The death of Mahsa Amini has triggered nationwide protests in Iran, and authorities are continuing to violently crack down on the anti-regime demonstrations.

This recent wave of protest was sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.

She was a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died after being arrested by the country's morality police for allegedly violating Iran's strict Islamic dress code, which for women includes wearing a head covering known as a hijab.

Amini was at a detention center before she fell into a coma and died, and her family believes that she was beaten by the morality police.

Experts told me that morality police are basically tasked with mass surveillance, particularly of women, and that it's extremely common for women to be stopped by them for not wearing what they consider to be, properly wearing the hijab.

Iran has seen a lot of waves of anti-government protest before, but many have come to see Amini's death as kind of symbolic of laws restricting women's rights and the morality polices increasingly violent treatment of young women.

During the protest, women are seen burning their hijabs, cutting their hair, and they're risking beatings and arrests.

The security forces are responding with water cannons, tear gas, mass arrests and extreme violence.

And although women and girls are at the forefront of these protests, we're also seeing men participate, which experts say is unique because it's, you know, kind of a women's rights-led issue.

It's certainly brought a global spotlight to the issue and there's been international condemnation of her death and also Iran's response to the protests.

The U.S. increased sanctions on the morality police, for example.

And experts say, even if the regime doesn't necessarily cave to the protestors’ demands, the protests have forever changed the debate on women's rights in Iran.