Women in Iran Are Using the Internet to Their Advantage

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The Iranian women's movement started not really long after the Iranian revolution in 1979. In 1993, we had a new law which obliged police forces to take control of women's hijab in public spaces. This policing of it has become more and more violent since 2005. We have these morality police that they have cattros all over the cities in Iran and they violently arrest women. It really is so impressive what women and girls in Iran are doing in response to this violence and humiliation campaigning online.

On 13 September Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, was arrested in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran’s hijab rules. Three days later she was dead. Since then, videos of anti-regime demonstrations and acts of resistance have gone viral – leading the government to block internet access in parts of Tehran and Kurdistan. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Azadeh Akbari about why Mahsa Amini’s death has sparked so much anger, and hears from Alp Toker about how governments and regimes around the world are able to limit internet access.. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod