Three days after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, people took to the streets in several Iranian cities. In the capital Tehran, students gathered in front of the university on Monday to express their anger and sadness, the daily newspaper “Sharg” reported. The protests were triggered by the death of the young woman, who fell into a coma on Tuesday after being arrested by the religious police and died in a hospital on Friday.
In Iran and internationally, the case had triggered great sympathy and dismay. On the Internet, many Iranians mourned the young woman who was arrested by the moral and religious police on Tuesday during a family visit in Tehran because of her “un-Islamic” outfit and taken to a police station.
According to the police, she fainted and then fell into a coma due to heart failure. Her death was confirmed on Friday.
However, another version was also circulating online. Mahsa Amini was arrested because her headscarf didn’t fit properly and a few strands of hair were showing. After the arrest, her head was banged against the window in the police car, causing a cerebral hemorrhage.
The police vehemently denied this account. After her death, the clinic where the 22-year-old was treated wrote on a post on Instagram that has since been deleted that Amini was already brain dead when she was admitted on Tuesday.
Police again denied any responsibility for the death on Monday. The allegations are “baseless,” said the capital’s police chief, Hussein Rahimi, according to the news agency Mehr. The police are always trying to ensure that such cases do not occur, said Rahimi. “It is our job by law to remind women of the dress code,” said the police chief. “What they wear at home is their business, but not in public.” However, they did not harm the woman’s hair, assured Rahimi.
The police and the government of President Ebrahim Raisi have been at a loss for explanations since the woman’s death and the nationwide criticism. The police tried to prove her innocence with several unverifiable video recordings. The conservative newspaper Keyhan, which is considered the voice of hardliners, and other politicians in the government supported the version. They accuse the critics of wanting to stir up trouble against the Islamic Republic and spread lies. At the same time, Raisi ordered the case to be thoroughly examined.
Prominent Iranian women joined the protest on the Internet out of solidarity, for example by cutting off their hair or publishing pictures without a headscarf. Among them were well-known actresses Anahita Hemmati and Schabnam Farschaddschu.
Iran has had strict dress codes since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In the metropolises and wealthier districts in particular, many women now see the rules as rather relaxed – to the annoyance of ultra-conservative politicians. The government under President Ebrahim Raisi and hardliners in parliament have been trying for months to enforce Islamic laws more strictly. The vice police sometimes enforce the dress code with violence.
