Arrest by hijab police leaves woman comatose
Iranians are enraged over the mandatory hijab rules as police deny torture allegations by the victim's brother.
An Iranian woman identified as Mahsa (Zhina) Amini remains in critical condition after being arrested by the "Guidance Patrol," a special police squad in charge of public implementation of Iran's hijab regulations.
The 22-year-old from the Kurdish city of Saghez was reportedly on a family visit to the capital Tehran, where she was accosted by the patrol and taken into detention over lax hijab, according to Iranian media reports. She is currently in an intensive care unit at Tehran's Kasra Hospital.
Her brother Kiarash, who present at the arrest scene, told the London-based Iran Wire outlet that only two hours after her arrest, the news of her hospitalization emerged from released detainees while he waited outside the police station.
"I found her face swollen and her legs black and blue," he said after a hospital visit, suggesting that his sister had suffered torture. "I won't allow this to happen in silence. I will speak out so everyone will hear the story," he declared, while expressing pessimism about justice in a lawsuit he has already filed.
