A 22-year-old Iranian woman died on Friday, days after she was arrested by Iran’s morality police for not following a dress code imposed by the fundamentalist regime, according to reports. BBC. Witnesses say Mahsa Amini was beaten by a police van after being taken off the street in Tehran on Tuesday.
Police deny the allegation and say that Amini “suddenly developed a heart problem”. It is the latest episode in Iranian authorities’ brutality against women, which has become frequent in recent weeks.
Amini’s family said the girl was young and had no medical problems that could explain the sudden heart problems. Relatives said the woman was in hospital hours after her arrest and had been in a coma for days before her death.
Tehran police said Amini was arrested to educate “about the hijab,” the veil that is mandatory for women in Iran and other fundamentalist states.
Amini’s death comes after several recent episodes of repression against women. Women who did not follow Islamic dress codes were denied access to government buildings and banks.
Many Iranians, including those who support the theocratic government, have expressed their outrage on social media over the presence of the morality police in Iran, known as the “guidance patrols,” nicknamed “crime patrols” by Iranians.
Also, many videos of policemen arresting women, dragging them to the ground and loading them into vans and cars have surfaced on social media.
Many Iranians blame the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. An old video clip of him justifying his role as a morale officer is now being re-circulated on social media.
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