In Iran, Woman’s Death After Arrest by the Morality Police Triggers Outrage

Mahsa Amini was detained for allegedly violating dress rules. Her suspicious death, publicized by social media, has led to protests and condemnations by prominent Iranians.

In Iran, Woman’s Death After Arrest by the Morality Police Triggers Outrage

New York Times-Sept 17th 2022

Mahsa Amini was detained for allegedly violating dress rules. Her suspicious death, publicized by social media, has led to protests and condemnations by prominent Iranians.

By Farnaz Fassihi

Published Sept. 16, 2022Updated Sept. 17, 2022, 9:14 a.m. ET

The death on Friday of a 22-year-old woman in Iran after she was detained by the morality police has fanned new outrage over the government’s stringent efforts to enforce its hijab law, which mandates covered hair and loosefitting robes for women.

The woman, Mahsa Amini, who also went by the name Jina, was detained on the streets of Tehran on Tuesday while visiting the capital with her family from the city of Saqiz in Kurdistan province, according to news reports. Iran’s mandatory hijab law, which went into effect in 1981 after the Islamic revolution, has long been challenged by many women, and in recent years some have appeared in public without the required scarf and robe.

But that can be risky: Morality police units arbitrarily enforce the rules, and their tactics range from verbal notices, to monetary fines, to violently dragging women into vans for detention.

The police did not offer an explanation for why Ms. Amini was detained, other than that it involved the hijab rule. Her mother said in an interview with Iranian news media that her daughter was observing the rules and wearing a long, loose robe. She said Ms. Amini was arrested as she exited the subway with her brother, and that his pleas that they were visitors to the city were ignored.

“They have to explain for what crime, for what reason did they do this?” her mother said, adding that security forces had swarmed the hospital and ordered the family not to speak out. “I am her mother and I am dying from grief.”

Iran’s security forces issued a statement claiming Ms. Amini had suddenly collapsed from a heart attack at the detention center, while receiving educational training on hijab rules. Her family disputed this claim, saying she was perfectly healthy before her arrest, according to news reports.

Her brother, Kiarash Amini, said he was waiting outside the detention center on the day of her arrest when he heard screaming from inside. An ambulance arrived and a witness coming out of the center told him security forces had killed a young woman inside, according to local news media.

Ms. Amini was taken from the detention facility by ambulance to a hospital shortly after her arrest and went into a coma there but was kept on machines, the outlets reported.