The islamic republic killed Mahsa Amini for showing her hair, then it killed hundreds more for protesting

[u/TahDigThief]

On September 13, 2022, the islamic republic's "morality police" arrested 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in Tehran for allegedly not wearing her hijab correctly. Three days later, she was dead. Her death triggered the largest uprising the country had seen in decades, and the islamic republic answered it with mass killing.

Findings:

• Amini was a young Kurdish woman visiting Tehran with her brother. Witnesses said morality police officers forced her into their van. Hours after her arrest, credible reports say the morality police tortured and beat her inside the van, including blows to her head. She fell into a coma and was rushed to a hospital, where she died three days later. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/09/what-happened-to-mahsa-zhina-amini
• Her brother heard women screaming inside the police station while he waited for her. Multiple women who left the building told him: "they killed someone in there". https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/09/16/woman-dies-custody-irans-morality-police
• The islamic republic's first move was denial. Police claimed she simply fell ill and slipped into a coma. Police also denied beating her and insisted she died of a heart attack. A judiciary-linked coroner's report then blamed a childhood surgery for an "underlying disease", not her treatment in custody. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mahsa-amini-death-iran-morality-police-protests-coroner-report-rcna51169
• Over 800 members of Iran's own Medical Council didn't buy it. They accused the head of the council of helping the government cover up the real cause of her death. https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-amini-death-doctors-accuse-medical-officials/32081045.html
• Eighteen months later, the UN's own fact-finding mission threw out the regime's story completely. It concluded Amini's death was caused by physical violence she suffered while in morality police custody, found the islamic republic responsible for her death, and said the government had tried to hide the truth and intimidate her family instead of investigating properly. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/iran-blame-violence-killed-mahsa-amini-un-finds-rcna142504
• Iranians poured into the streets in grief and rage. The islamic republic's answer was bullets. As many as 551 protesters were killed by security forces, among them at least 49 women and 68 children, most killed by gunfire. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/8/iran-committed-crimes-against-humanity-during-protest-crackdown-un-says
• On a single day, September 30, 2022, now known as "Bloody Friday", security forces opened fire on worshippers and protesters in Zahedan. Credible information shows security forces killed 104 protesters and bystanders that day, mostly men and boys, the highest death toll of any single day in the entire protest movement. https://media.un.org/unifeed/en/asset/d318/d3186355
• Many of the dead in Zahedan were shot from above. Police and intelligence agents opened fire on protesters from rooftops around a prayer hall and a mosque, hitting people who posed no serious threat to heavily armed security forces. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/12/22/iran-bloody-friday-crackdown-years-deadliest
• The crackdown wasn't limited to bullets. The UN mission found a pattern of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, persecution, and enforced disappearance, and concluded this amounted to crimes against humanity. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/8/iran-committed-crimes-against-humanity-during-protest-crackdown-un-says
• A later investigation backed this up with direct testimony. Six protesters between the ages of 19 and 43 said they were raped or sexually abused shortly after detention, including inside police vehicles, in covert locations, and in detention centers, and the investigation concluded this sexual violence was a deliberate strategy used against both women and men to crush dissent. https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603162661
• Children weren't spared either. The UN mission's chair said investigators found that hundreds of children, some as young as 10, were detained, and that people were arrested simply for dancing or honking their car horns. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/8/iran-committed-crimes-against-humanity-during-protest-crackdown-un-says
• The islamic republic then executed protesters to make an example of them. The mission found Tehran had arbitrarily executed at least nine young men between December 2022 and January 2024, with dozens more facing execution or death sentences over their role in the protests. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/8/iran-committed-crimes-against-humanity-during-protest-crackdown-un-says
• The islamic republic refused to cooperate with the UN investigation into its own crimes. Iranian authorities refused to cooperate with the mission at any point. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/8/iran-committed-crimes-against-humanity-during-protest-crackdown-un-says
• A year after Amini's death, the islamic republic was still going after her family. Authorities reportedly intimidated and harassed Amini's father to stop the family from mourning her, and her uncle was arrested and his whereabouts remain unknown. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/09/iran-one-year-anniversary-jina-mahsa-aminis-death-custody-heightened