In the hours following her detention by morality police for allegedly violating the hijab rules, Mahsa Amini, 22, went into a coma.
Her beating by officers was witnessed by the public, however, Police Brig-Gen Hossein Rahimi refuted these “cowardly charges.”
After three days in a coma, Ms. Amini, an ethnic Kurd from the western city of Saqez in the Kurdistan province, passed away at a hospital on Friday.
She was taken into custody by morality police on Tuesday in Tehran outside of a metro station. They charged her with disobeying the legislation mandating that women cover their arms and legs with loose clothing and their hair with a hijab.
Witnesses claim she was assaulted inside the police van transporting her to the detention centre.
She allegedly experienced “sudden heart failure” while waiting with other women at the institution to be “educated,” according to the police, who dismissed the accusation.
Elif Shafak, a Turkish author of numerous works including forty rules of love, expressed his sorrow for Ms. Amini’s passing by saying:
” #MahsaAmini She had just turned 22. She was detained by Iran’s “morality police” for “not properly donning a headscarf,” and after being tortured so badly that she fell into a coma, she eventually died. My chest aches. Sister. My heart is overflowing with grief, sadness, and rage.”
In the CCTV footage, they published, a woman they described as Ms. Amini was conversing with a female official when she was being grabbed by her clothing. She then collapses to the ground while holding her head with her hands.
