--- title: What's Happened to Iran a Year After Mahsa Amini's Death description: The regime has proved too ruthless to collapse, but thousands of Iranian women defy compulsory hijab rules daily. canonical: https://time.com/6312691/mahsa-amini-death-anniversary-iran/ author: Karim Sadjadpour article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-09-12T08:54:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:42:48.522Z article:section: Ideas og:title: What's Happened to Iran a Year After Mahsa Amini's Death og:description: The regime has proved too ruthless to collapse, but thousands of Iranian women defy compulsory hijab rules daily. og:url: https://time.com/6312691/mahsa-amini-death-anniversary-iran/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c7a935a249dc548/698a4037096a94a59a6ae1fb/iran-mahsa-amini-death-regime-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Woman-Life-Freedom-Protests og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What's Happened to Iran a Year After Mahsa Amini's Death twitter:description: The regime has proved too ruthless to collapse, but thousands of Iranian women defy compulsory hijab rules daily. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c7a935a249dc548/698a4037096a94a59a6ae1fb/iran-mahsa-amini-death-regime-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mahsa Amini's Death Still Haunts the Iranian Regime > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Heroes of the Year: The Women of Iran [Watch (HLS stream): Heroes of the Year: The Women of Iran](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NP59WH3s.m3u8) (3:30)  _Published 2022-12-07. Time's 2022 heroes of the year are the women of Iran_ by [Karim Sadjadpour](https://time.com/author/karim-sadjadpour/) ## Karim Sadjadpour Sep 12, 2023 8:54 AM UTC  An Iranian woman protester wearing a mask but no hijab holds up a paper reading "Woman, Life, Freedom" and "Mahsa Amini" in front of a street sign on the ground with Revolution and Islamic Republic names on it near Enghelab (Revolution) Street in Tehran, on Oct. 1, 2022. An Iranian woman protester wearing a mask but no hijab holds up a paper reading "Woman, Life, Freedom" and "Mahsa Amini" in front of a street sign on the ground with Revolution and Islamic Republic names on it near Enghelab (Revolution) Street in Tehran, on Oct. 1, 2022. Anonymous/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images by [Karim Sadjadpour](https://time.com/author/karim-sadjadpour/) ## Karim Sadjadpour Sep 12, 2023 8:54 AM UTC The Islamic Republic of Iran has thus far proved too ideologically rigid to reform and too ruthless to collapse. As in the late stages of the Soviet Union, however, the foundations decay in plain sight. Outside their homeland, women of Iranian origin become world-class mathematicians and astronauts; inside Iran, the ruling clerics debate whether women should be allowed to ride bicycles. One year ago this month, the regime’s “morality police” detained and beat a 22-year-old woman—Mahsa Jina Amini—for allegedly showing too much hair beneath her compulsory veil. [Her death](https://time.com/6216024/iran-protests-islamic-republic-response/) in custody triggered Iran’s [longest anti-government protests](https://time.com/6275538/iran-protests-eyewitness-report/) since the 1979 revolution that transformed the country from a U.S.-allied monarchy to an anti-American Islamist theocracy. ### More From TIME Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei managed these protests as he always does, by crushing dissent, dividing adversaries, and refusing to offer any concessions. Over 20,000 people were arrested and [over 500 killed](https://time.com/heroes-of-the-year-2022-women-of-iran/), including several who were executed. Compromising under pressure, [Khamenei believes](https://time.com/5691642/iran-supreme-leader-ali-khamenei-trump/), only projects weakness and emboldens dissent. For the U.S., Iran’s internal political dynamics have a direct bearing on national security. Viewed from Washington, Tehran is the world’s leading [state sponsor of terrorism](https://world.time.com/2013/02/13/spy-fail-why-iran-is-losing-its-covert-war-with-israel/), is actively trying to [assassinate](https://time.com/6205153/iran-plot-kill-john-bolton/) former U.S. officials (to avenge the 2019 killing of Iranian general [Qasem Soleimani](https://time.com/5762017/iran-leader-soleimani-martyr-trump/)), provides Vladimir Putin lethal drones in his war against Ukraine, and has taken more U.S. citizens hostage than any other country in the world. At least five—who have collectively spent two decades as hostages in Tehran’s Evin prison—could soon be returned to the U.S., in return for the U.S. unfreezing at least $6 billion in Iranian assets frozen in South Korea. There should be no illusions this deal will lead to a thaw in U.S.-Iran relations: senior Iranian officials—who publicly advocate hostage trading as an economic policy—have already announced the practice will continue.  Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses Revolutionary Guards in Tehran on Aug. 17. Iran Supreme Leader Office Handout/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock A bigger challenge for the Biden Administration heading into election season is an advancing Iran nuclear program that could potentially trigger Israeli military action and skyrocketing oil prices. Five years after the Trump Administration withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement signed by the Obama Administration, the CIA assesses that Tehran has the technical capacity to build nuclear weapons and is [within weeks ](https://time.com/6199552/iran-nuclear-power-ehud-barak/)of having the fissile material to do so. Going for a bomb, however, would be a risky move for Khamenei. Iran’s nuclear sites have been thoroughly penetrated by Israel and the U.S., as evidenced by routine acts of sabotage reported at Iranian nuclear facilities and the assassination of top nuclear scientists. Khamenei’s making the decision to weaponize also risks tilting the balance of power toward the Revolutionary Guards, who would likely control the nuclear codes (and aspire to control the country). Successive U.S. administrations have sought to defuse Iran’s nuclear program, and end the U.S.-Iran cold war, by either trying to engage the Iranian regime diplomatically or subjecting it to economic pressure in the hopes the regime will either capitulate or implode. None of these efforts has borne fruit. “Death to America” remains the Islamic Republic’s enduring slogan. But another pillar of the revolution is compulsory hijab. And a year after Amini’s death, thousands of Iranian women defy these rules daily, despite the regime’s use of Chinese facial-recognition technology [to punish](https://time.com/6305813/iran-hijab-laws-stricter/) violations of laws of “hijab and chastity.”  A woman, sans-head covering, at the Tajrish Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 28, 2023. Arash Khamooshi—The New York Times/Redux The country’s economy is a shambles, and its former Minister of the Environment ominously warned that continued mismanagement of water resources could mean 50 million Iranians—70% of the country—“will have no choice but to leave the country.” Climate scientists say parts of Iran (which this year reached temperatures of 152°F) [could be](https://time.com/6305813/iran-hijab-laws-stricter/) the first places on earth too hot to be inhabited by humans. After two decades of failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the disappointing outcomes of the 2011 Arab uprisings, the U.S. has little confidence that it can positively impact political outcomes in the Middle East. Indeed, absent a cohesive liberal opposition, an implosion of the Islamic Republic is less likely to be followed by an Iranian version of Jeffersonian democracy than by a military government. For now, it remains a security state commanded by an octogenarian cleric who has held the title of Supreme Leader since 1989, before most Iranians were born. “Everyone is just waiting,” a recent visitor from Tehran told me, “for the leader to die.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6312691/mahsa-amini-death-anniversary-iran/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6312691/mahsa-amini-death-anniversary-iran/"},"headline":"Mahsa Amini's Death Still Haunts the Iranian Regime","datePublished":"2023-09-12T08:54:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:42:48.522Z","description":"The regime has proved too ruthless to collapse, but thousands of Iranian women defy compulsory hijab rules daily.","url":"https://time.com/6312691/mahsa-amini-death-anniversary-iran/","keywords":["world affairs","Magazine"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c7a935a249dc548/698a4037096a94a59a6ae1fb/iran-mahsa-amini-death-regime-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Karim Sadjadpour","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/karim-sadjadpour/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5c7a935a249dc548/698a4037096a94a59a6ae1fb/iran-mahsa-amini-death-regime-protest.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Woman-Life-Freedom-Protests","caption":"An Iranian woman protester wearing a mask but no hijab holds up a paper reading \"Woman, Life, Freedom\" and \"Mahsa Amini\" in front of a street sign on the ground with Revolution and Islamic Republic names on it near Enghelab (Revolution) Street in Tehran,","creditText":"Anonymous/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/world-affairs/","name":"world affairs"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6312691/mahsa-amini-death-anniversary-iran/","name":"Mahsa Amini's Death Still Haunts the Iranian Regime"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Heroes of the Year: The Women of Iran","description":"Time's 2022 heroes of the year are the women of Iran","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/NP59WH3s/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2022-12-07T12:00:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NP59WH3s.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6312691/mahsa-amini-death-anniversary-iran/","duration":"PT3M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6312691/mahsa-amini-death-anniversary-iran/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```