Fri 23 September 2022:
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday it was terrible that Mahsa Amini, 22, died in police custody in Tehran last week after being arrested for wearing “unsuitable attire”.
“I am also saddened by the victims of the Iran protests by courageous women,” Scholz tweeted. “No matter where in the world: women must be able to live in self-determination – without having to fear for their lives.”
The death last week of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who was arrested in Tehran for “unsuitable attire”, has unleashed a wave of anger across Iran, as well as global condemnation.
On Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury sanctioned the country’s “morality police”, as well as seven leaders of Iranian security organisations that it said “routinely employ violence to suppress peaceful protesters and members of Iranian civil society, political dissidents, women’s rights activists, and members of the Iranian Baha’i community”.
“Mahsa Amini was a courageous woman whose death in Morality Police custody was yet another act of brutality by the Iranian regime’s security forces against its own people,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
“We condemn this unconscionable act in the strongest terms and call on the Iranian government to end its violence against women and its ongoing violent crackdown on free expression and assembly.”
UN Human rights experts condemned
UN independent human rights experts on Thursday strongly condemned the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody following her arrest for allegedly failing to comply with Iran’s strict rules on women’s dress, by wearing what authorities said was “an improper hijab”.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Ms Amini,” they said in a statement.
“She is another victim of Iran’s sustained repression and systematic discrimination against women and the imposition of discriminatory dress codes that deprive women of bodily autonomy and the freedoms of opinion, expression and belief”, the experts added.
At least nine protesters have been killed to date, based on statements from Iran’s state run and semi-official media, according to the Associated Press news agency, although activist groups say the death toll is higher. A police officer and two members of a pro-government militia have also been killed.
While there is opposition from many quarters in Iran to how the hijab should be worn, any relaxation of these rules is out of the question for the authorities as it remains core to the theocratic establishment’s ideology. Over the years, a number of women activists publicly protesting the mandatory rules have also been arrested and given prison terms.
But the current protests have been more confrontational in nature. In an effort to weaken the protests, authorities have severely restricted internet access in Tehran and Kurdistan while also blocking Instagram and Whatsapp, the last remaining popular social media platforms that are not censored in Iran. On Friday, authorities organised counterprotests in provinces across the country to promote the religious dress code.
The protests are aimed at countering what officials have called the “recent norm-breaking behaviour”.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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