Protests After Iranian Woman Arrested by Morality Police Dies in Custody

Protests broke out in western Iran at the funeral of a woman who was detained by the country’s morality police for not wearing her hijab properly. Also on Saturday, protesters gathered in the woman’s hometown of Saqiz, in Kurdistan province, where female protesters removed their hijabs, according to reports. Other protesters threw rocks and tires at Iranian police, who responded with tear gas. The woman, Mahsa Amini, who also went by the name Jina, was detained in Tehran on Tuesday while visiting with her family. She was arrested while exiting the subway with her brother. The woman’s mother told the New York Times that she was wearing a long and loose robe that conformed to modesty rules.

Amini died on Friday in a hospital in Tehran. Iran’s security forces said in a statement that she had a heart attack in the detention center on the day of her arrest, where she was being trained in the proper rules of wearing a hijab. She remained in a coma for several days. A photo of Amini showing her lying in a hospital bed unconscious showed that she was bruised around her eyes and was bleeding from her ear. Her family says she is healthy and did not have a heart condition.

Iran imposed Islamic law after the 1979 revolution, which requires women to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes in public. Women who do not abide by the laws can be arrested or fined.