Iran protests: Defiant #MahsaAmini protesters push back against strengthened morality police’s hijab patrols
Efforts to tighten restrictions on women in Iran have reignited the protest movement that saw the country’s streets flooded with furious Iranians for more than half a year.
Calls to commemorate Mahsa Jina Amini, the Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in police custody last year, have rocketed on social media in the wake of announcements strengthening the country’s morality police.
The hashtag which means “the anniversary of Mahsa” has been posted almost 350,000 times since mid-June, according to Sky News analysis of data from Talkwalker, a social listening platform.
Amini’s death prompted almost daily demonstrations across the country, with protesters calling for regime change in what has become known as the Women Life Freedom movement or the #MahsaAmini movement.
Amini, 22, died just days before her birthday in September last year after being arrested for reportedly not wearing her hijab (head covering) correctly.
By December, in an apparent concession to the protesters, Iran reduced the role of the country’s morality police, who enforce religious rules, such as the compulsory wearing of head coverings.
But earlier this month, patrols monitoring women’s clothing resumed publicly. Women not wearing a hijab can be potentially detained.
Although the large-scale protests have dwindled under the force of the state’s violent crackdown, many Iranian women are still refusing to wear a head covering in public.
Videos showing the treatment of women in Iran have begun to circulate more widely once again after the news broke on Sunday that the morality police’s position would be strengthened.
In this clip, a young woman in jeans and a white top is being physically grabbed and pushed by a woman dressed in conservative clothing in a side street of a trendy Tehran neighbourhood.
Another video shows a similar confrontation, this time in the city of Karaj.
The young woman has been challenged because she is not wearing a head covering. She tells the person filming: “I’m not afraid of you, or anybody else.”
Protesters’ faces are usually blurred in videos like these, but this time the woman’s face is visible. Sky News has decided to obscure her identity for the woman’s safety.
The watermark on the video suggests it was first circulated among groups linked to the Iranian security force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), and Sky News has found the video has been shared in regime-linked groups on messaging app Telegram.
However, it has since been widely shared by protesters who praise her bravery.
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British-Iranian journalist Sahar Zand spoke to protesters, and found out what happened to the demonstrations.
Videos like these are shared online by Iranian protesters in the hope of drawing the attention of the international community.
Professor Ali Ansari, director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews, explains that the “armed peace” between the regime and the protesters has now shifted.
He said: “The protesters have felt that they’ve gone as far as they could for that particular time and they needed to regroup.
“The regime felt it needed to ‘calm things down’. Over the past few months they’ve built up this narrative that it’s time to bring this back but actually adherence to the veil in a lot of the big cities has really fallen away very, very badly as far as they’re concerned.”
Professor Ansari said it’s been estimated that around 20% of women in Tehran aren’t wearing the veil at all, which he describes as “an astonishing level” of the population.
A woman walks down a street in Iran with her hair uncovered
He said: “I suspect what will happen is that you’re going to see these things will go viral and things will pick up again and anger will build up. The likelihood is it will generate further riots or demonstrations. Perhaps not immediately, but it’ll be a matter of time before someone else is killed by the morality police.”
The regime has regularly throttled internet access within the country in an attempt to limit its citizen’s connection to the wider world, something Netblocks, an organisation that monitors internet freedom, says is still happening now.
Diana Nammi, the executive director of the UK-based Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO), told Sky News the Iranian government is attempting to suppress the movement, using violence and intimidation, but that women will continue to protest.
She said: “In spite of the danger, women in Iran will not stand down.
“So many are demonstrating their defiance against the repression by going out, without wearing the hijab. The movement is like a continuous fire burning under the ashes, with sparks flying all across the country.”
More than 500 demonstrators have lost their lives and thousands have been arrested, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). Several protesters have been executed by the state.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
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Egypt: Two Britons believed to be among 16 missing as tourist boat sinks after being ‘hit by large wave’
Two Britons are believed to be among more than a dozen people missing after a boat sank in the Red Sea off the Egyptian coast.
