Nobel laureate and social activist Malala Yousafzai has shared a video message to show solidarity with the women of Iran who are protesting for their rights.

“No state, entity, individual has the right to decide what a woman should do with her body, what she should wear and how she should wear,” said Malala in the video message.
“To the Iranian girls and young women who are in the streets to demand freedom and safety: You are already changing the world with your courage,” she wrote in the caption of the video.

“Zan! Zendigi! Azadi! Women! Life! Freedom,” she added.

Widespread protests have taken hold of Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who breathed her last in September after being arrested by a police unit responsible for forcing Iran’s strict dress code for women. She was taken into custody for not complying with hijab rules.

Mahsa Amini was beaten while inside a police van when she was picked up in Tehran. Photographs of Mahsa lying in a hospital bed went viral, showing the young woman in a coma with her head wrapped in bandages and breathing through tubes.

Since then, protests have spread across the country, including Tehran, Mashad,  Esfahan, Rasht, Keramn, Chabahar and Sanandaj. Human rights agencies have said that over 244 protestors, including 32 children, have been killed by security forces while 12,500 have been arrested.