Time Code

Narration/ PTC

Visual

Pre-Title

00.00.00-00.10.20

The death of a young Kurdish woman in Iran has sparked unprecedented protests across the country.

UGCs protests / split screen

00.12.10-00.19.00

The security forces have cracked down, but weeks on there is no sign of the protesters backing down.

00.21.00-00.27.00

Some of the biggest demonstrations so far took place 40 days after Mahsa Amini died

00.28.14-00.36.07

The BBC can’t operate freely in Iran, so we rely on people sending us videos from inside the country.

00.39.20-00.47.00

This time, Iran’s young TikTok are at the forefront of this challenge to the authority of the Islamic regime.

00.48.23-00.52.20

It’s the latest in a long struggle for women’s rights in Iran –

Rush Media LTD - 79 Woman protesting

00.54.16-01.04.07

So why this time has the slogan for these protests “Woman, Life, freedom” spread across the country and the world?

Demonstration/Drone footage

01.04.08-01.11.19

Opening Title - Iran: Women Rising

Cuts to black then Tehran 13^th Sep 2022

01.17.05-01.21.20

 This is Tehran, the sound of the Islamic republic of Iran (sub)

BIV Tehran, Azadi square, GVs of Tehran streets, people walking.

Photo of Mahsa in train, images of train station where she arrived.

I think the first ones give the impression we are seeing Mahsa so we should do something

Phop of Morality Police

01.23.02-01.40.08

In Early September, Mahsa Jina Amini , a 22-year-old woman and her younger brother travel from Saqz, a Kurdish city in Western Iran, to visit the capital city, Tehran for the first time. But their journey takes an ominous turn.

01.43.10-01.58.22

As soon as they get out of the metro station, Mahsa faces the morality police. A force tasked with enforcing the strict Islamic dress code on women in public.

Mahsa’s clothes are deemed revealing.

01.58.22-02.11.02

 Audio IV Amjad Amini (Mahsa’s Father) - Kurdish: They forced her into the police van. They hit her on the head. They even hit my son who was there and tore his clothes. (sub)

 Photo of Mahsa’s dad

02.11.23-02.35.00

Mahsa is detained and taken to a police station in Tehran.

An hour later Mahsa complains about something to a female police officer. This CCTV footage shows the moment she collapses in the police station.  By the time she is transferred to a hospital, she is brain dead and falls into a coma.

 Mahsa News footage police CCTV

02.36.02-02.41.24

 Audio IV Amjad Amini (Mahsa’s Father)- Kurdish: When I got there the doctor told me “There is nothing we can do for her. She’s gone.”

  When I got there the doctor…(sub) Mahsa photo

02.42.00-02.50.22

Three days later Mahsa is pronounced dead. 

The news of her death outrages many across the country.

 Newspaper

02.52.22-02.05.02

The security forces disperse a crowd gathered in front of the hospital.

Tehran’s police chief says Mahsa fell into a coma because of a heart condition.

Split screen: (Right) UGC people gathering in front of the hospital where Mahsa was being treated and died.

(Left) UGC Forces arriving to avoid gathering

03.05.03-03.16.20

Tehran Chief of Police Hossein Rahimi - Persian: When I say the police have done nothing wrong, I mean she wasn’t even touched, not touched at all. All this being said about her being beaten or injured is just not true.

Press Conference, Hossein Rahimi, Tehran Chief Police

03.16.20-03.29.22

03.29.22-03.38.06

The morality police usually wear body cameras, but they say, they didn’t on that day. The police van had CCTV cameras; no recordings have been made available.

Mahsa’s father says eyewitnesses have told him, the morality police beat Mahsa up in the van.

PTC Jiyra Gol at the desk

03.39.00-03.52.20

Despite threats and intimidation by the security forces, Mahsa’s father refuses to remain silent. In an interview with BBC Persian, he says the government’s account is totally false. 

Jiyar on his computer looking at the videos and on the phone listening to Mahsa’s father.

