Mahsa Amini, also known as Jina Amini or Zhina Amini was a 22-year-old Iranian woman who passed away in Tehran, Iran, on September 16, 2022, in mysterious circumstances, allegedly as a result of police brutality.
Amini was detained by Iran’s Law Enforcement Command’s Guidance Patrol, the morality police, for not donning the hijab in accordance with official guidelines. She suffered a heart attack at a station, fell to the ground, and died after two days in a coma, according to the police. [9] [10] In addition to her leaked medical scans, eyewitnesses and other women who were detained with Amini claimed that she had been beaten severely, which led outside experts to make the diagnoses of cerebral hemorrhage and stroke.
Protests Against The Death Of Amini
After Amini died, there were protests all over the country that got attention from all over the world. For example, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees made a statement about violence against women in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Protests persisted and #MahsaAmini became one of the top hashtags ever on Persian-language Twitter as Iranians fumed over the death of a young woman in the custody of morality police enforcing strict hijab rules https://t.co/MDKTwbo9ba
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 18, 2022
Many world leaders, groups, and well-known people have denounced the incident and shown support for the protesters. The US Department of the Treasury put sanctions on leaders of different Iranian security groups and the morality police.
The Iranian authorities made an effort to put an end to the demonstrations by using tear gas, water cannons, birdshot, and metal pellets to disperse the crowd. They also blocked access to numerous apps, like Instagram and WhatsApp, and restricted internet access. Since the internet was completely shut down in Iran in 2019, these might be the country’s toughest internet restrictions to date.
A photo and video of Amini with tubes in her mouth and nose, as well as bruised eyes and a bloodied ear have been shared across social media, leading many to conclude that the young woman was beaten after her arrest. In response to Iran’s deeply ingrained misogyny and violence against women, outrage over Amini’s death quickly spread among the nation’s citizens, who were mostly women. This trend has been widely replicated on social media.
What Is The Hashtag Mahsaamini On Social Media?
The attack and killing of Amini sparked intense resentment throughout numerous social networks. # MahsaAmini was one of the most popular hashtags on Persian Twitter.
More than 40 million times, the hashtag has been trending in support of Mahsa Amini, the young woman whose death has sparked widespread protests in Iran.
The hashtag # MahsaAmini, in both English and Persian, is widely used both inside and outside of Iran.
The feat was accomplished with the help of various politicians, celebrities, and groups working for human rights, and the total is around ten times greater than the most popular hashtags on Twitter.
The number of retweets may have been even higher if the Islamic Republic had not restricted most of the routes people take to get through filtering and sign in to Twitter, as well as shut down internet connections in many areas of the nation.
On Thursday, “Anonymous,” a group of hackers, shut down Ali Khamenei’s official website in Iran. This happened as protests were going on all over the country.
More than 2,000 street surveillance cameras, according to the hacking group, were also compromised. The group also targeted numerous other state-run websites and services.
The group is attempting to spread awareness about the ways Iranian protesters can continue to use the internet to make their voices heard around the world, particularly through Tor, short for The Onion Router, a free and open-source program for enabling anonymous communication. The government has cut internet access in the nation.
The group started cyberattacks against the Islamic Republic to show support for the ongoing protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, who was said to have been hit in the head multiple times by officers who enforced the hijab.
If the Iranian government blocks people from accessing the internet, Anonymous will block access to the government, the group said.
