Mahsa Amini's death: Women protest by cutting their hair, burning hijabs

The worldwide protests challenging Iran’s authoritarian leadership continue to grab headlines with more people joining the protest. In Iran, Turkey, Germany and Canada, women continue their protest by cutting their hair and burning hijabs in solidarity with Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. The protest shows no sign of abating, and neither did the harsh government effort to suppress them despite international condemnation. Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman, had died in the custody of Iran’s morality police, days after being arrested for failing to cover her hair modestly enough.

The nationwide protests challenging Iran’s authoritarian leadership enter their 10th day and show no sign of slowing down. Credit: Reuters Photo

Tossing headscarves into bonfires, dancing bareheaded before security agents, young women have been at the forefront of these demonstrations, supplying the defining images of defiance. Credit: Reuters Photo

Iranian women had participated in protests against the clerical establishment before, but never before had they been the spark, leaders and foot soldiers all at once. Reportedly, more than two dozen have been arrested, and several female protesters have been killed. Credit: Reuters Photo

It was a female journalist, Niloufar Hamedi of Shargh, an Iranian daily, who first brought Amini’s story to light. Hamdei was arrested last week and is being held in solitary confinement at Evin prison, according to her colleagues. Credit: Reuters Photo

Mariam, 34, an artist in northern Manzadaran province, said she and her friends had not only burned their scarves, they had cut their long hair and shaved their heads. Credit: Reuters Photo

Two years after Muslim clerics seized power in the 1979 revolution, they required women in government offices to wear the headscarf, then all women and girls older than 9, justifying it with Sharia law. The hijab, they proclaimed, would protect female chastity and honour. Credit: Reuters Photo

But it has also become a weak point for the regime, symbolizing social restrictions that men and women alike chafe at — and flout behind closed doors. Credit: AFP Photo

A demonstrator cuts hair during a protest following the death of Mahsa Amini, in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. Credit: Reuters Photo

A demonstrator cuts hair during a protest following the death of Mahsa Amini, in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. Credit: Reuters Photo

A woman cuts her hair during a protest over the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in Iran, in the Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli, northeastern Syria. Credit: Reuters Photo

A UGC video shows Iranian women protesting in a street in the central city of Yazd. Credit: ESN/AFP Photo