Podcast: The Wrath of Iranian Women

"Death to Khamenei!" the women shout.

»Death to the oppressor – whether Shah or supreme leader!« And also »End the Islamic Revolution!«

It is remarkable to call for the death of the "Supreme Leader" in Iran, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and to equate him with the still hated Shah Reza Pahlavi, who fled to the USA in 1979 to escape the Islamic Revolution.

But to condemn this revolution, which has determined the life, law and religious everyday life of the state of Iran since those days, is more than remarkable.

Especially since this demand is voiced, written, shouted by women.

But that's exactly what the protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini are about.

Because Amini died in the custody of the moral police, whose job it is to monitor the correct female clothing in public spaces.

Correct means: A hijab, i.e. a Persian headscarf that completely covers the woman’s head and hair, and a robe that, thanks to its wide cut, hides the body shape and extends far down to the legs.

Allegedly, Mahsa Amini was not dressed properly and was arrested.

more on the subject

• Women about the protests in Iran: »We will not rest« Recorded by Susanne Koelbl, collaboration: Nasrin Bassiri and Gregor Scheu

• Protests in Iran: The hijab becomes a toy of freedomAn observation by Arno Frank

"

And anyone who comes to these centers of the religious police or moral police has no rights," says SPIEGEL editor Susanne Koelbl in the podcast.

“You're in the clutches of security forces using violence, both physical and verbal.

And you have no more protection.

And this feeling separates the women from a state that they once had hopes was a better state than the state of Shah Reza Pahlevi«.

Iranian women are now taking off their headscarves, burning them in public and cutting their hair.

Women around the world are doing the same to show solidarity.

The hijab thus becomes a symbol of the lack of human rights for women;

the protest is directed against the arbitrariness of the religious guards, not against the dress code itself.

"

It concerns a fate that every woman in Iran can identify with," says Susanne Koelbl, explaining the protests.

“These women can't get divorced if the man doesn't agree.

These women cannot leave the country unless the man agrees.

When there is conflict, women always lose out.

It is the sum of these humiliations, the sum of these injustices that is now being discharged on the street.«

Can the protests succeed and improve the situation of women in Iran?

What does the Amini case say about Iranian society?

And what role does the international community play in the country's internal conflict?

Susanne Koelbl talks about this in this episode of the SPIEGEL foreign podcast »Eight Billion«.