Episode 105- Woman, life, freedom: Mahsa Amini and the future of Iran w Kamin Mohammadi

Kamin Mohammadi

Author, Journalist, Broadcaster, The Guardian

“Woman, life, freedom”

Iran has been under a brutal religious dictatorship since 1979 with the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the establishment of the Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. There has long been a desire in Iran to return to the days before sharia law. Now, this might be their best chance yet.

With the tragic murder of Mahsa Jina Amini. On September 13th, ‘22, Mahsa, a 22 year old Iranian woman, was arrested by the Iranian morality police for the crime of “bad hijab”. Her hair shown in public. For this she was arrested, taken to prison, viciously beaten. She succumbed to her injuries within a few days. Since then, there has been a massive upswell of protesting, rioting and fighting back against the government and its inhumane treatment of the Iranian People. Women refusing to wear their hijabs in public and dancing in the streets in defiance of the brutal regime. Today’s guest Kamin Mohammadi helps us understand the context of all of these events and shares with us her lifelong struggles of living in exile, what these protests could mean for the future of Iran and why the worldwide media is not paying attention to such an important movement.

Kamin Mohammadi is an author, journalist, broadcaster, editor and public speaker. Born in Iran, she and her family moved to the UK during the 1979 revolution. She has written for the British and international press including The Times, the Financial Times, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Condé Nast Traveller (UK and Italy), Psychologies, Donna Moderna (Italy), Men’s Health, The Sunday Times (UK), The Sunday Times of India, The Mail on Sunday, Virginia Quarterly Review and the Guardian as well as co-authoring The Lonely Planet Guide to Iran and numerous other travel guide books. Her journalism has been nominated for an Amnesty Human Rights in Journalism award in the UK, and for a National Magazine Award by the American Society of Magazine Editors in the US.

An avid commentator, she has appeared on BBC Radio Four’s WOMAN'S HOUR, MIDWEEK, FOUR THOUGHT and THE WORLD TONIGHT, BBC World Service’s OUTLOOK and THE WORLD TODAY WEEKEND, Channel Four Radio’s THE MORNING REPORT, Monocle Radio’s MONOCLE 24 and India’s NDTV. She has appeared in the BBC TV documentary Iranian Enough? and written and co-presented the BBC World Service’s three-part radio documentary Children of The Revolution. She was a major contributor to the BBC Radio Four series Escape from Tehran. She is now a regular presenter of BBC R4’s FOUR THOUGHT. YOu can find more about Kamin and her work on her website kamin.co.uk and on twitter @kaminmohammadi.