Angry protests have erupted in Iran over the death of a 22-year-old woman who died after being arrested by Iran's "morality police" for not wearing her hijab "properly".
At the funeral of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, women reportedly removed their hijab as a mark of protest against the action of the police which led to Amini's death. BBC quoted eyewitnesses saying that Amini was beaten by the police in van in Tehran. However, the police denied the allegations.
Here is what happened last week in Iran that led to Amini's death which triggered protests there:
What happened?
Amini was arrested by Iran's Morality Police early last week for not wearing her hijab properly. Iran's sharia, or Islamic law, obligates women to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes. Defaulters are punished with fines, arrests, and even public rebuke.
Eyewitnesses said Amini was beaten by the cops in a police van. She slipped into coma and died on Friday. However, police have denied the charge and have said that she died after falling ill while she waited with other detained women. Her family has said that she was a healthy woman with no existing health condition that could have led to her sudden death as claimed by the police.
According to reports, Amini was travelling with her family to Tehran to visit relatives there when she was arrested over hijab rules. Hours after her arrest, her family was informed that she had been taken to the intensive-care unit of Kasra hospital.
An Iranian human rights organisation reportedly said that Amini's family was told she would be released after a "re-education session" when she was being arrested.
The incident has rekindled the debate on rights and the code of conduct for women in Iran. Activists are up in arms against the rules that threaten the lives of Irani women.
How are the women protesting?
While there have been protests in Amini's hometown, Saqez, in the western province of Kurdistan, the women have taken to social media where they are posting videos of them cutting their hair and setting their headscarves afire.
According to reports, mourners at her funeral were fired upon by the security personnel after they tried marching toward the local governor's office to protest Amini's death. While there has been no official word on the exact number of injuries during the protest, Behzad Rahimi, a member of parliament for Iranian city of Saqez, was quoted by the semi-official ILNA news agency saying that a few people suffered injuries at the funeral. "One of them was hospitalised in the Saqez Hospital after being hit in the intestines by ballbearings," he was quoted as saying.
President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran has ordered a probe into the death.
What is Iran's morality police?
Gast-e Ersad is the religious police in the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, established in 2005.Iran had had such forces earlier too, but had become defunct at that time. The police force was introduced to reinforce the Islamic code of conduct for issues like dressing, especially the hijab for women. This police force also keeps a check on public and prevents the mingling of unrelated men and women. There has been opposition to this idea of policing by women in urban areas of Iran.
