On Monday, the family members of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in Iranian moral police custody three weeks ago, said that they are receiving death threats from the Iranian government for participating in the protest against hijab laws. They are also being warned not to get involved in the demonstrations against the mandatory hijab laws.
“Our family has been under immense pressure from the Islamic Republic’s officials, so we don’t talk to human rights organisations or channels outside of Iran and inform anyone from the outside world about her passing”, said Erfan Mortezai, cousin of Mahsa.
According to the reports, Mortezai is a Peshmerga soldier for Komala, an exiled Iranian Kurdish opposition organization based in Iraq, which Iran accuses of separatism. The Amini family in Iran, on the other hand, has frequently denied backing Kurdish separatist organizations. Mortezai identifies his late cousin as Zhina, the name her loved ones gave her. Her parents were obliged to use Mahsa as her official Iranian name on papers since some Kurdish names are illegal in Iran.
“Zhina was a normal person, she was not political. The regime has been making up scenarios and disinformation – saying that Zhina was in contact with me and I taught her and sent her back to Iran to do a certain activity, when in fact this is completely baseless,” Mortezai said.
He said that regime authorities in Iran had threatened him and Mahsa’s family on Instagram, using bogus identities to warn them that they would be killed if they participated in the protests. “Myself, I have been receiving many threats over the phone, that if they see me in the city, they will kidnap me and kill me,” he added.
Mahsa Amini’s custodial death sparks anti-hijab protests across Iran
According to the reports, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was abducted by the ‘morality police’ in Tehran for not complying with the mandatory hijab laws of the country. Amini who was on a pleasure trip to Tehran had not covered her hair properly in the hijab. She was arrested by the police and then beaten in the police van while being taken to a detention centre, dubbed as a ‘re-education class’ for not conforming to the country’s mandatory hijab rules.
The police took the woman to the police station on Vozara Avenue where already dozens of other women were being held for not following the hijab rules. They beat the women and schooled them about the proper dress rules of the country. Mahsa was brutally beaten and taken to the hospital after she stopped responding in the custody. The doctors at the hospital stated that her heart continued to beat but her brain was no longer functioning. The woman breathed her last three days after the incident.
Her killing sparked massive protests in Iran, with women taking to the streets to up raise their voices against the regime. Several ladies including school-going girls burnt their hijabs in sympathy with the tragedy, while women all throughout the world trimmed their hair in the protest. Protests erupted in dozens of places around the country in the aftermath of her death after which the government retaliated with a harsh crackdown.
However, three weeks after the death of Amini, Iran’s Forensic Organisation revealed a report stating that the woman had died due to illness and not due to blows and beatings given to her in police custody. Earlier, the Police had also tried to cover up the matter claiming that Mahsa was already suffering from a heart problem and that she was never beaten in the custody.