03.52.21-04.04.23

Audio IV Amjad Amini (Mahsa’s Father)- Persian: I asked them to show me the [CCTV] footage from inside the van but they said that the van’s camera had run out of charge [so no footage was available]. How is it possible? (sub)

04.04.24-04.11.00

04.11.09-04.31.06

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UPSOT:

Stand there! Stand there! Sit down!

The Islamic Republic has strict rules on what women wear in public. The Morality Police have been enforcing those rules for four decades. Their confrontations with young women on many occasions have led to verbal abuse and physical violence.

UPSOT: Don’t do that!

UPSOT: Oh! They banged her head on the van!

Various Morality Police forces confronting women, leading to violence.

04.38.09-04.49.00

Mansoureh Shojayee Women’s rights activist– Persian: Women in Iran have suffered from it [compulsory hijab and actions of the morality police]. They’ve not only been beaten in the streets, but some have been fired from their jobs or made redundant. (sub)

IV Mansoureh Shojayee (Woman rights activist in The Hague)

04.53.00-05.02.11

05.03.19- 05.21.07      

05.21.07-05.25.24               

Anger against the strict Islamic rules imposed on women, was expressed at Mahsa’s funeral in the cemetery in the Kurdish city of Saqez .

A woman speaks – Kurdish: Unfortunately, the deaths of women like Shelir and Jina (Mahsa) are the result of a patriarchal society, the result of religious ideologies that enable the idea that women are someone else's honour and reputation. (sub)

Moto - Kurdish: Woman, Life, Freedom

Moto - Kurdish: How much longer should we die for the sake of a headscarf?

Cemetery, Mahsa’s aunt mourns on her niece’s grave.

 People gathered in cemetery in Saqez for Mahsa’s funeral.

Listening to a woman giving a speech.

People cheer and women wave and throw their scarves up in the air, chanting motos.

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Sara Kermanian PHD International relations, Sussex University – English: We saw that in the cemetery, women are throwing their scarves. It was as if for the first time, the entire society was receiving women showing this act of civil disobedience.

It has taken a long time for women to achieve what they achieved at that moment. They have gone beyond their fear to communicate with their society, and I think this was a turning point in the feminist movement in Iran.

Sara Kermanian

PhD International Relations

University of Sussex

IV Sara Kermanian (Scholar and expert history of MOTO)

05.56.12-05.59.12

UPSOT MOTO: Woman, Life, Freedom (sub)

People gathered in the cemetery.

05.59.12-06.14.09

Women, Life, Freedom, the words chanted by protesters at Mahsa’s funeral, struck   a chord in every corner of Iran. Before long, protests had spread like wildfire across the country.

Various UGC footage of people protesting across Iran.

06.21.07-06.41.04

Masih Alinejad Activist and Journalist – English: They killed Mahsa for just a bit of hair! Just for a little bit of her hair was visible, you know! But now what’s going on in Iran? Women are removing their Hijab completely. Because Mahsa is not dead for Iranian women, she is becoming a symbol of resistance against religious dictatorship.

IV Masih Alinejad (Woman rights activist in NY)

Various UGC Footage of protests.

06.41.04-06.49.20

UPSOT woman - Persian: We don’t want an Islamic Republic

Various UGC Footage of protests.

06.50.12-07.07.10

Mansoureh Shojayee Women’s rights activist– Persian: The leaders of the movement on the streets of Tehran today, are the protesters themselves. They’re being led by the needs of their bodies, their hair, the suffering they’ve endured for being a woman, by poverty, deprivation and the enforced control of their bodies.

IV Mansoureh Shojayee (Woman rights activist in The Hage)

Various UGC Footage of protests.

07.08.24-07.30.15

Compulsory Hijab and strict rules on women were imposed under the Islamic Revolution 40 years ago. Now even High School girls are daring to challenge - removing their headscarves and chanting death to the dictator in front of their schools. Something unprecedented - and unimaginable just a few weeks ago.

