State media claimed on Friday that Iran’s president has ordered a probe into the death of a young woman who lapsed into a coma and died while in prison in Tehran. According to the authorities, she experienced a heart attack.
According to the state-run IRNA news agency, President Ebrahim Raisi instructed Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi to “examine the incident’s cause with urgency and special care.”
Mahsa Amini, 22 years old, was reportedly detained by the so-called “morality police” earlier this week when authorities purportedly found issue with her headgear, or hijab.
Iran’s Mahsa Amini Center for Human Rights
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women in Iran are required to wear the headscarf, and officers of the morality police enforce the tight clothing code.
Amini, who was arrested on Tuesday, was reportedly sent to a hospital on Thursday after allegedly suffering a heart attack while in detention. Amini’s uncle told pro-reform news websites that she had no history of cardiac problems.
On Friday, police reported that there was no violence or physical contact between officers and Amini during her detention. Police also displayed closed-circuit footage that appeared to show Amini and other detainees inside a police station.
At one point, she rises from a chair, approaches another woman, grips her head with both hands, falls against a chair, and collapses. In the following scene, she is carried away on a stretcher.
According to Mizan.news, the official website of Iran’s court, the top prosecutor of Tehran, Ali Salehi, authorized a team of forensic pathologists to investigate the medical elements of the case.
In recent years, Iran’s morality police has been condemned for its treatment of people, particularly young ladies, and social media videos have shown officers dragging women into police vehicles.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, has advocated for a more lenient stance towards women who do not adhere to the official dress code.
However, extremists have called for harsh punishments, including lashings, saying that permitting women to display their hair leads to moral deterioration and family breakdown. In recent years, the judiciary has pushed people to report non-hijab-wearing women.
Since 2017, following a wave of protests in which dozens of women removed their headscarves in public, the authorities have imposed stricter procedures.
“Countless female victims of the Islamic Republic’s battle”
The case of Amini has been criticized by Iranian celebrities, athletes, and other public figures.
Former reformist President Mohammad Khatami described the behavior of the morality police as a “disaster,” while outspoken politician and former lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi urged Khamenei to address Amini’s situation publicly.
Popular former soccer player Ali Karimi tweeted, “Our children are dying while the children of high-ranking officials are leaving the nation.”
Another former soccer player, Hossein Mahini, tweeted to the morality police, “We despise you.”
Images shared on social media depicted crowds gathering outside the hospital where she was receiving treatment and cops attempting to disperse them.
“The circumstances surrounding the mysterious death in prison of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, including claims of torture and other ill-treatment in detention, must be investigated criminally,” stated Amnesty International.
“Three days before her death, the so-called “morality police” in Tehran unlawfully arrested her while enforcing the country’s cruel, demeaning, and discriminatory forced veiling rules. All responsible agents and officials must face justice “it added.
Saeed Dehghan, a prominent Iranian attorney, condemned Amini’s death as “murder” on Twitter, stating that she had sustained a blow to the head that fractured the base of her skull.
Several legislators said they would raise the issue in parliament, while the judiciary stated it would investigate by forming a special task force.
The Center for Human Rights in Iran in New York condemned her death as a “avoidable tragedy.”
Mahsa Amini, 22, reportedly died after being imprisoned by Iran’s “anti-vice” police for allegedly wearing an incorrect hijab.
Since its inception, the state’s discriminatory forced-hijab law has been utilized to harass, demean, abuse, detain, and harm women. # image: http://twitter.com/OnqEyihfC7
— IranHumanRights.org (@ICHRI) 16 September
“Mahsa Amini is one of many victims of the Islamic Republic’s war on women,” said the executive director of the NGO, Hadi Ghaemi. “She was detained under the pretense of the state’s mandatory hijab law and died shortly thereafter. The government is accountable for her death as well as decades of women being harassed, arrested, and otherwise mistreated under this discriminatory and inhumane law.”
Amini’s killing comes amid a rising uproar inside and outside of Iran about the behavior of the Gasht-e Ershad, also known as the morality police (Guidance Patrol).
In July, a video of a mother appealing for her daughter’s release in front of a police van went popular on social media.
The veiled woman clung to the van as it drove away; she was only ejected when the vehicle gained speed.
Also in July, Sepideh Rashno, a young Iranian woman, vanished after a fight on a Tehran bus with another woman who accused her of removing her hijab.
She was detained by the Revolutionary Guards and featured on television in what campaigners claimed was a coerced confession prior to her release on bail in late August.
Activists accuse Iran of being in the midst of a massive crackdown touching all aspects of life, including a fresh assault against the Bahai religious minority, death sentences for homosexuals, an increase in executions, and arrests of foreigners.
Next month, Raisi plans to visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, where he will face heavy scrutiny about Iran’s human rights record.