Women symbolically cut off parts of their hair as Melbourne’s Iranian community gathered in their thousands at Federation Square as part of worldwide protests against the Iranian government over the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini.
Iran has been gripped by violent unrest for two weeks following the death of Amini in Tehran while in the custody of the Islamic regime’s morality police. She had been accused of violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf law.
On Saturday in Federation Square, women with red-stained hands used scissors to cut off their hair in a symbolic act of defiance against Iran’s compulsory hijab laws.
The crowd chanted “woman, life, freedom”, “what do we want: regime change” and “say her name: Mahsa Amini” as they spilled on to Flinders Street.
Some waved tricolour Iranian flags with a sun and lion at the centre, the national standard that was replaced by a new flag after the Islamic revolution of 1979.
Maria Faraji said she fled her country for Australia 10 years ago because of the government’s treatment of women. She cut off a piece of her blonde hair on Saturday afternoon to show her support for protesters in Iran who were risking their lives.
“We don’t have life. We don’t have anything. We left my country, my father and my family just for hair,” she said. “Every day I wish I could go back. ”
Read the article by Tom Cowie in The Age.