police murder of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September.
Protests continue across Iran following the police murder of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September.
Protests and riots have spread across Iran after a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, was murdered by the morality police. Amini was visiting the capital, Tehran, on 13 September when she was arrested for allegedly breaking mandatory veiling laws. Police beat her into a coma and she died three days later. Amini was buried in her hometown of Saqqez.
A fresh wave of strikes and protests has swept across Iran since the beginning of 2022. Protests over water shortages and bread prices, as well as national strikes by teachers, have rocked the country. From the smallest province Khorasan, to the capital Tehran, people have taken to the streets with two chants: “Death to the dictator” and “Victory to the workers”.
“Racist, sexist, anti-queer, Liberals are not welcome here!”—the sound of students chanting echoes through the Old Quadrangle at the University of Melbourne. Dotted across the building’s sandstone walls are bright yellow stickers that feature former Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies with devil horns. The stickers read “NO MENZIES INSTITUTE”.