Marion Cotillard & Juliet Binoche Cut Their Hair In Protest Of Iranian Morality Police Killing Of Mahsa Amini

The killing of a woman in the custody of Iran’s morality police, an apparatus of the country which enforces religious rules including the requirement for women to wear hijabs in public, has caused intense female-led protests which began in the country’s capital city of Tehran, and caught the attention of the whole world.

While police claimed that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died of a heart attack while in custody, eyewitness and photographic evidence showed that she was badly beaten by police and most likely died from her injuries. They had apparently arrested her for being in violation of the country’s modesty mandate.

A key element of the protests have been Iranian women across the country cutting their hair and removing their hijabs en masse as a show of rage and solidarity for the slain Amini. The Iranian government hasn’t responded kindly to the protests, and one local non-profit Iran Human Rights has estimated that about 150 people have already been killed in retaliation to the demonstrations.

With the hashtag #HairForFreedom, women around the world have been cutting their hair in support of these protestors. One video campaign that got a lot of attention was from an account which was called Soutien Femmes Iran (Support Iranian Women in french), and included acclaimed French actresses like Marion Cotillard, Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert cutting their hair.

A Swedish Member of Parliament who was born in Iraq, Abir Al-Sahlani also made a strong statement by cutting her hair during a meeting of the EU Assembly in Strasbourg, and spoke in anger at the muted response by world leaders.

“Our leaders across the globe and in the democratic free world are not meeting that courage [of protestors]” Amini said. “I’m utterly tired of these old, tired politicians who don’t want to take a stand for what is righteous.”