 Various UGC Footage of protests. Split screen school kids

07.35.23-07.52.06

Azi Jangravi – Protester in exile in Toronto– Persian: People are really angry. Every time they’ve wanted to protest, they’ve been suppressed.

Now they just want the Islamic Republic to go. It’s not just about compulsory hijab. It’s about 40 years of oppression.

IV Azam (Azi) Jangravi (Woman rights activist in Toronto)

Various UGC Footage of protests.

07.59.18-08.12.20

But there is no sign that the Islamic leadership is thinking of compromise.

In his first response to the protests, Iran’s Supreme Leader blamed foreign governments.

 Various UGC Footage of protests. Split screen

08.14.05-08.53.15

 Supreme Leader of Iran - Ali Khamenei – Persian: These riots were planned - by the USA, by the fake and occupying Zionist regime [Israel] and their followers.

They feel that our country is becoming more powerful in every way. And they can’t tolerate this.

In recent events, more than anything, the security forces have been the victims. The Basiji (militia) have been the victims (sub)

Ali Khamenei’s speech in reaction to protests

08.54.15-08.59.16

09.06.17-09.10.09

09.10.24-09.18.13

The security forces were sent out on the streets in force.

But opposition to compulsory Hijab in Iran is not new.

Many women have been fighting it since the early days of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

 UGC people in the street being captured or beaten by regime’s forces

UGC gunshot to the camera - Black out

09.27.07-09.38.03

09.38.17-09.49.04

Women, both religious and secular, participated in the revolution to remove the Shah. But for many of them the celebration was short lived.

The Leader of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, called for imposing Islamic rule on women. Many unveiled women were attacked.

Footage of Tehran 1978 - Celebration of the Islamic revolution

09.46.06-10.06.10

 VOX Woman – Persian: I’m a civil servant. This morning I set out from Tehran University with a big crowd of other women. Once we passed Hafez Bridge, some radical men attacked us, swore at us and insulted us. They even assaulted some of us. I myself was punched hard on the back. (sub)

VOX POP woman protesting, Tehran 1979 (Rush Media)

10.07.03-10.13.09

10.14.00-10.20.20

 UPSOT MOTO: There is no question about freedom!

Less than a month after the revolution, the first protest against compulsory Hijab took place in Tehran.

Footage Rush Media 8 March 1979 demonstration Tehran, women protesting against compulsory hijab

10.23.17-10.48.08

Mansoureh Shojayee Women’s rights activist– – Persian: That was the first, the largest and yet the most poorly supported demonstration. I say that because it wasn’t supported by political groups, by intellectual men or even by some intellectual women because at the time, the concern was that such movements might weaken the anti-imperialist revolutionary government. (Sub)

IV Mansoureh Shojayee (Woman rights activist in The Hague)

Footage Rush Media 8 March 1979 demonstration Tehran, women protesting against compulsory hijab

10.50.10-10.54.13

10.54.23-11.04.18

11.04.18-11.13.04

UPSOT MOTO: Western dolls! Western puppets! Get lost! (sub)

UPSOT John Snow ITN 1979 - English: Ayatollah Khomeini is determined to see an Islamic state at all costs. If they can’t dissuade the women and other sectors who oppose extremist Islamic beliefs, then… (Fades out)

Ayatollah Khomeini prevailed. Strict Islamic rules imposed on women became one of the main pillars of the regime.

Footage 8 March 1979 demonstration Tehran, women protesting against compulsory hijab, some other protesters (mostly men) on top of the bridge chanting against them.

ITN - Jon Snow reporting from Tehran 1979 (Getty)

11.13.24-11.26.19

 Masih Alinejad Activist and Journalist  – English: How you will understand that this is an Islamic country? Through us, the women! Because the Islamic republic make us carry their ideology on our body!

Basically, hijab is not a choice for us.

 IV Masih

11.27.18-11.35.00

11.35.04-11.37.24

UPSOT SONG - PERSIAN: I will blossom from the wound on my body

Because I exist. Because I’m a woman, I’m a woman, I’m a woman

But Iranian women have kept fighting.

 Footage of Mansoureh Shojayee, singing in a recent demonstration in The Hague.

11.38.24-11.47.22

11.48.13-12.02.15

Mansoureh Shojaee is an Iranian women’s rights activist. Now she lives in exile, in the Hague, the Netherlands.

In 2006 Mansoureh and a group of women in Iran started a campaign called “One Million Signatures”. The campaign sought to change discriminatory laws against Women.

Footage of Mansoureh Shojayee, giving a speech in a recent demonstration in The Hague.

12.02.15-12.06.09

UPSOT - Mansoureh Singing - Persian: A different world is possible. This movement is bringing it about.

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 Mansoureh Shojayee Women’s rights activist–– Persian: They (the regime) would arrest us, right? As soon as we were arrested, they would confiscate the signatures. They didn't realise that the number of signatures was not what mattered, the most important thing was that with each signature, we’d made a connection with people and we’d started something.

IV Mansoureh Shojayee (Women’s rights activist in The Hague)

12.29.19-12.39.06

12.41.10-12.48.13

12.49.04-12.59.07

Most of the women behind the campaign were arrested or exiled but a new generation of activists went online. 

With the development of the internet in Iran, communicating with young Iranian women became easier

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian activist exiled in the US, used social media to promote her campaigns against compulsory Hijab.

US Flag - US streets - Masih in car - US protest

13.03.01-13.14.02

“My Stealthy Freedom”, “My Camera is my Weapon” and “White Wednesdays' are some of her campaigns against compulsory Hijab.

13.14.02-13.20.21

UPSOT Masih in protests in the US - Persian: We Iranian women will export our revolution to all the Middle East!

Masih in October protests for Iran in the US

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Masih – English: Eight years ago I launched a campaign against compulsory hijab, I picked a colour:  White. I picked a day: Wednesday. Because I wanted people who do not believe in hijab to identify each other in public.

People took to the street, practising their civil disobedience, while wearing a white symbol or waving a white symbol in public.

IV Masih and UGC

13.45.02-14.03.07

One of the women responding to the White Wednesday's campaign was Yasamin Aryaie. In an act of defiance against forced Hijab, Yasemin filmed herself without a Hijab on the streets of Tehran.

Footage of Yasamin unveiled in the street

14.04.02-14.09.16

UPSOT Yasamin Aryaie - Persian: I suggest to all girls - take off your scarves and enjoy the Spring rain.

Footage Yasamin various location without hijab

Prison door

14.09.20-14.20.06

This act was a crime in the eyes of the Islamic republic. Yasemin was arrested in 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison.

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The founder of the campaign wasn’t immune. Even in the US, Masih Alinejad has been in the crosshairs of the Iran security forces. In 2021 the FBI foiled a plot to kidnap her in New York. The Iranian government has denied it was involved.

In car with Masih – FBI Wanted posters

14.45.05-15.03.15

Masih – English: If it was not the FBI stopping the kidnapping plot, I would’ve been in Iran now executed. The FBI actually arrested a man with a loaded gun in front of my house in Brooklyn. Maybe they are scared of my hair! I don’t know why they are scared of me.

IV Masih - CCTV of Masih house …

15.04.09-15.06.24

UPSOT - MOTO: Our loser of a leader is a disgrace!

Protest UGC

15.07.17-15.26.05

Like Masih, during the latest protests, many influential Iranian figures have used social media to break through state media censorship. From footballers to actors, from scholars to singers they have expressed their support.

Photos Montage of famous Iranian

15.30.23-15.42.07

In this clip, songwriter Shervin Hajipour uses the wording from people's tweets to compose a song about why the Islamic republic should no longer exist.

Footage of Shervin tweeter feed singing

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Shervin’s song - Persian

15.50.03-16.02.14

Iranian security forces arrested Shervin immediately. But it was too late. His song had already gone viral.  Singers in Iran and around the world covered his song.

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Rana Mansour covering Shervin’s song - English

Footage of Rana singing

UGC of others singing

16.19.23-16.29.14

It wasn't only the song that crossed borders. The slogan of the protest “Woman, Life, Freedom” also went around the world.

UGC

16.33.01-16.43.01

In solidarity with the protesters many international celebrities cut their hair, an ancient act symbolic in Iran of mourning and loss.

UGC cutting hair

16.48.08-16.56.21

Iranian communities in the diaspora have been moved to protest. Many have rallied in support in cities around the world.

Protests drone shot

17.05.21-17.35.18

PTC:

Tens of thousands of Iranians have travelled from all over europe to be here in Berlin. It is the largest protest ever by the Iranian diaspora, people from all walks of life and different ethnicities united as never before to support the protest inside Iran. People repeatedly shouting this slogen: “Women, Life, Freedom”. So how did the slogan began?

PTC - Jiyar in Berlin

17.39.02-17.55.05

Sara Kermanian PHD International relations, Sussex University – English: The moto woman, Life, Freedom first was used by the Kurdish women resisting against the Turkish state in Turkey towards the end of 1980s and later it was used by resistance of Kurdish women against the ISIS. The moto itself is very generative. It is supposed to empower people

IV Sara (MOTO and Kurdish movement Expert)

UGC Kurdish woman singing

18.00.00-18.14.09

For the last 40 years, Iranian Kurdish women have fought against their male-dominated society and played a significant role in activities opposing the Islamic republic of Iran.

Kurdish woman singing

18.17.16-18.34.00

Sara - English: The moto “woman, life, freedom”, and especially the kurdish context from which it rose, it is not thinking about women’s freedom as a mere legal issue or the matter of mandatory hijab or those kinds of things, it is actually addressing all the patriarchal foundations of our society.

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This time the slogan “women, life, freedom” has been picked up especially by Iran’s TikTok Generation, a generation born long after the revolution and educated in the Islamic Republic system.

UGC

18.52.03-19.09.14

Supreme Leader of Iran - Ali Khamenei – Persian: The people who are in the street behaving immorally and like hooligans, some of them are young people who took to the streets because they were inflamed by a video they watched on the internet.

Khamenei speech

UGC young people protesting and chanting

19.11.08- 19.15.03

They could be made to understand their mistake with punishment.

19.20.00-19.25.03

19.25.18-19.30.07

19.30.07-19.52.17

UPSOT Young Woman (addressing the regime) - Persian: I am a girl born in the 2000s that you call a kid. But no one has ever asked, “Hey kid what are you upset about? What do you want?”

This young woman is typical of the way her generation are speaking out.

UPSOT Young Woman (addressing the regime) - Persian: Why did you buy teargas from the countries you say have put sanctions on us yet you didn't bother to buy vaccines? Why? This is what I’m upset about! It’s not just about hijab! I’m upset because as soon as we speak up, you suppress us! You kill us! Corrupt individuals are walking free, but the ones who have protested - our intellectuals, filmmakers and writers - are all in Evin prison.

Jiyar viewing footage

Video of a young woman voicing her generations problems.

20.20.00-20.08.08

This is 16 year old Sarina Esmaelzadeh. At first glance she looks like any Western girl.

Sarina’s vlog - She sings karaoke in the car

20.09.05-20.10.10

20.11.00-20.18.03

20.21.07-20.21.10

UPSOT Sarina - persian: Hello and welcome to another…

Well connected to social media and posting videos on youtube.  But she lived in Gohardasht near Tehran.

UPSOT Sarina - persian: Ready to go!

Footage of Sarina vlog

20.21.10-20.33.08

Sarina died during the protests. Amnesty International says the security forces beat her head with sticks. The authorities say she committed suicide.

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20.46.22-20.50.06

Since the protests began more than 200 people have been killed. At least 20 of them have been teenagers. Another of the victims was Nika Shakarami.

UPSOT Nika sings

Photos of people who died

Sarina’s picture moves back in and Nika’s picture comes forward (GFX)

20.50.06-20.54.03

Nika was 16.  Here she is singing for her friends. 

