A 22-year Iranian woman died after being arrested by Gasht-e-Arshad, the infamous Iranian morality police on grounds of breach of dress code. The young woman was arrested on grounds of “hijab” indecency and fell into a coma shortly after the arrest.
Gasht-e-Arshad
The 22-year young woman, Mahsa Amini was visiting the Iranian capital of Tehran with her family when she was arrested by the Iranian morality police supported by the extremist leaders of Iran. The ground of arrest was the improper wearing of headscarves which for many years has been a topic of protest in modern-day Iran and international experts. In 2017 there was a landmark action taken by the Iranian women where all of them removed their headscarves to defy the “cruel” dress laws they are suppressed with. With the support of the rights activists in Iran, these women, with their actions proved that they are no more willing to dance to the tunes of the law, but their actions also called for stricter law enforcement to curb the protests and maintain the beliefs of the extremists about code of morality for women. The 22-year Amini’s fall into a coma a few hours after her detention has called for many “conspiracies” and clash of opinions in and out of the country. on one hand, the state of Iran has declared that the health condition of Amini was already questionable when she was taken for arrest. The state also claimed that the young girl was not physically harmed and suffered from heart conditions. The state revealed CCTV footage showing a young girl who they identified as Amini falling unconscious after getting up from her seat at the Tehran police station. But such claims have been denied by Amini’s family. But many international Organizations like Reuters and Amnesty International were not convinced about the footage and questioned its authenticity. The sect of hard political believers had previously argued about the social importance of a dress code like this for women and how the moral sphere of the society is affected if the rules are not followed by women, this is considered “shameful” in the society then. Despite the protests and some of the protest leaders publicly denouncing such cruel measures the judiciary in recent years has been seen to encourage the reporting of women who defy the dress rules and don’t wear hijab in public.
Not The First Time
This is definitely not the first time in Iran that a woman has been unfairly arrested on grounds of dress appropriation. Previously IRGC officials had arrested another woman, Sepideh Rashno after she was reported by another woman for not wearing a hijab. After some time she was seen on national television delivering a “confession” which called for severe protests after viewers noticed the evident bruise around her eye. She had also been admitted to the hospital without letting the reporters capture a picture of her condition as she was surrounded by the agents. This again called for conspiracy theories and convinced the public about the torture hurled at her. there was also a video that went viral some time ago where a mother pleading for the release of her daughter touched many hearts after her young daughter was arrested by the morality police
Iran reacts
The arrest and death of Amini have now called for many international statements denouncing the incident. Amnesty International and the statements of the US special envoy for Iran, Malley, have called for increasing international attention on this issue. Both have made it clear that they look forward to a detailed criminal investigation on this matter and the rightful conviction of the criminals. Not only the international bodies but also the pro-reform former president, Khatami has called the incident a national “disaster”. Many have started questioning the stand of Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, in this case. Not only the lawmakers and the leaders, Iran in the past few days have seen protests and pro-reform comments and posts from Iranian celebrities and sportspersons. Footballers, Karimi and Mahin have come up to their social media platforms to raise a voice against this issue when the former stated “our children are dying” in his recent tweet whereas the latter wrote “we hate you” addressing the morality police.
The rising roars of protests and new faces rallying for change have been rapidly increasing over the past years, but the continuation of heinous arrests and incidents still rises a question about the success of the protests. Will Iran be able to free itself and its women from the shackles of strict codes and repression anytime soon or will it continue to curb public voice, that becomes the question of the hour.
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