Iran protests: Women burn hijabs, cut hair after death of woman in police custody

Many international leaders criticized Iran for the death of Mahsa Amini, who died only hours after being detained by morality police for not following clothing rules for women.

Several days of protests have erupted in Iran following the death of a 22-year-old woman who was arrested and in police custody for allegedly breaking hijab rules.

On Tuesday, several international leaders criticized the country for the death of Mahsa Amini, who fell into a coma last week only hours after being detained by Iran’s morality police, the BBC reported.

Amini was detained by morality police on Sept. 13 outside a transit station in Tehran. She was accused of breaking a modesty law that requires women to wear a headscarf, cover their arms and legs and wear loose clothing.

Amini’s death has been the catalyst for many Iranian women who, in protest, have publicly removed their headscarves, cut their hair and burned their hijabs.

In one video shared to social media, a woman in Kerman is seen sitting on an elevated structure surrounded by crowds chanting “Death to the dictator,” a chant in reference to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. As the woman claps, a man hacks off her ponytail and holds it to the crowd.

In a growing TikTok trend, many other women and men are also cutting their hair in protest.