New Iran protests death of woman after ‘morality police’ arrest

New Iran protests death of woman after ‘morality police’ arrest

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Fresh protests erupted in Iran on Monday over the death of a young woman detained by “morality police,” who enforce a strict dress code, local media reported.

Public anger has been growing since authorities announced on Friday the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in a hospital after three days in a coma after she was arrested by Tehran’s Morality Police during a visit to the capital on September 13 .

According to the Fars and Tasnim news agencies, demonstrations took place in Tehran, including at several universities, and in the second largest city, Mashhad.

Protesters marched down Hijab Street – or “headscarf street” – in central Tehran, condemning the vice squad, ISNA news agency reported.

“Several hundred people chanted slogans against the authorities, some of them taking off their hijab,” Fars said, adding that “the police arrested several people and dispersed the crowd with batons and tear gas.”

A short video released by Fars showed a crowd of several dozen people, including women, who had removed their headscarves and shouted “Death to the Islamic Republic!”

A “similar gathering” was held in the northeastern city of Mashhad, Tasnim agency reported.

On Sunday, police in Kurdistan, the dead woman’s home province, made arrests and fired tear gas where around 500 people protested, smashing some car windows and setting garbage cans on fire, reports said.

– Fury –

The morality police in the Islamic Republic enforce a dress code that requires women to wear headscarves in public.

It also bans tight pants, ripped jeans, clothing that exposes the knees, and brightly colored outfits.

Police have insisted there was “no physical contact” between officers and the victim.

Tehran’s police chief, Gen. Hossein Rahimi, said Monday the woman broke the dress code and his colleagues asked her relatives to bring her “decent clothes”.

He again denied “unjustified allegations against the police” and said “the evidence shows that there was no negligence or improper conduct on the part of the police”.

“This is an unfortunate incident and we never wish to see such incidents again.”

According to Fars and Tasnim news agencies, students at Tehran and Shahid Beheshti universities rallied and demanded “clarification” on how Amini died.

A spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Amini’s “unacceptable” death was a “killing” following the injuries she sustained in police custody.

The perpetrators must be held accountable and the Iranian authorities must respect the rights of their citizens, the spokesman added in a statement.

France said her death was “deeply shocking” and called for a “transparent investigation… to shed light on the circumstances of this tragedy”.

Amini’s death has reignited calls for a curb on moral policing of women suspected of violating the dress code that has been in place since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Filmmakers, artists, athletes, and political and religious figures have taken to social media to vent their anger.

President Ebrahim Raisi, an ultra-conservative former justice chief who came to power last year, has ordered an inquest into Amini’s death.

– Desperate Father –

State television aired a short surveillance video on Friday showing a woman identified as Amini collapsing after an argument with a female police officer at the police station.

Amjad Amini, the victim’s father, told Fars that he “didn’t accept what[the police]showed him,” arguing that “the film was cut.”

He also criticized the “slow response” from the emergency services, adding: “I think Mahsa was taken to the hospital late.”

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Saturday he had received reports that emergency services had arrived at the scene “immediately”.

“Mahsa appears to have had previous physical problems and we have reports that she underwent brain surgery when she was five years old,” Vahidi said.

However, her father “is adamant that his daughter had no illness and was in excellent health,” Fars said.

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