Woman, 22, dies after being ‘beaten into a coma by Iran’s feared morality police’ for ‘wearing hijab wrongly’
A YOUNG woman has been beaten to death by Iran's morality police for failing to comply with the country's strict hijab rules, it has been alleged.
Mahsa Amini, 22, was declared brain dead after she was reportedly beaten into a coma by the police on on Tuesday.
The young woman had travelled from the western province of Kurdistan to see relatives in the capital Tehran.
According to the Iranian police, Mahsa did not follow the rules, which legally require women in Iran to wear a hijab.
Independent Iranian media outlet Iranwire reported police took Mahsa off the street earlier that night before she was allegedly beaten up at a station, where many women were held, on Vozara Avenue.
Citing eyewitnesses, other media reports, meanwhile, claimed that Mahsa was arrested and beaten inside the morality police van while being taken away to a detention centre.
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The young woman's brother, Kiarash Amini, told Iranwire that he was with Mahsa when she was abducted after a morality patrol van blocked their way before officers grabbed Mahsa and forced her inside the vehicle.
The young man alleged the morality police, known as Gasht-e Ershad, told him that they would release Mahsa within an hour after a so-called "re-education class" for "improper hijab", but he heard screaming when he got to the building.
Kiarash alleged some of the detained women fled, and confirmed his worth fears.
"Every one of them said somebody inside had been killed," he is quoted as saying.
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"I showed Mahsa’s picture to the women. One of them said Mahsa was next to her when it happened.
“I was shocked, and terrified. I asked one of the soldiers what had happened. He said ‘One of our own soldiers has been injured.’ He was lying. I didn’t believe him. It was Mahsa in that ambulance. I ran until I reached Kasra Hospital.”
Doctors allegedly told Kiarash that his sister had suffered a stroke or a heart attack.
It was later revealed that the doctors said Mahsa's "brain is no longer conscious".
She died on Friday.
Police in Iran's capital have reportedly denied any wrongdoings and said Mahsa was take to the station for "justification and education", but that the young woman had then "suddenly suffered a heart problem."
This assertion has been rejected by human rights activists.
Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa office reacted: "The circumstances leading to the suspicious death in custody of 22-year-old young woman Mahsa Amini, which include allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in custody, must be criminally investigated."
Kiarash told Iranwire he went to a courthouse to file a complaint.
"I will pursue it. But you know how the system works. They gave me a letter and told me to go to the headquarters in Vozara Avenue to register my complaint there. It’s like asking my father to name the murderer if I killed someone in our house.
“But I won’t allow this to end in silence. I will tell everyone in Iran what happened.”
President Ebrahim Raisi on Friday ordered the interior minister to look into the case.
The case has sparked anger amongst Iranians.
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Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad : "Iranian women are outraged. Forced hijab is the main pillar of religious dictatorship."
Wearing the hijab became mandatory after Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979.
