Four years after Mahsa Amini’s death in Iranian police custody, Kurdish businesses across her home region observed a general strike on Wednesday. Simultaneously, international human rights organizations warned that the architects of the 2022 suppression remain in power and continue their oppressive tactics.
Shopkeepers and businesses in Saqqez, Sanandaj, Mahabad, Marivan, Baneh, and Bokan closed their doors following a call from Kurdish political coalitions. Social media videos depicted deserted bazaars throughout the region.
Amnesty International, marking the fourth anniversary with a new report, stated that those who orchestrated the violent crackdown of 2022 still command Iran’s security apparatus.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola declared on X that the Parliament would continue to back young Iranians facing execution or imprisonment, highlighting the case of twin sisters Taraneh and Romina Rahimi, who were sentenced by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court following recent protests.
“The European Parliament will keep their light shining until it breaks through the darkness,” Metsola wrote on X.
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran Mai Sato noted that four years of severe state violence—including the use of lethal force during nationwide protests in late 2025 and early 2026—have failed to extinguish the resistance.
“Four years on, the resistance sparked by Jina’s death has not been extinguished,” Sato stated on X.
“The women and girls who took to the streets in her name continue to demand the right to decide what they wear, where they work, and how they live… Those rights will not remain deniable forever.”
Sato also pointed out that despite the Law on Protecting the Family through the Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab being formally suspended since December 2024, cafes, restaurants, and shops have continued to face closures for hijab violations, with arrests reported in certain instances.
What happened to Mahsa Amini?
Amini, 22, was taken into custody by Tehran’s morality police on September 13, 2022, for allegedly violating compulsory hijab rules, and died three days later after suffering brutal beatings while detained.
The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran concluded that she had been subjected to physical violence in custody and that Iranian authorities were responsible for her death. Iranian officials rejected these findings and denied that she had been physically assaulted.
Protests swept the nation in the aftermath of her death. While compulsory hijab and women’s rights were central themes, the movement also encompassed demands for political freedoms, minority rights, economic justice, and systemic political reforms.
The UN fact-finding mission recorded up to 551 deaths across 26 provinces, including at least 49 women and 68 children, and noted that certain violations—such as killings, torture, rape, and sexual violence—met the threshold of crimes against humanity.
Tehran admitted to detaining over 22,000 people, according to Amnesty International, which also documented instances of enforced disappearances, unfair trials, and death sentences.
Tehran pivots to hi-tech
Compulsory hijab remains enshrined in law, the political structure is intact, and many protest participants remain imprisoned, in exile, or under sentence.
The regime has transitioned enforcement from morality-police patrols to cameras, facial recognition, drones, and digital surveillance. In 2023, Iran’s police announced that public cameras would be utilized to identify women not wearing hijab.
The UN fact-finding mission’s 2025 report cited the use of facial recognition to monitor students’ attire at the entrance to Amirkabir University in Tehran.
A 2025 study published in the journal Iranian Studies at the University of Cambridge characterized the movement as producing a “cultural revolution” alongside a political one, arguing that it diminished the state’s ideological grip on public and cultural life.
For example, images of morality police vans detaining women on the streets became among the most powerful symbols of the 2022 protests, prompting Tehran to avoid overt public confrontation methods.
The increasing visibility of women without headscarves in public spaces, and the prominence of women’s rights in political discourse, demonstrate that conditions have not reverted to their pre-September 2022 state—a direct consequence of the movement’s impact.
