Back to the camera, a young woman ties her blond hair in a bun and readjusts her glasses. She left her veil and her fear behind her, to take to the streets to join the protest movement that has inflamed Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini. This amateur video that has gone viral on social networks has quickly become a symbol of all these women who take off their veils and cut their hair to protest against the dress code imposed by the Islamic Republic.
Above all, it illustrates the last moments of the life of Hadis Najafi, barely 20 years old, who was killed by six bullets in the head, neck and chest by the security forces in the small town of Karaj, in west of Tehran. “Hadis Najafi did not remain silent in the face of tyranny. She was killed for protesting against the brutal death of Mahsa Amini,” American journalist and activist of Iranian origin Masih Alinejad announced on Twitter on September 25, who spoke with the victim's sister.
In reality, the NGO Amnesty International had already relayed the death of the young woman, without naming her, on September 23, in a report published on its website. "From the witnesses we interviewed and the photo of the victim's body, it appears that he was the target of shotgun fire with lead pellets, a weapon regularly used by ISIS forces. order against the demonstrators and which can prove lethal when it is used closely against them, which seems to be the case here”, details in Point Raha Bahreini, a researcher specializing in Iran within the NGO.
The announcement of the death of the young woman moved beyond the borders of Iran. Perhaps more than the dozens of other demonstrators killed by Iranian forces since the start of the conflict. Because the images of the young woman tying her hair before courageously defying the police wonderfully illustrate the fight of Iranian women for their rights. The brutality of his death reminds a whole people that he can meet death for a removed scarf.
Perhaps also because Hadis Najafi was a symbol of this desire for emancipation on social networks, long before the demonstrations. On TikTok, she did not hesitate to stage herself dressed "Western", daring choreography and languorous dance steps to make the infamous "morals police" scream. The Chinese social network and Instagram today represent one of the few means of expression available to the younger generation, at a time when Facebook and Twitter have been banned from Iran for more than ten years. Means of which they are also deprived today, since the Iranian government has chosen to cut off the internet to almost all of its 80 million inhabitants.
SEE ALSO - Demonstrations in Iran: at least 35 dead and 739 arrests in the north
On Instagram, the victim's sister let out her grief and anger: "Bastards, you shot her in the heart. Why did you shoot him in the neck, hand and forehead? How many bullets do you need to kill a girl who weighed only 40 kg? Instead, dump those bullets on you,” she wrote in a story. According to Amnesty International, the security forces involved in the firing on demonstrators are made up of agents of the Revolutionary Guards, but also of members of the paramilitary force Basij - financed to the tune of 139 million euros per year by the authorities. - and plainclothes security guards.
And the count made by the NGOs is unfortunately far from being exhaustive. While the latest official report from the Iranian authorities, including demonstrators and law enforcement, mentions 41 people killed in nine days of protests, and Amnesty International counted at least 30 victims among the protesters on September 23, the NGO Iran Human Rights counts at least 54 of them. It also indicates in passing that the restitution of certain bodies is “subordinated” to “secret burials”.
But on social networks, Internet users are committed to keeping the memory of the deceased alive, by publishing their photo. The NGO Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has thus launched an appeal to identify all the documents available on the victims. All over the world, personalities and anonymous people pay tribute to the women killed for having protested.
For a few hours, another Iranian woman has been raised, anonymously, as a symbol of freedom, but also of hope. Bareheaded, she sings Bella ciao in Persian, the song of Italian partisans fighting against fascism, which has become a universal hymn to resistance.
SEE ALSO - Death of Mahsa Amini: the anger of Iranians