The yacht, called Sea Story, had 44 people on board, including 31 tourists of varying nationalities and 13 crew.
Authorities are searching for 16 people, including 12 foreign nationals and four Egyptians, the governor of the Red Sea region said, adding that 28 other people had been rescued.
Preliminary reports suggested a sudden large wave struck the vessel, capsizing it within about five minutes, governor Amr Hanafi said.
“Some passengers were in their cabins, which is why they were unable to escape,” he added in a statement.
Survivors rescued from the Sea Story in Marsa Alam. Pic: STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
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Passengers rescued from sunken tourist boat
The people who were rescued only suffered minor injuries such as bruises and scrapes with none needing hospital treatment.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office spokesperson said: “We are providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Egypt and are in contact with the local authorities.”
The foreign nationals aboard the 34-metre-long vessel, owned by an Egyptian national, included Americans, Belgians, British, Chinese, Finns, Germans, Irish, Poles, Slovakians, Spanish, and Swiss.
Sea Story had no technical problems, obtained all required permits before the trip, and was last checked for naval safety in March, according to officials.
The four-deck, wooden-hulled motor yacht was part of a multi-day diving trip when it went down near the coastal town of Marsa Alam following warnings about rough weather.
Officials said a distress call was received at 5.30am local time on Monday.
The boat had left Port Ghalib in Marsa Alam on Sunday and was scheduled to reach its destination of Hurghada Marina on 29 November.
The Sea Story had 44 people on board. File pic: Dive Pro Liveaboard
Some survivors had been airlifted to safety on a helicopter, officials said.
The firm that operates the yacht, Dive Pro Liveaboard in Hurghada, said it has no information on the matter.
According to its maker’s website, the Sea Story was built in 2022.
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The incident comes after the Egyptian Meteorological Authority issued a warning on Saturday about turbulence and high waves on the Red Sea.
The organisation had advised against maritime activity for Sunday and Monday.
Some tourist companies have stopped or limited operations on the Red Sea due to the potential dangers from conflicts in the region.
A motion has been filed to drop the charges against Donald Trump of plotting to overturn the 2020 US presidential election result.
Mr Trump was first indicted on four felonies in August 2023: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
The president-elect pleaded not guilty to all charges and the case was then put on hold for months as Mr Trump’s team argued he could not be prosecuted.
Special Counsel Jack Smith. Pic: Reuters
Donald Trump supporters storm the US Capitol
On Monday, prosecutors working with special counsel Jack Smith, who had led the investigation, asked a federal judge to dismiss the case over long-standing US justice department policy, dating back to the 1970s, that presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office.
It marks the end of the department’s landmark effort to hold Mr Trump accountable for the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 when thousands of Trump supporters assaulted police, broke through barricades, and swarmed the Capitol in a bid to prevent the US Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Mr Smith’s team had been assessing how to wind down both the election interference case and the separate classified documents case in the wake of Mr Trump’s election victory over vice president Kamala Harris earlier this month, effectively killing any chance of success for the case.
In court papers, prosecutors said “the [US] Constitution requires that this case be dismissed before the defendant is inaugurated”.
They said the ban [on prosecuting sitting presidents] “is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the government stands fully behind”.
Mr Trump, who has said he would sack Mr Smith as soon as he takes office in January, and promised to pardon some convicted rioters, has long dismissed both the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case as politically motivated.
Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington. Pic: AP
He was accused of illegally keeping classified papers after leaving office in 2021, some of which were allegedly found in his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.
The election interference case stalled after the US Supreme Court ruled in July that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution, which Mr Trump’s lawyers exploited to demand the charges against him be dismissed.
Mr Smith’s request to drop the case still needs to be approved by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
No date had been set for a trial.
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At least 1,500 cases have been brought against those accused of trying to overthrow the election result on 6 January 2021, resulting in more than 1,100 convictions, the Associated Press said.
More than 950 defendants have been sentenced and 600 of them jailed for terms ranging from a few days to 22 years.
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