Iranians continue to protest death of Mahsa Amini
AUSTIN, Texas - Iranian immigrants are speaking out over the treatment of people in Iran as they protest the death of a 22-year-old woman in September.
Mahsa Amini was arrested by the country's morality police and died while in custody. Since then massive protests have erupted around the country and women have taken off their roosaries – what people in the west commonly know as a hijab. In Iran, it's a scarf that loosely covers your head.
But the future could be different for the millions of youth in the country.
Shahrzad Yekti lived the first 13 years of her life in Iran under the rule of the Islamic Republic before moving to Texas. Not everyone is as brave as her though, to go on camera and talk about what could be the end of the Islamic republic.
"There are people, young girls and boys my age going out in the streets of Iran getting hit by bullets, all kinds of bullets, they're losing their eyes, their limbs, risking everything - for me to sit here in front of a camera to talk about them what do I have to lose?" Yekti said.
Since the death of Mahsa Amini, Iran has been in a state of unrest.
"Everyone is coming together being out on the streets finally seeing that they need to come together as young as seven," said Yekti. "It was unbelievable when I saw a [seven-year-old] being killed at school."
Some are being sent to re-education camps, basically, detention centers, for protesting.
According to Amnesty International, at least 23 children were killed within a 10-day span during the protests, but they also say that the real number is likely higher.
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More than half of Iranians were born after 1979, and the Islamic Republic is all they know. In 1979 the Islamic Republic of Iran overthrew the monarchy in place and instituted Islamic rule over all facets of life.
With that came the "morality police," a group meant to make sure woman are dressed modestly.
"The chant of woman life freedom that chant says everything that we need to know," Yekti said.
It's become the slogan for this movement, what feels like another revolution.
One of the tactics of an authoritarian regime is to shut down the internet. That's why Iranians have been asking others to help amplify their voices that are being suppressed.
Right now some workers are on strike in Iran, including those that work at some of the world's biggest oil refineries.
It's hard to say how close Iran is to another revolution.
"Back in the 1979 revolution, these strikes were what really finally made it happen," Yekti said. "This is not going to be a race, it's a marathon"