On September 13, 2022, Mahsa Amini and her family decided to visit Tehran. As Mahsa and her brother approached the expressway, she was apprehended by the morality police for an ‘improperly worn’ hijab and taken to the police station. Her brother was told that Mahsa – or Jina, her Kurdish name, which her family called her – would be released after receiving “explanation and instruction” about mandatory hijab, and so he sat down to wait for her. Two hours later, he saw an ambulance leaving. Police initially claimed that Mahsa had had a heart attack at the station – despite the fact that the 22-year-old had no history of cardiac problems. Eyewitnesses who had been detained with Mahsa later came forward to detail scenes of police beating her with batons until she collapsed and fell into a coma. Mahsa died in hospital three days later.
As Mahsa's death was announced, protests broke out at the hospital gates in Tehran. Rage and grief spilled out into protests in her hometown of Saqqez, soon engulfing the entire country. Her tombstone was inscribed with the words “Jina, you will not die. Your name will become a symbol.” Since her death, her name has been tweeted more than 80 million times,
