Iran : Protests erupted again in Iran on Monday following the death of a young woman who had been imprisoned by the “morality police,” who enforce a stringent clothing code, according to local media. Authorities stated on Friday that Mahsa Amini, 22, died in a hospital after three days in a coma after being arrested by Tehran’s morality police during a visit to the capital on September 13.
According to the Fars and Tasnim news agencies, demonstrations were conducted throughout Tehran, including at many universities and in Mashhad, the country’s second-largest city. Protesters marched down Hijab Street, or “headscarf street,” in central Tehran, criticizing the morality police, according to the ISNA news agency. “Several hundred protesters screamed anti-government slogans, and some of them removed their hijab,” Fars stated, adding that “police arrested several people and dispersed the mob with batons and tear gas.”
Fars posted a brief video in which a mob of several dozen people, including women who had removed their headscarves, chanted “Death to the Islamic Republic!”. According to the Tasnim news agency, a “similar gathering” took occurred in the northeastern city of Mashhad. On Sunday, police arrested people and used tear gas in the dead woman’s native area of Kurdistan when 500 people protested, some shattering car windows and torching garbage cans, according to reports.
In the Islamic republic, morality police units enforce a clothing code that requires women to wear headscarves in public. Tight trousers, ripped jeans, garments that expose the knees, and vividly colored ensembles are also prohibited. Officers and the victim had “no physical contact,” according to police.
General Hossein Rahimi, commander of police in Tehran, stated Monday that the woman had breached the clothing code and that his colleagues had requested her relatives to bring her “appropriate clothes.”
He rejected “unjust claims against the police” once more, stating that “the evidence reveals that there was no negligence or inappropriate behavior on the side of the police.”. “This is a regrettable incident, and we hope it never happens again.”. According to Fars and Tasnim news agencies, students demonstrated at Tehran and Shahid Beheshti universities, demanding “clarification” on how Amini died.
Following the injuries, she sustained in police custody, a spokesperson for the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, called Amini’s death “unacceptable” and a “killing.”
The offenders must be held accountable, and the Iranian authorities must respect the rights of their citizens, according to the spokeswoman. France branded her death “heartbreaking” and demanded a “transparent investigation… to shed light on the circumstances of this tragedy.”. The killing of Amini has renewed calls to rein in morality police activities against women suspected of breaching the clothing code, which has been in existence since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Filmmakers, artists, athletes, politicians, and religious leaders have all taken to social media to vent their rage. President Ebrahim Raisi, an ultra-conservative former chief of the judiciary who took office last year, has ordered an investigation into Amini’s death.
On Friday, state television aired a brief surveillance video showing a lady identified as Amini falling in a police station after an argument with a policewoman. The victim’s father, Amjad Amini, told Fars that he “did not accept what (the police) presented him,” claiming that “the film had been cut.”
He also blasted the emergency services for their “slow reaction,” saying, “I believe Mahsa was transferred to the hospital late.”. Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi stated on Saturday that the emergency services had responded “quickly” to the area. “Mahsa clearly had past medical problems, and we have stories that she had brain surgery when she was five,” Vahidi said. Fars said that her father “insists that his daughter had no history of illness and was in great condition.”
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