A year ago today, the news of a 22 year old girl who was beaten into a coma by the morality police in Iran took the world by storm. Just one day after her arrest for “improper hijab,” Jina (Mahsa) Amini, a young Kurdish woman from Saqqez who had been visiting family in Tehran, laid unconscious in a hospital bed. As the people of Iran and the world watched, the Islamic Republic conspired ways to deceive the people in hopes of preventing an inevitable uprising that had been brewing for decades. For the women of Iran, Jina’s murder became a catalyst for standing up against the mental and physical abuse endured under the Ayatollah’s control.
Every mother could feel the pain of Jina’s mother, who watched her daughter walk out the door, covered from head to toe, only to never return again. Every daughter felt the wave of anxiety of walking out that door, not knowing her fate. Many ask, how did the death of one girl fuel an entire movement for months to come? What happened? How was what happened to Jina different than the daily challenges of the Iranian women and the countless stories of repression coming out of Iran? There is no difference, for every woman is Jina, but this time, an inseparable bond that has always existed came to life.
The anniversary of Jina’s death this Saturday, September 16th is the anniversary of a revolution. Iran will never be the same again and Woman, Life, Freedom lives on through Jina.
Our cartoon this week is “IRAN : Anniversaire de la révolution samedi 16 septembre” by Paolo Lombardi. Source: CartoonMovement.
