Mahsa Amini’s death is the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ for Iran's defiant youth
France24Sep 23, 2022
A schoolgirl died last week after Iranian security forces allegedly beat her and several classmates for refusing to sing an anthem praising the country's supreme leader, a local teachers' association said.
Asra Panahi was among several students from the Shahed girls' high school in Ardabil who were allegedly forced to attend a ceremony praising Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They reportedly refused to sing, chanting slogans against inequality and discrimination instead.
This is yet another death of a young girl at the hands of Iran's brutal security regime — a rotten system that has pushed the country's youth to its absolute limits. It has already fostered a volatile environment by failing to tackle the economic crisis, and repressing women through the criminalization of "immodest dressing" has only amplified discontent. Iranians cannot blindly comply with these orders any longer.
Iran's riots have nothing to do with the death of Amini — and now Panahi — but everything to do with the enemies of Iran exploiting the tragic event for the purpose of creating chaos in the country. This was simply the right excuse at the right time. However, Iranians can count on their government to remain firm in its opposition to meddling from Western hegemony and Israel's Zionist regime.