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Newspaper reports about Mahsa Amini: Who is responsible for her death?
Photo: ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH / EPA
The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iranian police custody has sparked international outrage.
Now the US is stepping in – and demanding an explanation.
The young woman was arrested by the moral and religious police on Tuesday during a family visit in Tehran because of her "un-Islamic" outfit and taken to a police station.
According to the police, she fainted there due to heart failure and then went into a coma.
Her death was confirmed on Friday.
A spokesman for the US National Security Council said Amini's death was "an appalling and outrageous affront to human rights".
The Security Council condemned the arrest of the 22-year-old.
“Women in Iran should have the right to wear what they want, free from violence or harassment.
Iran must stop using violence against women who exercise their fundamental freedoms," the spokesman said. "Mahsa's death must be accounted for."
protests in Tehran
In Iran, meanwhile, many people took to the streets to express their anger at the death of the woman.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in several places in the capital, Tehran. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Keshawar's central boulevard alone on Monday evening, according to the Iranian news agency Fars.
The police sometimes used water cannons and batons against the crowds.
Demonstrators are said to have set garbage cans on fire and thrown stones.
However, the majority of the protests were peaceful.
According to eyewitnesses, the police and security forces in the city were out in force on the streets.
According to eyewitnesses, there were crowds of people in Volkspark Mellat, some of whom shouted slogans critical of the regime.
Several women took off their headscarves in solidarity with Amini.
The protests should also continue in the evening.
In Amini's home province of Kurdistan, too, a number of people took to the streets again.
According to media reports, there were also clashes between security forces and demonstrators.
According to unconfirmed reports, shots were also fired in the city of Diwandareh.
In addition, videos should show how demonstrators throw stones at security forces.
What really led to Amini's death?
Contrary to the official version, a different account of the events that are said to have led to Amini's death is circulating online.
Mahsa Amini was arrested because a few strands of hair could be seen under her headscarf.
After the arrest, her head was banged against the window in the police car, which led to a cerebral hemorrhage.
After her death, the clinic where the 22-year-old was treated wrote in a now-deleted post on Instagram that Amini was already brain dead when she was admitted on Tuesday.
Police again denied any responsibility for the young woman's death on Monday.
"It's our job by law to remind women of the dress code," said the capital's police chief, Hussein Rahimi, according to the Mehr news agency.
"What you wear at home is your business, but not in public." The woman was not harmed.
Iran has had strict dress codes since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
In the metropolises and wealthier districts in particular, many women now see the rules as rather relaxed – to the annoyance of ultra-conservative politicians.
The government under President Ebrahim Raisi and hardliners in parliament have been trying for months to enforce Islamic laws more strictly.
The vice police sometimes enforce the dress code with violence.
ptz/Reuters/dpa
