Mahsa Amini was 22 years old when she was arrested on her way to Tehran, the Iranian capital, by the Moral Police.
The reason?
Wear, according to the agents, the veil badly placed and wear tight pants.
The reality is that she had left out only a lock of hair.
At the same time she was arrested and transferred to a jail in the Iranian city.
Days later, on September 16, she died in police custody.
According to her family, Amini died from the beatings she received while she was detained.
Since then, both in Iran and in the rest of the world, protests have been repeated for the rights of women in that country and to raise their voices against the legal imposition of the veil.
Now, a group of French women, including well-known actresses such as Marion Cotillard, Juliette Binoche and Jane Birkin,
Thousands of women, living under the oppression of an ultraconservative Islamic regime for more than 40 years, daily defy the agents by cutting their hair, shaving their heads or publicly burning their hijab (Islamic veil).
A gesture that has spread throughout the world and is carried out by Muslim women or not, both in demonstrations and on social networks.
The use of the veil has been compulsory since the triumph of the 1979 Revolution for all women and girls over the age of seven.
That is why Iranian women have flooded the streets of the country to fight for the freedom to decide whether or not they want to wear this hijab.
More information
The repression of protests over the death of a young woman detained for wearing the veil wrong in Iran causes several deaths
To the cry of "Woman, life and freedom", they fight against the aggressive repression that the police forces exert on the demonstrators daily.
The NGO Iran Human Rights has already put the number of deaths in these protests at more than 150.
Some protests that have crossed borders and are starring in the day to day of the international media.
Almost three weeks later, 50 French women, with a snip, have joined the fight in a video broadcast on social networks.
Singers, actresses, activists and anonymous people have participated in a recording in solidarity with Iranian women and, especially, in tribute to Amini.
Juliette Binoche — to the cry of “For freedom!”
and with scissors in hand—, Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg (along with her mother, actress Jane Birkin), singer Angèle and comedian Muriel Robin are just some of those who have publicly supported the cause.
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The video is an initiative launched by three lawyers: Julie Couturier, president of the Paris Bar Association;
Richard Sédillot, expert in the defense of human rights;
and Christiane Feral Schuhl, former president of the French National Council of Lawyers.
A video that is accompanied by a text, written by actress Julie Gayet —current wife of former French President François Hollande—: “It is impossible not to denounce this terrible repression over and over again.
The dead are already counted by dozens, including children.
The arrests only increase the number of prisoners who are already illegally detained and who are too often tortured.
We have decided to respond to the call by cutting some of our locks ourselves.”
The video ends with a drawing by Marjane Satrapi, a Franco-Iranian artist who recounted in the award-winning graphic novel
Persepolis
—which was later adapted for film—
her
story in Iran with the restrictions on freedom imposed by the Islamic authorities in 1979.
The gesture of cutting one's hair has reached the most important institutions worldwide.
Just this week, Swedish MEP Abir Al-Sahlani, of Iraqi origin, cut her hair in the gallery of the European Parliament.
A fight that will not stop and who knows if it will be able to put an end to years of repression.