Four years after Mahsa Amini died in Iranian police custody, Kurdish businesses across her home region shut their doors on Wednesday in a general strike, while international human rights organisations warned that the officials who orchestrated the violent suppression of the 2022 protests remain firmly in control of the country's security apparatus.
Shopkeepers and traders in Saqqez, Sanandaj, Mahabad, Marivan, Baneh and Bokan closed their businesses following a call from Kurdish political coalitions. Video circulating on social media showed empty bazaars across the region, a stark reminder of the movement that erupted after Amini's death on 16 September 2022.
Amnesty International, in a report marking the anniversary, said those who directed the brutal crackdown on the protests still hold key positions in Iran's security establishment and continue to employ the same repressive methods. The organisation documented killings, torture, enforced disappearances, unfair trials and death sentences, with Tehran acknowledging the detention of more than 22,000 people.
European solidarity and UN warnings
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola (Malta/EPP) expressed continued support for young Iranians facing execution or imprisonment, highlighting the case of twin sisters Taraneh and Romina Rahimi, who were sentenced by Tehran's Revolutionary Court after recent protests. "The European Parliament will keep their light shining until it breaks through the darkness," Metsola wrote on X.
UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, Mai Sato, said that four years of brutal state violence—including lethal force deployed during nationwide protests in late 2025 and early 2026—have failed to extinguish the resistance. "Four years on, the resistance Jina's death gave rise to has not been extinguished," Sato said in a statement. "The women and girls who took to the streets in her name still insist on the right to decide what they wear, where they work and how they live... Those rights will not stay deniable forever."
Sato also noted that despite the formal suspension of the Law on Protecting the Family through the Promotion of the Culture of Chastity and Hijab since December 2024, cafes, restaurants and shops have continued to be closed for hijab violations, with arrests reported in some cases.
What happened to Mahsa Amini?
Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, was detained by Tehran's morality police on 13 September 2022 over compulsory hijab rules. She died three days later after being brutally beaten in custody. The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran concluded she had been subjected to physical violence and that Iranian authorities were responsible for her death. Iranian officials rejected the findings and denied she had been assaulted.
The protests that followed her death spread nationwide, drawing together demands for political freedoms, minority rights, economic justice and systemic change. The UN fact-finding mission documented up to 551 deaths across 26 provinces, including at least 49 women and 68 children, and said some violations—including killings, torture, rape and sexual violence—reached the threshold of crimes against humanity.
Tehran pivots to hi-tech enforcement
Compulsory hijab remains law, the political structure is intact, and many protest participants are in prison, in exile or under sentence. The regime has shifted enforcement away from morality-police patrols toward cameras, facial recognition, drones and digital tools. Iran's police announced in 2023 that public cameras would be used to identify women not wearing hijab. The UN fact-finding mission's 2025 report cited facial recognition being used to monitor students' dress at the entrance to Amirkabir University in Tehran.
A 2025 study published in the journal Iranian Studies at the University of Cambridge described the movement as producing a "cultural revolution" alongside a political one, arguing it weakened the state's ideological hold over public and cultural life. For instance, images of morality police vans detaining women on the streets were among the most potent symbols of the 2022 protests, prompting Tehran to avoid public confrontation methods.
The persistence of the crackdown, despite international condemnation and the resilience of protesters, underscores the challenges facing those who continue to demand change. As the European Parliament and UN experts keep the spotlight on Iran's human rights record, the situation remains a critical concern for the international community.
