In the Middle East, Islam is the dominant religion. Islam’s followers, Muslims, worship in mosques, like the one in Iran shown here. The women in the foreground have their heads covered, as required by Islamic law in Iran. In most other countries, Muslim women can choose whether to wear a veil or head cover.
Credit: © Patrick Ben Luke Syder, Lonely Planet Images

In September 2022, public protests broke out in dozens of Iranian cities following the death in police custody of a 22-year-old Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini. On September 13, Amini had been arrested in Tehran by officers of Iran’s morality police, who enforce the nation’s strict dress code. The police arrested Amini for incorrectly wearing her hijab, the traditional headscarf worn by Muslim women. Though many Muslim women choose to wear the hijab, wearing one is required by law in Iran. Amini died in police custody on September 16. In the protests that followed, some women burned their headscarves. Women in Iran and around the world cut their hair in protest.

According to human rights groups, thousands of protesters were arrested, more than 185 people were killed, and hundreds more were injured. The authorities stated they would investigate the civilian deaths and claimed violence was caused by dissident groups. The government restricted access to the internet and social media as part of an attempt to end the protests. In response to the government’s actions, some global powers have imposed sanctions on Iran.

The protests persisted into October. Deaths of other protestors added fuel and heartache to those protesting the regime. Those included Iranian teenage girls who shared their lives and talents on social media. Nika Shakarami, a 16-year-old Iranian student, died during the protests. Iranian authorities claim Shakarami died by falling from a building. Her mother, Nasreen, said that the body was buried without the family’s consent, and records showed severe damage to her skull. Sarina Esmaeilzadeh was 16 years old and joined the protests on September 22. It was reported that she was beaten by Iranian forces and died of her wounds, although that has been denied by authorities, which claim she died by suicide.

This challenge to authorities is one of the greatest in Iran since the 1979 revolution. In 1979, revolutionaries under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Muslim religious leader, overthrew Mohammad Reza. The revolutionaries took control of Iran. They changed Iran’s government from a constitutional monarchy to an Islamic republic. Their policies led to strict Islamic control over all areas of people’s lives. Their rule resulted in severe economic problems for the nation. Relations between Iran and Western countries became strained.

August 14, 2014

The Saint Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, was buffeted last night by a fifth night of protests amid growing anger over the shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager by a local police officer. Michael Brown was fatally shot on August 9 while walking home with a friend from a convenience store. According to the Ferguson chief of police, the officer who shot Michael Brown was assaulted by Brown, who had tried to grab the officer’s gun. The friend walking with Brown disputes that account, insisting that Brown’s hands were raised when he was shot multiple times.

Last night, scores of police officers in riot gear fired tear gas on the demonstrators after they ignored an order to disperse. The order came after four previous nights of sometimes violent protests and looting that resulted in dozens of arrests and the burning of a shop. Several people were arrested again last night, including two journalists covering the situation. They were arrested while writing on laptops seated inside a McDonald’s.

The journalists noted that Brown’s death laid bare long simmering tensions between the local African-American community and the police–tension rooted in the way the police treat blacks compared with how they treat Ferguson’s white residents. The town’s population of 21,000 is two-thirds African American, while only 3 of the 53-member police force are black.

January 22, 2014

Two protesters were killed today, shot by police, in clashes between demonstrators and security forces in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. The fatalities are the first since antigovernment protests began there two months ago. Responding to news of the deaths, thousands of protesters are now pouring into Kiev’s Independence Square. Overhead hangs a cloud of acrid, black smoke from the burning of tires at blocked intersections.

Today’s violence was touched off by police moving in to dismantle a protest camp. Protesters, angered by the government’s apparent tightening of relations with Russia, have been camped out in Kiev since late November. New laws banning unauthorized tents in public areas and prescribing jail terms for anyone blockading public buildings went into effect today. The hasty passage of the laws last week by the Ukrainian parliament triggered renewed protests over the weekend, with young men hurling fireworks and Molotov cocktails at security forces guarding the parliament building. Riot police responded with stun grenades and rubber bullets. At least 200 people were injured in that melee.

Ukrainians protest in Kiev's Independence Square in 2004. Their demonstrations led to the Orange Revolution, an important step toward democracy. However, subsequent governments have failed to live up to the promise of the revolution. (AP/Wide World)

The unrest in Ukraine began on November 21 when President Viktor Yanukovych backed out of proposed political and free trade accords that would have moved the country closer to the European Union (EU). Experts on the situation in Ukraine note that to most Ukrainians, the West represents freedom, democracy, and prosperity. International affairs experts suggest that Yanukovych feared that moving Ukraine closer to the EU could trigger painful reprisals from Russia, Ukraine’s largest trading partner. During a natural gas price dispute in 2009, Russian President Vladimir Putin cut off the flow of natural gas to Ukraine, leaving the country without heat during a particularly cold January.

Russia has dominated Ukraine on and off  for more than 200 years. Because of its fertile soil, Ukraine was once described as Russia’s breadbasket.

