Violence erupts in Iran after woman dies in ‘morality police’ custody

Riot police arrive to disperse demonstrators. Amini, who was Kurdish, was buried Saturday in her home city of Saqez in western Iran. [AP Photo]

Violence erupts in Iran after woman dies in ‘morality police’ custody

Washington Post – Sept 20th 2022

By Rachel Pannett and Miriam Berger

Security forces cracked down on protesters demonstrating across Iran over the death of a young woman in the custody of its so-called morality police, allegedly killing five.

The death of Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish woman from western Iran, during a visit to the capital last week has stirred outrage over the government’s increasingly strict enforcement of ultraconservative dress codes for women, compulsory since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

The case has drawn worldwide interest and condemnations from the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.

Amini was detained as she exited a metro station, and she suffered a heart attack and slipped into a coma while in custody, state-affiliated media said. Her family insisted that she had no previous health problems. Activists asserted that she may have been beaten by police. Authorities released edited CCTV footage of Amini at the police station, but her family has demanded the release of unaltered footage.

The heightened international scrutiny of Iran’s human rights record comes ahead a speech by its arch-conservative president, Ebrahim Raisi, to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday.

Tuesday was the fourth day of unrest across Iran, with protests in numerous places, including Tehran, the capital. Two people were killed as security forces fired on protesters in the Kurdish city of Saqez — Amini’s hometown — while two more died in the town of Divandarreh and a fifth was killed in Dehgolan, according to Hengaw, a Norway-based rights watchdog. The claims could not immediately be independently verified by The Washington Post.

In Tehran, photos from the scene of one protest showed demonstrators crowded around a burning motorcycle. Videos posted on social media appeared to show protesters injured after clashing with authorities. Internet access was restricted in parts of the country.

Other images showed protesters burning headscarves and shouting slogans attacking Iran’s supreme leader. Some used Amini’s Kurdish first name, Jhina, in a reference to discrimination Kurds face in Iran.

Iran hasn’t confirmed any deaths during the protests. The semiofficial Fars News Agency reported that security forces dispersed demonstrators in a number of cities, and that police arrested the leaders of some of the protests.