A young Iranian woman has died of brain damage after being arrested by Iran’s feared morality police in Tehran on Tuesday evening.
Iranian police have put out a statement on Tuesday saying that Mahsa Amini, 22, suffered a sudden heart problem while she was under arrest. They said she was being put through a course of “re-education” in a police station after she was picked up for failing to cover all of her hair, in compliance with the country’s strict female dress code.
But reports citing Amini’s family members and eyewitnesses say that the young woman was forcibly taken into a van by the morality police. These reports claim she was taken to hospital after falling into a coma, where she later died.
In Iran, women are forced to wear a head covering in public, as well as a long jacket that falls at least to the knees. Many get around the law by draping their headscarves so only some of the hair is uncovered.
Young Iranian women have started rebelling against the country’s restrictive dress code, which the government says is based on Islamic values. Morality police, who monitor compliance with the law, have stepped up their crackdown on women who are deemed to break the rules, and have added more checkpoints across the capital city. Women who violate the dress code can be arrested, jailed, fined or flogged.
The news of Amini’s death has caused a public outcry in Iran. Tehran’s metropolitan police already blamed reports that she was beaten to death by police on a media that it claims is “hostile” against the Islamic republic.
Video from Iran reportedly showed people gathering outside the hospital on Friday in protest.
Speaking to the Iranwire news website, Kiarash Amini, the dead woman’s brother, said that he was with his sister when they were stopped by the police in Tehran. His sister was rounded up with other women for violating hijab rules and put in a van before being taken to a police station.
The number of rows between civilians and the morality police is reported to have increased as cops boost patrols and increasingly set up checkpoints in crowded public places.
No independent media organisations operate inside Iran, and the government has full control over all news channels in the country. Controversial incidents that put the regime under the spotlight always end up with forced confessions and statements on national television in favour of the government’s version without the scrutiny of any independent body.
Since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, all governments have been restrictive of women’s clothing, but some have been slightly more lenient than others.
The current government is led by hardliner Ebrahim Raisi who was handpicked by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the presidential election in 2021.