When 28-year-old Khotan launched her women’s clothing shop on Instagram recently, she decided to showcase collections of colorful, form-fitting crop tops and T-shirts rather than the compulsory coverings long mandated by Iranian authorities.

“We did at some point think about selling headscarves and cloaks,” says the Tehran-based designer, who spoke to NPR on a fuzzy Zoom line giving only her first name for fear of being tracked down and detained for criticizing the government. “In the end, we decided to post Instagram stories showing our followers different ways they can fashion their scarves into tops or skirts instead.”

It’s been a year since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, also known by her Kurdish first name Jina, died in the custody of Iranian morality police. Her death set off some of the most sweeping anti-government protests Iran has experienced in decades. Government security forces violently cracked down on the uprising, killing more than 500 people, detaining some 22,000 and executing several detained protesters, according to human rights experts and activists.

Despite the clampdown, there are signs like Khotan’s online shop that show the protest movement endures. Singers still produce protest songs, many women continue to let their hair flow freely in public spaces and activists still spread anti-government messages on social media. But the government’s crackdown in recent weeks, ahead of anticipated unrest around the Sept. 16 anniversary of Amini’s death, highlights just how hard it will be for that movement to survive.

[The supposedly #MeToo #Wymmins true believers Democrats just gave their oppressors $6+B to rain down more misery. If only we’d had Dem administrations unafraid to support this movement. ~ Beege]