13 months ago, on September 13, 2022, Jina Amini was so brutally physically abused by the morality police of the Islamic Republic of Iran due to a supposedly indecent hijab that she fell into a coma for several days and succumbed to her massive injuries on September 16, 2022. 

Jina was Kurdish. Jina was young. Jina identified as a female and was read as such. Jina’s parents belonged to the working class. Jina was visiting the capital with her family from Saqqez and died there too, shortly before her 22nd birthday. 
Jina means life in Kurdish. A life in an oppressed Iran, which was systemically more difficult for Jina, who was affected by oppression in several ways. Even a life that is called life loses its meaning in the patriarchal-dictatorial system.
After Jina’s death, videos circulated on social media showing her laughing and dancing freely, followed by images of her on tubes and her parents crying in the hospital corridor. The blows to Jina’s head were so strong that her heartbeat capitulated.
With Jina’s murder, the feminist-initiated revolution began throughout the country, including all multi-ethnically diverse provinces – with great support from the entire diaspora. In the country, people of all- and no genders, of all ethnicities, classes, faiths and ages protested against the mullah regime and for women’s liberation. Under Jin, Jîyan, Azadi, the Kurdish liberation slogan in the fight against IS terror, translated into Farsi: Zan, Zendegi, Azadi, English: Woman, Life, Freedom: people fought for the freedom of all the oppressed. For the freedom of all those people who take a stand against the autocratic regime. In this context, the word woman before life and freedom does not only mean women. It means all systematically oppressed people. This includes non-binary people, ethnic and religious minorities and many more. – Basically, everyone who is affected by the violence of the regime. In other words, everyone who is not part of the regime, i.e., the majority of people in the country.
After Jina, many hundreds of more people were murdered (the number of unreported cases is far higher), over 20,000 were tortured in prisons, children and students were poisoned and provinces were occupied by the military.

What makes this revolution different from the other countless movements in the country over the last 44 years since the mullahs took over? This revolution is intersectional. This revolution reaches from the rooftops of the big cities to the mountains. This revolution unites all the diversity and all the struggles that exist within the country:
It is Kurdistan, Balochistan, Luristan and all the provinces. It is Tehran, Isfahan, Ahwas and all major cities. It is multi-ethnic. It is educated. It cannot afford education. It is young. She is old. She is female. She is male. She is non-binary. She is queer. She is misgendered for life. She is misunderstood for a lifetime. She is a lifetime of not really being able to live. She is a lifetime of not being able to love those, whom we love. She is full. She is hungry. She is tired of starving. She goes on hunger strike. She is as strong as the mountains and as angry as the sea of oppressed youth. It is the tears of all parents whose children go to protest and then never come home. It is the tears of all those who no longer have people around them who can shed tears for them. It is the feeling of 44 years of darkness and the first sunrise afterwards. It is the hopelessness just before the gallows and the hope in solitary confinement. She is the picture framed in black. She is the rainbow. She is in the country and here in exile. She demands consequences for the regime and sanctions that go beyond the usual platitudes. She needs solidarity. She is Jin’s death anniversary last September and Jin’s anniversary this year. She is fighting for Jin, Jîyan, Azadi. She fights for as long as necessary and resists in the most diverse ways.

She must and will exist until images of happy moments are no longer accompanied by sad music.

by Ramona