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Three Years After Mahsa Amini’s Death: Iran’s Unfinished Struggle Over Rights, Freedom, and Change [[link removed]]
Three years have passed since the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police, an event that ignited the 2022 nationwide protests and unleashed a wave of state violence. Yet through this repression, the Iranian people’s courage could not be silenced, and Iranian society was significantly transformed. Analysts widely regard those protests as the most significant domestic challenge to the Islamic Republic in decades, marked by their geographic breadth, persistence, and the heavy toll of killings, injuries, arrests, and executions. For many Iranians, however, the most enduring legacy has been the continued defiance of women who refuse to wear the mandatory hijab in public.
In the wake of the protests, Iranian authorities have tried a range of methods to enforce the state’s dress codes. These include large fines and denial of public services, to confiscating cars, blocking SIM cards, and installing facial-recognition cameras. Yet none of these measures have stopped women from appearing unveiled in streets, universities, and workplaces. In Isfahan, men were even urged to prevent their wives and daughters from appearing unveiled. The much-publicized “Hijab and Chastity” law was passed, but women have not complied with it and the administration of Masoud Pezeshkian suspended its enforcement.
At the same time, restrictions expanded into online spaces. Instagram accounts of young women posting unveiled videos of singing or dancing were blocked, erasing their digital presence. Despite these measures, Iran’s public sphere in 2025 looks starkly different: unveiled women walk confidently through banks, airports, and metro stations, often without even carrying a scarf. They believe the government can never force the hijab back on them again.
Everyday life has visibly changed. Residents report fewer cases of harassment and a shift in male attitudes. Some men now wear shorts in public, while unveiled women ride motorcycles—despite police warnings that female motorcycling remains “illegal.” Meanwhile, posters published even by pro-government outlets now depict unveiled women killed in the recent war with Israel as “martyrs,” signaling a shift in state imagery.
Still, contradictions remain. While police patrols have largely been removed from streets, the state is tightening pressure on businesses, hospitals, and cultural spaces. Cafés, concert organizers, and shopping centers have faced closures and prosecutions for tolerating unveiled women or hosting mixed-gender dancing.
The struggle has also entered the political sphere. This summer, debate surfaced around a parliamentary bill that could allow women to apply for motorcycle licenses—something long prohibited by law. And while the enforcement of hijab continues, government leaders have appeared in posters with unveiled “martyrs” from the recent war, raising speculation about whether parts of the state are seeking to recalibrate their stance.
Families of victims of the 2022 protests continue to bear the heaviest burdens. In Kurdistan, Mahsa Amini’s birthplace, heavy security has surrounded preparations for commemorations. Mothers and fathers of the slain are repeatedly detained, threatened, or silenced. The mother of Siawash Mahmoudi – a teenager killed amid the protests at the age of 16 – posted a solitary video from his grave where she placed a paper boat for Kian Pirfalak, another child killed in the protests. The father of Mehrshad Shahidi in Arak released footage of his son’s flower-covered grave, writing: “With all the restrictions, the voice of the people speaks louder through the flowers.”
Another mother, Kamelia Sajadian, who lost her son Mohammad Hossein Torkaman, wrote online: “Your name has become the password for our breathing; your name is the code to pass through the rough paths of justice-seeking.” Her words reflect a broader sentiment among grieving families who have transformed mourning into acts of resistance.
Executions tied to protest-related cases, such as those from the Ekbatan neighborhood case, continue to fuel anger. Recent reports also highlight new prison sentences for activists accused of “propaganda against the state.” Such punishments underscore how far the government is willing to go to suppress dissent, even as it simultaneously struggles to maintain enforcement of hijab in public spaces.
Yet the movement has also been dragged into broader conflicts in ways that many Iranians found deeply offensive. During the 12-day war in June, Israeli bombs were marked with “Woman, Life, Freedom” in Persian before being dropped on Iranian territory. For countless Iranians, this was not solidarity but a cynical and manipulative act—the exploitation of a grassroots human rights movement to justify war and bloodshed. At a time when almost all major international human rights organizations and much of global public opinion are overwhelmed by the killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and while Israeli leaders stand accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing, the use of this slogan on bombs rang hollow and hypocritical. Many activists rejected the linkage, insisting that their children’s memory should not be instrumentalized for geopolitical ends. Many viewed this act as an insult to the dignity of the victims and a betrayal of the slogan’s true meaning—freedom and justice, not destruction and war.
As Iran enters the fourth year since Mahsa Amini’s death, the contradictions are stark. Women unveiled in the streets symbolize resilience and progress. Families of victims continue to demand accountability. Some policymakers cautiously propose reforms, while hardliners double down on institutional enforcement. The mandatory hijab remains the sharpest symbol of the gap between state and society.
From the perspective of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), this anniversary is both a solemn remembrance and a call to action: We remember Mahsa Amini and all those who lost their lives, health, and freedom in pursuit of dignity. We praise the courage of Iranian women who lead and sustain these changes, and we recognize that even within the government, some attempts at reform—such as the debate over women’s motorcycle licenses or the symbolic honoring of unveiled “martyrs”—represent both openings and the limitations on incremental progress. Yet the road is long. We reiterate our call for Iran’s leaders to end all forms of repression, stop punishing people for exercising their basic rights and to release all those unjustly detained – including those still imprisoned in connection with demanding their rights in the 2022 protests.
Three years on, the Woman, Life, Freedom movement has permanently reshaped Iranian society. Streets, banks, and airports filled with unveiled women are daily proof of civil resistance. But the memory of those killed and the continuing arrests remind Iranians that justice remains unfinished, and the struggle for Woman, Life, Freedom endures.
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This is an email from the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). NIAC's Human Rights Tracker [[link removed]] is part of our efforts to spotlight human rights in Iran as a means of holding the Iranian government accountable. As an American organization, we don't have a role to play in the domestic affairs of Iran. But we do have an obligation to support international human rights standards to which the U.S. and Iran are party.
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