Checkpoints, university purges mark anniversary of Iran protests

Snap checkpoints. InterS net disruptions. University purges. Iran’s theocracy is trying hard to both ignore the upcoming anniversary of nationwide protests over the country’s mandatory headscarflaw and tamp down on any possibility of more unrest.

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Yet the 16 September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini still reverberates across Iran. Some women are choosing to go without the headscarf, or hijab, despite an increasing crackdown by authorities. Graffiti, likely against Iran’s government, is rapidly painted over in black by Tehran’s municipal workers. University professors have been fired over their apparent support for demonstrators. International pressure remains high on Iran, even as the administration tries to de-escalate tensions with other nations in the region and the West after years of confrontation.

“The weaponization of publicmorals to deny women and girls their freedom of expression is deeply disempowering and will entrench and expand gender discrimination and marginalization,” independent United Nations experts warned earlier this month.

The demonstrations over Amini’s death that erupted after her arrest a year ago by the country’s morality police, allegedly over the hijab, represented one of the largest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. A security force crackdown that followed saw over 500 people killed and more than 22,000 people detained. Iran’s government, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has blamed the West for fomenting the unrest, without offering evidence to support the allegation.