In the past few weeks, Iran has arrested women’s rights activists, students, ethnic minorities, an outspoken cleric, journalists, singers and family members of protesters killed by security agents.
The uprising erupted after a young woman, Mahsa Amini, was arrested by the country’s feared morality police and accused of failing to wear her hijab in accordance with the law.
“The regime feels it has to assert itself or a new wave of protest will sweep across the country,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran, a New York advocacy group.
He recently released a song praising the growing number of women across Iran who have been rejecting the hijab and showing their hair in a collective act of civil disobedience.
Ghazal, a 22-year-old college student who attends an art school and asked that her last name not be used for fear of retribution, said four professors of design at her university had been fired and replaced with instructors who taught Islamic texts.
“We teachers cannot obey governments and be submissive,” Ameneh Aali, a professor of psychology at Allameh Tabataba’i University who was among those dismissed, said in an open letter posted on social media.
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