Nika sings

20.56.23-21.02.02

After the death of Mahsa, she joined a protest near her home in Tehran. 

UGC Protests

21.04.00-21.27.07

The last message she sent to her friend was, “I am running … I am being chased by the security forces…” Then she disappeared. Ten days later her mother found her body in a morgue. Her family planned to bury her in their hometown of Khorramabad in western Iran. The funeral fell on her 17th birthday!

UGC police raid

Photos of Nika

21.27.09-21.33.24

Upsot Nasrin Shakarami Nika’s mother - Persian

My darling, today is your birthday! Today I say congratulations on your martyrdom Nika!  Congratulations on your martyrdom! Congratulations on your martyrdom my darling Nika!

Nika’s mother in cemetery

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Nika's mother gathered with thousands of people in the cemetery for her burial, but her body never arrived.

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Nika’s Mother - Persian: That morning without our knowledge, they stole the body and buried it under strict security in a remote village.

IV with Nika’s mother

21.53.11-22.06.24

As news filtered through, mourners in the cemetery were enraged and started chanting ‘Death to the dictator’…Security forces responded with tear gas, batons and birdshot.

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UPSOT Injured man - Persian:

I’d die for the girl who died innocent.

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Nika’s aunt and uncle were taken into custody for publicising her death. The authorities insisted that Nika was not killed in the protests and the cause of her death was falling from a height.

To prove this, Nika’s grieving aunt was filmed explaining how Nika fell from a building. It was shown on state TV. State TV has a history of broadcasting forced confessions of political prisoners gained under pressure and torture.

Photo of aunt and uncle

National TV footage

UPSOT STATE TV REPORT - FORCED CONFESSION

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Nika’s Mother - Persian:

They made my sister make [false] confessions, and they broadcast it on TV.  We expected they would do something like this and make up accusations to absolve themselves of any blame.

IV Nika Mother

22.58.22-23.23.10

BBC Persian obtained a video showing a young girl burning her headscarf in the exact location from where Nika last called her friend. Her family confirmed the girl in the video was Nika.  

Despite threats and intimidation Nika’s mother in a video refuted the authorities account of Nika’s death.

Footage of UGC Nika footage at protest standing on bin

23.24.15-23.40.02

Nika’s Mother - Persian:

My daughter was killed in the protests on the day she disappeared. The certificate from forensics also confirms she was killed on that day and says her death was the result of several blows to the head by a hard object.

IV Nika Mother

23.39.12-23.51.04

The death of young people like Nika fuels the anger against the regime. But the Islamic Republic leaders have vowed to deal with protesters decisively

Nika footage

23.55.10-24.14.15

Masih - English: Mahsa’s tragic death is becoming a turning point for Iranian women. And it is a tipping point for the Islamic republic. Women are tired of being second class citizens! They want to have dignity and freedom and now this is a revolution being led by Iranian women!

IV Masih – UCG protests split screen

24.22.18-24.43.14

Azi - Persian: The moment I see a woman standing in front of the security forces, the moment I see that someone is standing up for their rights (because I too stood up for my rights), is the most beautiful moment. It gives me hope! It gives me hope and I say to myself: Our next generation will not live like us! They will win their rights!

IV Azi - UGC protest

24.53.24-25.12.09

Sara - English: It definitely is going to have a long-term impact because this motto and what it was promising is the right path towards the future of Iran if we are to actually move towards a democratic future. So regardless of whether or not this round of protests are gonna reach any immediate result, at least we’ve opened the right door this time.

IV Sara – UGC protest

25.16.09-25.30.21

Mansoureh - Persian: The prisons are full, the cemeteries are full, the hospitals are full yet still they come out onto the streets every night. So the women, men and everyone who supports the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement will not retreat.

IV Mansoureh – UGC protest

25.33.02-25.45.04

The Islamic Republic of Iran has faced a number of serious protests in the past forty years. This time if feels different but there is no clarity yet on the outcome

UGC marching woman

25.50.16-26.03.24

Roll Credits