The Iranian authorities arrested a young woman who was photographed enjoying breakfast in a restaurant sans a headscarf.
The image of Donya Rad and her companion eating breakfast in a Tehran restaurant without headscarves went viral on social media and garnered significant attention.
They were protesting the recent death of Mahsa Amini, who was killed in the custody of the Iranian morality police after being caught for wearing a hijab incorrectly.
Ms. Amini passed away at the age of 22 three days after her arrest by the “morality police” charged with enforcing the strict Islamic clothing code.
Donya Rad had shared a picture of herself and a friend eating breakfast without headscarves on her Twitter account.
The act of not wearing a headscarf was a protest against the killing of Mahsa Amimi, who was slain in Iranian police custody (shown).
According to police, she died of a heart attack and was not mistreated, despite reports by specialists that she was badly battered.
Her death has already triggered significant demonstrations in Iran, with public figures expressing their outrage, including the Iranian national football team, who wore black tracksuits for the national anthems before the international friendly against Senegal.
When the image of Donya went viral, the morality police saw it and summoned her to explain her behavior.
When Donya arrived to explain herself, the cops arrested her.
Donya Rad was detained and transported to Ward 209 of the notorious Evin Prison.
Donya Rad has been sent to the same prison where Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained.
Her family has not heard from her since, with the exception of a brief phone call informing them of her transfer to Ward 209 of Evin Prison, which is notoriously known as the prison where Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was incarcerated.
Dina, sister of Donya Rad, disclosed that they were confronted by police before to her sister’s detention.
She stated, “Yesterday, after the above photo was published, the security agencies phoned my sister, Donya Rad, and summoned her to explain herself.”
Today, she was detained after accepting to be interrogated. After several hours of silence, she informed me in a brief phone conversation that he had been arrested and moved to Ward 209 of Evin Prison. Our family is really concerned about her safety and wellbeing.
Our family is extremely concerned about her health.
Since her incarceration, Donya Rad has had limited communication with her family, forcing her sister Dina to resort to Twitter.
The decision to arrest Donya Rad demonstrates the uneasiness Iranian authorities feel about the instability in the country, with protests over the killing of Ms. Amini escalating into anti-government demonstrations.
In the two weeks following Ms. Amini’s killing and the subsequent protests, at least 83 people, including children, have been killed.
At least 29 journalists have been arrested, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, including Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, the female journalists who helped bring Ms. Amini’s story to light.
Amnesty International, located in London, condemned the brutality faced by demonstrators, stressing Iran’s “widespread patterns of unlawful use of force and merciless violence by security personnel.”
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