‘Do men hate women? Or do they just fear us greatly?’

Veronica Zundel looks at the mistreatment of women round the world, and ponders the origins of such abuse

In September we saw the anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian woman beaten to death by the ‘morality police’ for not wearing her hijab correctly. In the wake of her death, demonstrations broke out all over Iran, with women burning their hijabs or refusing to wear them. The demonstrations died down in the wake of extreme police brutality, but 25–30 per cent of Iranian women are still going out without headscarves, at the risk of arrest or even death.