Dressed in a long white dress with a high collar, Melek Mosso took out a pair of scissors and cut off two tresses before she started her concert in downtown Istanbul as the audience in the cramped, open-air hall cheered and shouted. 

“Tonight, I sing for all women,” Mosso said on Sept. 26, after eight days of protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd, under detention by Iran’s morality police that enforces mandatory hijab rules. 

“No one will take away our songs, our liberty,” shouted the 33-year-old jazz singer, who was targeted by Turkish conservatives earlier this year for a video clip where she told women to do whatever they wanted and gave the middle finger to those who told women otherwise. “Women, life and freedom,” the feisty singer shouted. “I extend from here my full support to my sisters who risk their lives in the protests in Iran.” 

The death of Amini on Sept. 16 has taken Iranians to the streets for days, though ongoing internet blackouts make it difficult to confirm the number of fatalities or arrests. Norway-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) said the death toll was at least 57 Sunday night. Iranian officials have expressed “the need for decisive action without leniency” and fumed at countries that “intervened” in their domestic affairs. Hundreds of demonstrations have taken place around the world in support of the protests in Iran.