The streets are busy with onlookers watching a crowd of protestors gripping posters and shouting chants. In the middle of the group is a woman with dark hair, and in her hands is a pair of scissors. She reaches up with a determined look in her eyes and cuts the locks off her head. Her once-long hair is gone. Beside her lies a poster with the words “Say her name: Mahsa Amini” in bold letters.  

On Sep. 16, police killed Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, in Tehran, Iran for failing to properly wear her hijab. Witnesses claim they saw law enforcement officers push Amini into a police car and beat her. She was then relocated to a nearby hospital where she was in a coma for four days before she passed. Now, across the world, people are protesting in Amini’s name for the freedom and life of all Iranian women.  

 “What happened to Mahsa Amini was not right. The police could have kindly reminded her how she was supposed to wear it [her hijab]. She did not need to be killed,” Kaylee Medeiros, sophomore, said. 

 Currently, the police have killed over 400 civilians and arrested 20,000 for peacefully protesting the laws against women in Iran. The death rate has continued to increase, yet protestors are continuing to remove their hijabs, cut their hair, and stand in Iran’s dangerous streets for hours in order to gain the freedom that Iranian women have been fighting to get back for the past 40 years. 

 “I find it inspiring that even through all the consequences the woman are facing, they still want to fight for the freedom they deserve,” Nick Furman, senior, said. 

 Many women like Amini are killed daily in Iran due to the hijab laws. It is mandatory that a woman wears a scarf covering her head at all times, regardless of one’s religious views, when outside in Iran. If this law is broken, said person is kicked out of their school or job, receives 74 lashes, and can be potentially incarcerated; however, many citizens and police officers attack and, in some cases, kill the women who revolt. 

 “What is happening in Iran is a clear violation of basic human rights, which women should be equally granted. Liberty is one of the most important rights we have, and that should not be denied to women because of religious views,” Jada Marie Dada, junior, said. 

Amini is not the first and, likely, not the last woman who the police kill because of the hijab laws. Protesters in Iran and in other countries are fighting for the establishment of freedom and safety for Iranian women and to change the Iranian government. Their goal is to end the murder of innocent women who choose not to cover up. For daily updates on the “War for Women,” click here.