Statement Marking the One-Year Anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s Murder by Iran’s Morality Police

On September 20, 2023 Senator Omidvar gave a statement to mark the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini. Watch her speech:

Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, this month, we marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini — her murder, in fact, at the hands of the morality police in Iran.

Her death unleashed a roar of defiance by women in Iran, whose lives and freedoms are restricted not simply by law but, in fact, by the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Women who are LGBTQ, religious and/or ethnic minorities face double and triple jeopardy.

After Mahsa’s death, women took to the streets in droves to protest gender apartheid, temporarily shutting down the morality police. But they paid a heavy price for this — 22,000 were arrested and hundreds were blinded, raped and tortured for simply being part of a protest. More than 500 were killed — 70 of them mere children.

But the women took courage from the solidarity expressed in their fight for freedom, including here on the streets in Canada and, indeed, by remarks here in this chamber.

After one year, the headlines of the revolt have retreated, and some of us may think that the revolution has been snuffed out and that this was a mere brief moment in time. This is why I stand to inform the chamber that the revolution has not retreated. It has taken on another subverted form of expression.

Civil disobedience and micro protests have replaced marches on the street. Women flout the compulsory hijab law every day, leaving the authorities incapable of dealing with the volume of the infractions of the law. Young boys and men are wearing shorts in solidarity because wearing shorts is also illegal in Iran. There are flash protests by women who roller skate, ride on a bike and sing and dance for a nanosecond on the street because — guess what — joy itself is a crime for the women in Iran.

In the face of these organic protests, the regime has set up video surveillance, face recognition technology and misinformation on social media to entrap the protesters.

I cannot predict when women in Iran will enjoy the freedoms they deserve, but in their hearts and minds, there will always be a time that was before Mahsa, and now there is a time after Mahsa. There is a reason why TIME magazine named Iranian women the heroes of 2022.

Mahsa’s death was senseless, but it was not in vain. She died for women, life and freedom.