In September 2022 a young Kurdish/Iranian woman, Mahsa Jen Amini, committed a mortal crime. She showed a wisp of her hair peeking from under her hijab, a mandatory head covering for women worn in Iran’s public places. Caught and arrested by the reviled “morality police,” Amini was beaten to death for her transgression. Amini’s death ignited a fury of protests. Spearheaded by women, their battle cry “Woman, Life, Freedom” rattled the Iranian hardline, theocratic regime. The activists rejected reforms within the existing political framework. They demanded regime change from forty-six years of intransigent oppression.

Unveiled, a new work by Iranian/British author and journalist Jonathan Harounoff, lends a lens on a movement immediately following Amini’s funeral. Inflamed by Amini’s brutal death, women threw off their hajib, a symbol of control and submission, others cut their hair, staged rallies and used a private internet to spread Amini’s message of resistance. Iran’s Supreme leader and ultimate lawmaker, Ayatolla Ali Khamenei pointed to the “enemies abroad” to cover up the incident. The demonstrations continued. University students displayed images of Amini chanting Woman Life Freedom, openly flaunting the sharia rule of the Islamic Republic. By 2023, the revolutionary spirit intensified and spread into European countries. Iranian protesters daringly attacked the home of the former Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini, father of Iranian’s 1979 Revolution and the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. Ruhallah Khomeini ushered in an era of tyranny doubling down in extremism as proscribed in his Little Green Book, a compilation of Islamic decrees now enacted by the current Supreme Leader Ayatolla Ali Khameini.

 

Harounoff skillfully condenses Persian/Iranian history, its anti-Western bias, its hatred for “archenemy” Israel. Nevertheless, he honors Iran’s rich Persian culture and its resilient people distinct from the oppressive government. He documents the rise of Islamic fundamentalism with the enforcement of the hijab rule by former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (killed in a helicopter accident in 2024) though current President Pezeshkian has little power to enact changes.

 

Harounoff chronicles the rule of law under the Pahlavi regime which culminated in 1979 with the Islamic Revolution. It ousted Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi head of state and installed Ayatollah Ruholla Kohmeini as its leader. Khomeini turned the relatively “liberal” (though corrupt) Pahlavi regime into a monstrous theocracy where women have no choice in abortion, child custody, inheritance, marriage or divorce. Incidentally, Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah’s surviving son, lives in America ready to re-assume power.

 

And what about the women’s movement? Has Mahsa Jen Amini left a legacy of hope? Now all but extinguished, can anyone within the country reignite the once fiery Women, Life, Freedom movement? Or is the present regime “unreformable” with no clear leader in sight as women continue to endure second class citizenship? Unveiled, is a provocative read by an audacious author.