Mahsa Amini was traveling with her family from Iran’s western province of Kurdistan to the capital, Tehran, to visit relatives when she was allegedly arrested for not following the country’s strict rules on women’s dress. Witnesses said Amini was beaten in the police van, a claim police deny. The news comes weeks after Iran’s hardline president Ebrahim Raisi ordered a crackdown on women’s rights and called for stricter enforcement of the country’s mandatory dress code, which has required all women to wear the headscarf since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. . Amini’s family was informed that she had been taken to the hospital a few hours after her arrest. He was taken to the intensive care unit at Kasra Hospital. According to Hrana, an Iranian human rights group, Amini’s family was told upon her arrest that she would be released after a “re-education session”. Mahsa Amini in a coma before she died. At the time of her arrest, her family was told that she would be released after a “re-education session”. Photo: Twitter Police later said Amini had suffered a heart attack. Amini’s family disputed this, however, and said she was healthy and not facing any health problems. Amini was in a coma after arriving at the hospital, her family said, adding that they were told by hospital staff that she was brain dead. Photos of Amini lying in a hospital bed in a coma with bandages around her head and breathing tubes have circulated on social media. Her hospitalization and death drew condemnation from Iranian celebrities and politicians. Mahmoud Sadeki, a reformist politician and former parliamentarian, called on the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to speak openly about Amini’s case. “What does the supreme leader, who rightly denounced the US police for the death of George Floyd, say about the Iranian police’s treatment of Mahsa Amini?” Sadeghi tweeted on Friday. The interior ministry and Tehran’s public prosecutor launched investigations into the case on Raishi’s orders, state media reported. Raisi signed a decree on Aug. 15 restricting women’s dress and setting tougher penalties for violating the strict code, both in public and online. Women have been arrested across the country following the national “hijab and chastity day” declared on July 12. One of the women was Sepideh Rashno, a writer and artist who was allegedly beaten and tortured in custody before being forced to apologize on television. Human rights groups reported that additional security forces have been deployed outside Kasra Hospital.
