JOHN YANG: It is one year to the day since a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman named Mahsa Amini died in a hospital days after the morality police arrested her in Tehran.

They said she had violated Iran's Islamic dress code that requires women to wear a headscarf or hijab and cover themselves in loose full length clothing.

Penalties for disregarding that include a fine, prison or flogging.

Her death sparked months of protest Iran's biggest mass demonstrations against its clerical rulers in years.

Around the world today, demonstrators marched in solidarity to mark the anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death.

In London there were calls for an end to Iran strict Islamic rule.

MANSOUR ZADSHIR, Protester: The regime is really brutal.

So the old party if it takes one year, two year, 120 years doesn't matter.

We never stopped.

JOHN YANG: In Berlin calls for another Iranian revolution, this one to depose the religious leaders who seized power in 1979.

But in Iran a much different picture.

A heavy security presence sought to prevent a resurgence of last year's protest triggered by the death of Amini.

The 22-year-old woman who was from a small city in northwestern Iran, a member of the oppressed Kurdish ethnic minority.

She died while in government detention.

Iranian officials still deny it was a result of being beaten.

Amini's death unleashed decades of pent up anger in Iran's clerical rulers and their denial of social and political freedoms.

Women led the protest fed up with the restraint strict Islamic law puts on them, including telling them how to dress.

Their protest mushroomed into a global movement.

Women cut their hair to show solidarity, their rallying cry -- women, life, freedom.

ABIR AL-SAHLANI, European Parliament: Until the woman of Iran up, we are going to stand with you.

Women, life, freedom.

JOHN YANG: In Iran, authorities responded with a brutal crackdown.

More than 22,000 people were detained.

More than 500 were killed and violent clashes with security forces.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said it was all a Western plot.

AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, Supreme Leader, Iran (through translator): I say clearly that these riots and insecurities were designed by America.

They have sat down and planned this.

They have planned this.

JOHN YANG: A year later, the mandatory hijab law is still in place and authorities want to stiffen the penalties to up to 10 years in prison.

And the morality police after apparently being disbanded resumed patrolling this summer.

But on the streets of Tehran, more women young and old are defiantly going without the hijab.

WOMAN (through translator): Do you think the morality police can prevent women from not wearing a hijab?

They can't impose it like before.

The number of people who don't obey is too high now.

They can't handle all of us.

JOHN YANG: And Mahsa Amini's name lives on.

This Kurdish family name their new daughter, Jina, Amini's Kurdish name which means life.

BUTAN IBRAHIM GILO, Father of Jina (through translator): This name is sacred because she is a sacred personality.

We chose this name so that in the future my daughter knows that it's not an ordinary name, and not for an ordinary person, but for an exceptional, indifferent person.

JOHN YANG: A symbol of hope for women who want a better future.

This week, President Biden announced new sanctions on Iran.

In a statement he said in the face of continued oppression and violence the citizens of Iran remain committed to this movement and to their fight for a free and democratic future.

Iranians alone will determine the fate of their country.

But the United States remains committed to standing with them.

To explore this further Nazanin Boniadi, she's a Iranian born human rights activist and ambassador for Amnesty International UK.

She's also an actor who's appeared in many popular movies and television shows.

Thank you for being with us.

This protest or this movement began obviously over the hijab law but hasn't become bigger than that has encompass more issues than that?

NAZANIN BONIADI, Actress and Activist: Thanks for having me John.

Yes, the shorts of it is yes.

You know, Mahsa Jina Amini was not just a young woman.

She was a Kurd and a Sunni.

She was a member of religious and minority ethnic groups.

So what her death did and by the way, she was just a normal woman.

She was just an everyday woman living her life.

She wasn't killed for anything, but just expressing herself freely and living her life normally, just for wearing her hijab inappropriately, quote unquote.

And so she really became a symbol of the antithesis of a male Shia geriatric intolerant ruling elite in Iran, and it galvanized Iranian society at large to stand for democracy and freedom.

JOHN YANG: We saw the tape women going without the hijab, but also the morality police back on the streets patrolling.

Has anything changed at all in the past year?

NAZANIN BONIADI: You know, we're not seeing the same numbers on the streets.

But the revolution is very much alive in the hearts and the minds of the Iranian people.

And Iranian society will never be the same again, hundreds of thousands of Iranian women are currently on the streets of Iran every day and major Iranian cities, flouting the compulsory hijab law.

And there are micro protests, you know, around Gen Z to doing things like rollerskating on the streets of Iran to Abba to inject society with joy, because joy is a crime in Iran, women can't dance in public, they can't sing solo in public, they can't ride a bicycle.

They have to sit at the back of the bus.

This is about far more than compulsory hijab.

And it's become about far more than just women's rights.

JOHN YANG: Mahsa's father was detained in the past couple of days.

And before he was released, he was warned not to do anything today to commemorate his daughter's death.

What's life like for Iranians who are fighting the clerical rule, and clerical rulers who make it clear they will not put up with any dissent?

NAZANIN BONIADI: And one word dangerous.

I mean, these families have been harassed, intimidated, silenced, imprisoned, killed, simply for demanding justice for their loved ones.

You know, there's a young child, a nine-year-old Kian Pufalak (ph), who was killed with bullets while the protests were happening.

And his mother who's seeking justice when is trying very hard to hold the Iranian regime to account and actually sued the government.

They stopped them from commemorating their loved ones.

They actually killed the mother's cousin, while he was commemorating the death of young Kian.

So this is the type of thing that they're dealing with.

And his mother is now under house arrest.

JOHN YANG: Today obviously Mahsa's front of mine the anniversary of her death.

Do you worry that in the other string 364 days, her memory will recede?

And maybe the issue will recede and in a lot of people's minds in the West?

NAZANIN BONIADI: I'm very worried about that.

Today, as you said as the anniversary of her death and we're seeing protests across the world.

There is an epitaph on Mahsa Jina Amini's grave that says your name will become our code.

And it did because her, you know, her legacy is one of fighting for a normal life, which is the middle slogan of woman, life, freedom.

We can't forget that woman, women's rights is just one pillar of what they're fighting for.

The other two being a normal life, the right to live your life in a -- just a free way and freedom being the last word in this slogan.

And those two last words apply to all Iranians.

So this has really captured the national aspiration.

Now men are standing with women and actually more young men have been killed in the past year than women.

But that shows the solidarity, something that really strikes fear into this misogynistic and patriarchal regime.

JOHN YANG: We heard in the statement that I read earlier that President Biden said that this is up to the Iranians.

This is the Iranians struggle and fight.

But we're standing with them.

The United States stands with them.

Is the West doing enough to support this do you think?

NAZANIN BONIADI: In short no.

It's great words are great.

But what we need is action.

And there are a number of ways we can do that.

We haven't ever been ready for the next uprising.

But Iranians have risen up multiple times in the past 44 years.

And every time there's now an internet shutdown, blackout, there are -- there's mass brutality and a crackdown on the protesters.

And what we have to do is be prepared for the next time there will be a next time.

The time between the ebbs and flows of these protests are getting shorter, and hopefully the regime will be no longer but the Iranian people need us to ensure they have internet access to ensure that there's the propaganda that these dictators in unison, Russia, China, Iran spew and spend a lot of money on propaganda and cyber armies.

We just don't have the same capacity and capability and funding to counter that propaganda.

JOHN YANG: You said earlier you thought Iranian society will never be the same.

But we've also seen the leadership crackdown harder and harder.

Are you optimistic that things will change and change soon?

NAZANIN BONIADI: You know, it's hard to predict how long this is going to take but I think it is, it's very clear.

This is the twilight of the regime.

The Supreme Leader is the oldest dictator and the longest dictator holding power in today's world and his death it will happen anytime soon.

He's very sick.

He's got cancer.

And what happens the day after is when we have to watch this space.

And in the meantime, we cannot allow that vacuum to be filled with more oppression.

We have to ensure that we're empowering dissident voices, opposition voices, we need a unified opposition but we also need a multinational approach to Iran.

We need an American leadership on Iran and hopefully bipartisan support for the Iranian people.

JOHN YANG: Nazanin Boniadi, thank you very much.

NAZANIN BONIADI: Thank you.