22 year old Iranian Kurd, Mahsa Amini died in custody under suspicious circumstances in a hospital in Tehran, Iran on September 16. She was arrested by the morality police for allegedly wearing her headscarf too loosely and died shortly after in custody. Protests flared up during her funeral on September 17 in the Kurdish city of Saqez which would then go on to spread across Iran.

Aminis family believes that she was murdered and the Iranian government is trying to cover it up with allegations that she died of a heart failure. Witnesses say they saw Amini being beaten in a patrol car shortly after she was detained. The United Nations have also noticed the morality policies actions and have called upon the Iranian authorities to move onto investigations of Amini’s death.

An estimated 80,000 protesters marched in Berlin waving Iranian flags and banners saying “Woman, Life, Freedom.” Protest organizers said Iranians came from America, Canada, and all over the EU to the march in Berlin. Amnesty International, an international non governmental organization focused on human rights with more than ten million supporters around the world, said security forces have killed at least 66 people in Zahedan, a city in Iran, on Friday, September 30.

Around the time of the September 30 violent crackdown, state media had shown that “unidentified armed individuals” had fired on a police station killing five people. Authorities were quick to blame a Baluchi militant group, as expected neither that group or any other guerrilla groups claimed roles in that situation. 

For too long woman have been suppressed and subjected to discrimination, over the past centuries women have been making a sort of rebellion let us call it. As numbers of the death toll in Iran are thrown around, there is no telling when the violence and blameshift will end so until then we can only wait and watch. There are more peaceful ways to protest and support but so far none have proven effective, what has been done so far can only be justified for what is to come.