On the second anniversary of the state murder of Jina Mahsa Amini, police put her parents under house arrest to prevent them from going to the cemetery in the Kurdish town of Saqqez, where her funeral in 2022 inaugurated the uprising when women took off their compulsory headscarves and shouted “Jin Jiyan Azadi” (Woman, Life, Freedom). The regime even went so far as to open channel gates to flood the streets leading to the cemetery.

Amid this harsh repression, people found ways to express their resistance. In multiple cities in Kurdistan, shops closed in a general strike on September 15. The day before, a group of Kurdish women posted a video putting out the call for a general strike, while covering their faces with photos of Mahsa and imprisoned women.

In some cities, like Tehran and Isfahan, four nights of “shouting in the dark” were planned, with people posting videos of the chanting coming from high-rise buildings. Posters, flyers and graffiti were also ways that people took part, and women posted photos of themselves defiantly showing their hair in public.

The most stunning expressions of resistance took place inside Iran’s hellhole prisons. Women political prisoners chanted and burned headscarves in Evin Prison on September 14, and went on hunger strike September 15 (hear the audio and read their statements here).

In the huge Ghezel Hesar prison, where the “Tuesday No to Execution” hunger strikes began in January (and have spread to at least 21 prisons), reportedly prisoners in the political Ward 4 held a ceremony commemorating Jina and other victims killed by authorities in the 2022 protests. They read poetry and sang, “emphasizing the right to seek justice, and opposition to execution.” Then they chanted:

Hot and furious in prison.
Death sentences and execution.
Flames on the rise.
Death to Khamenei, damn Khomeini!

(Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the current Supreme Leader of Iran; Ayatollah Khomeini was the first Supreme Leader)

They showed that even in center of executions and torture, namely Ghezel Hesar, they are not afraid of dictators, as they shouted in one voice: O Khamenei, we will bury you under the ground.

Around the World

In Bakur in Turkish Kurdistan, women's demonstrations on the second anniversary of Jina's uprising protested against violence against women, chanting "Jin, Jiyan, Azadi!"

Marches and rallies were held in over 40 cities in at least 14 different countries. Most of these were relatively small compared to 2022, with significant numbers in Paris and Berlin, mostly Iranians in the diaspora.

In the San Francisco Bay Area in California, the IEC’s participation in a banner drop on September 16 was captured by an IndyBay report titled, “Women, Life, Freedom and Save Gaza!”