The Girl Who Shook the World

In the lead-up to the US-Iran World Cup match, you're likely seeing news stories that refer to protests across Iran. The uprising began when the Iranian morality police detained and killed a woman for improperly wearing a hijab. But much of the reporting glosses over the details of the victim and her brutal arrest. If you want to learn more about the innocent twenty-two-year-old who's shaken an unjust regime to its core, read on.

In my novel?The Handler?( Penguin Random House , released May 2022), a real-world event puts the story in motion. It was the January 2020 Iranian shoot-down of a Ukrainian Airlines 737 in Tehran. The plane was filled with young Iranian students headed back to school, many on their way to Canada. Fictionally, the nineteen-year-old daughter of an Iranian nuclear scientist was on board. Her tragic death sparks a crisis for the regime that reverberates worldwide.

In real life, we’re seeing something similar play out in Iran right now. Mahsa Amini was a shy twenty-two-year-old from the northwestern Iranian Kurdish city of Saqqez. In September, along with her family, she’d boarded a train to visit an uncle in distant Tehran. But the moment she stepped onto the arrival platform in the big city, she was arrested by the morality police and beaten to death.

Her crime? The morality police thought her pants were too tight.

Mahsa had never been political. She’d followed the traditional Iranian dress code to the letter of the law. But an officer in the morality police didn’t like the cut of her jeans. Now she’s dead.

During her arrest at the station, her family had begged the officers for forgiveness. They said they were from the provinces, less familiar with the rules of Tehran. But that didn’t matter. The officers hurled Mahsa into a van and sped away.

Her family waited outside the detention center where Mahsa had been taken. Eventually, an officer came into the street to address them. He told them the charge against Mahsa had been formalized. She hadn’t been wearing her head scarf correctly. Her punishment was under review.

After a two-hour vigil, an ambulance arrived at the detention center. Fearing the worst, Mahsa’s family followed it to the nearest hospital. They’d already begun to piece together details of Mahsa’s fate. Other women arrested that day had recounted how the police had savagely beaten Mahsa in the van. She’d pleaded for her life.

At the hospital, Mahsa’s father confirmed she’d been admitted. He begged to see his young daughter. But he was denied. Forty-five minutes later, the staff told him she was dead.

Paralyzed by grief, her father asked to see the medical charts. He wanted to know the cause of death. But they wouldn’t tell him. Instead, they called security, who escorted him out of the building.

As word of the tragedy spread, the Iranian government changed its story. They quickly produced a suspicious video that showed Mahsa falling inside the police station. They said the young woman had died of cardiac arrest. No one believed it.

It was the last straw.

For the past two months, the mullahs who rule the Islamic Republic of Iran have been in crisis. Tens of thousands of protesters have swarmed the streets, rebelling against the death of Mahsa and the repressive regime that killed her. According to the Human Rights Activists in Iran--a U.S.-based group tracking the protests--the government has arrested more than 18,000 people. The group estimates more than 450 protesters and 60 security force personnel have been killed. The mullahs had hoped the protests would end after forty days—the traditional mourning period. But they’re still going on.

All over the country, rioters have desecrated symbols of the regime. Statues of the revolution’s founder, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, have been burned. Insignia of the IRGC have been ripped down and trampled. The niece of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini has called on world governments to cut ties with Tehran.

The regime now blames it all on the Kurds, since Mahsa was Kurdish. The IRGC has begun launching missile attacks against Kurdish regions in Iran. Most recently they’ve also launched an attack on Kurdish enclaves in Iraq. The killing has spilled over the Iranian border.

Where this ends is anyone’s guess. But one thing is clear—it all started with the unjust murder of one innocent woman.

If you’re interested in reading about what it’s like to live in Iran, I highly recommend the memoir?A Time To Betray?by Reza Kahlili. It’s a gripping true story of an Iranian dissident who decides to spy for the CIA.

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