On Sept. 16, 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died.

Three days earlier, she was arrested by Iran’s so-called morality police for not wearing her hijab, a traditional Muslim face covering, in accordance with the regime’s standards. Her death sparked a series of protests in a country deeply divided for several decades.

We discuss Amini's death and the politics of the region with Nader Hashemi, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver, and Reza Mehraeen, an Iranian-born PhD student at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies.