Mahsa Amini Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Mahsa Amini
Mahsa Amini a few moments before arrest
Born	September 21, 1999 Saqqez, Iran
Died	September 16, 2022 (aged 22) Tehran, Iran
Resting place	Aychi Cemetery in Saqqez
Awards	Sakharov Prize

Mahsa Jina Amini (Persian: مهسا امینی; Kurdish: ژینا ئەمینی; September 21, 1999 – September 16, 2022) was a young Iranian woman whose arrest in Tehran for standing against mandatory hijab and subsequent death in police custody sparked a wave of protests throughout Iran. People and governments around the world reacted widely to her death. Her death sparked widespread protest in Iranian society, resulting in major protests in various cities in Iran and and acts of solidarity around the world. Amini's death ignited the global Woman, Life, Freedom movement. She and the movement were selected as candidates for the Sakharov Prize in 2023 by European Parliament for defending freedom and human rights.

Early life
- "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement
Memorials
See also

Early life

Photo of Mahsa Jina Amini on a protest placard in Melbourne

Mahsa Jina Amini was born on September 21, 1999 to a Kurdish family in Saqqez, Kurdistan, in northwestern Iran. While Mahsa was her legal given name (as only Persian names may be registered in Iran), her Kurdish name was Jina (also spelled Zhina), and was the name she was known as to her family. In Persian "Mahsa" means "similar to the moon" and in Kurdish, Jina means "life" or "a life-giving person". The government authorities changed the name on her birth certificate to Mahsa so that having a Kurdish name on official documents wouldn't pose any issues, as was the practice two decades ago. As the times evolved, Kurdish names became widely accepted and both Jina and Mahsa remained.

She completed her middle school in a school called Hijab. Than she went to Taleghani High School to earn a Diploma in 2015. Amini was admitted to university in 2022. She aspired to become a doctor. Amini was single and, before starting university, she had gone to Tehran with her parents and 17-year-old brother, Ashkan, to visit relatives.

"Woman, Life, Freedom" movement

"Woman, life, freedom"; the main slogan of the protesters

Solidarity with Iranian Protests in Melbourne

The Woman, Life, Freedom movement began as a response to her death.

Protesters along with celebrities and actors such as Marion Cotillard, Hande Yener, and Juliette Binoche would cut their hair. Politicians such as Abir Al-Sahlani and Hadja Lahbib would do the same. Women across Iran would remove and burn headscarves to protest the mandatory hijab.

Memorials

On Twitter, the hashtags "#مهسا_امینی" and "#MahsaAmini" set records and were used over 200 million times until October 3. Squares, streets, and parks were named after Mahsa Amini in major cities such as London, Ottawa, Rome, and Berlin.

Mahsa Act

The "Mahsa Amini Human rights and Security Accountability Act" (shorten to "MAHSA Act") is a bill that was first introduced to the 117th Congress in the wake of the Woman Life Freedom protests in Iran. Its intention is to put sanctions on the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The bill was reintroduced as H.R. 589 to the House of Representatives and as S.2626 to the US Senate in the 118th congress.

Statements

MEPs have awarded the 2023 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Jina Mahsa Amini and the Woman, Life, Freedom Movement in Iran.

US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in two separate messages on the occasion of the anniversary of Mehsa Amini's death in the custody of the morality police of Iran that they will continue to stand by the people of Iran.

Sakharov Prize