Additional World Book articles:

• Kuchma, Leonid Danylovich
• Viktor Yushchenko
• Ukraine 2004 (a Back in Time article)
• Ukraine 2005 (a Back in Time article)

August 15, 2013

Egyptian security forces yesterday attacked two encampments in Cairo from which Muslim Brotherhood members have protested the army’s overthrow on July 3 of President Mohamed Morsi. Armored vehicles and bulldozers crashed into the camps through a cloud of tear gas in an attempt to shut down the six-week-long sit-in. In and around the main encampment at Rabaa al-Adawiya, a constant exchange of gunfire, including snipers shooting from rooftops, raged for more than 12 hours. Elsewhere in the city, mobs retaliated against authorities with attacks on government buildings and a dozen police stations, as well as on Coptic Christian churches. At least 640 people were killed, including 43 security personnel and 3 reporters.  The Interior Ministry has confirmed that more than 4,200 others were injured in the melee.

Egypt’s interim prime minister, Hazem Beblawi, speaking last night in a televised address, defended the operation, stating that authorities had no choice but to restore order to the capital. He declared a month-long state of emergency, including nightly curfews.

Anti-government protests have roiled Cairo since January 2011, beginning with demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak, who resigned the following month. Massive anti-government protests prompted the army to remove the next president, Mohamed Morsi, from office this last July. (© John Moore, Getty Images)

Writing on a social networking site, a Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson, Gehad El-Haddad, called on Egyptians across the country to rise up in protest, declaring, “We will push forward until we bring down this military coup,” referring to the ouster of the former president. Yesterday’s attack is the third mass killing of Islamist demonstrators since Morsi’s overthrow.

The Egyptian army removed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, from power in the face of massive anti-Morsi protests across the nation. Many Egyptians believed that Morsi was more interested in turning Egypt into an Islamist state than in dealing with the country’s many problems. The lack of public security under Morsi undermined the economy, which remains in a desperate state. Tourism, Egypt’s biggest industry, has all but dried up since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. More than 1 million people were thrown out of work during Morsi’s one year in office as president.

Additional World Book articles:

• Tahrir Square
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Egypt (2011) (a Back in Time article)
• Egypt (2012) (a Back in Time article)

September 17, 2012

Demonstrations continued today across the Muslim world in protest of Innocence of Muslims, an amateur, anti-Islam video thought to have been produced in the United States. Indonesians hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, capital of the world’s most populous Muslim nation. In the Philippines, thousands rallied in protest in the city of Marawi. In Lebanon, Hezbollah Sheikh Nassan Hasrallah’s call for further protests prompted thousands of people to mass in Beirut and other cities. In Afghanistan, protesters fired weapons in the air and torched police cars in Kabul. On September 15 in Afghanistan, Taliban militants, claiming to be enraged by the video, attacked a heavily fortified NATO camp, killing two U.S. Marines.

Since the first violent reaction to the film erupted in Egypt and Libya on September 11, some 40 people are believed to have been killed. On September 11, the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans died in an attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi. In Cairo on September 11,  an angry mob scaled the wall of the U.S. embassy and pulled down and burned the American flag.

A group of Muslim women gather for outdoor prayers in Indonesia, where more than 85 percent of the people are Muslims. (c) Photobank

The exact origins of the film are unknown, though American authorities have uncovered some connection between it and one Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a convicted felon living in California. A 14-minute trailer for the film was posted on the video-sharing website YouTube. American officials are still investigating whether the attacks were actually triggered by the video or whether they were pre-planned by some terrorist organization to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Additional World Book articles:

• Afghanistan War
• Diplomatic corp
• Foreign Service
• Iran 1979 (a Back in Time article)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)

Nov. 28, 2011

The security forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have committed systematic “crimes against humanity” in their months-long crackdown on antigovernment protesters, the United Nations reported today in a study prepared by an independent panel. According the panel’s findings, civilians, including children, have been arrested arbitrarily, tortured, and murdered. In the latest violence, at least 23 people were killed across Syria during demonstrations yesterday.

In response to the violence used against its own people, the Arab League, by a vote of 19-to-3, imposed economic sanctions against the government of Syria. The sanctions freeze Syrian government assets held in league member states; cut off transactions with the Syrian central bank; halt funding by Arab governments for projects in Syria; ban senior Syrian officials from traveling to member states; and ban commercial flights between Syria and member states. While not a member of the Arab League, Turkey volunteered to act in accordance with the sanctions. According to United Nations estimates, as many as 3,500 people have died since the demonstrations began in March.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has come under severe international criticism for his government's continuing attacks on protesters demanding more political freedom. AP/Wide World

On November 14, Jordan’s King Abdullah II became the first Arab leader to openly call on Assad to leave office. In a BBC interview, Abdullah declared, “If Bashar [al-Assad] had an interest in his country he would step down.” The king went on to say that if he were in Assad’s position, he would make sure “whoever comes behind me has the ability to change the status quo (the existing state of affairs).”

Additional World Book articles:

• Human rights
• International Court of Justice
• Middle East