A 31-year-old woman who was not wearing the Islamic veil, which is mandatory in Iran, has been left paralysed after being shot in the back by security forces, media reported on Monday. She is Arezou Badri, a mother of two young children, who was shot on 22 July while driving in the town of Nour in the northern province of Mazandaran, after refusing to heed police orders to stop, according to a recent report by BBC Persian, citing an informed source.
Officers tried to stop Badri’s car when they noticed that there was an order to impound the vehicle for not respecting the strict hijab code. The measure has been applied in the country in recent months to enforce the wearing of the Islamic veil. By text message, authorities warn the owners of cars in which an unveiled woman is caught that their car will be impounded. In Badri’s case, officers fired at the vehicle’s tires and then aimed at her, hitting her in the back.
After about 10 days, doctors managed to remove the bullet from his waist, but his lungs and spinal cord were severely damaged, leaving him unable to walk, according to the Iranian human rights organization in exile Iran Human Rights (IHR).
Arezoo Badri, a 31-year-old woman, has lost the ability to walk after police shot her in the back for wearing an “improper” hijab while driving. After about 10 days, doctors successfully removed the bullet, but she has suffered severe damage to her lungs and spinal cord. pic.twitter.com/zDuoY4obN0
—IranHumanRights.org (@ICHRI) August 11, 2024
According to doctors, it is too early to tell whether the woman has been permanently or temporarily paralysed. Badri is currently under strict security measures in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Tehran’s Valiasr Hospital and officers are only allowing her family to visit her for a few minutes, after taking away their mobile phones, to prevent images of the victim from being released.
Since April, Iranian authorities have launched a tough security campaign to enforce the wearing of the Islamic veil on women who had stopped wearing it after the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, in police custody, for not wearing the hijab properly. Amini’s death sparked massive protests, known by their slogan “Women, life, freedom”, across the country. The demonstrations, demanding greater social freedoms and the end of the Islamic Republic, continued for months. Finally, the security forces managed to put down the protests with a crackdown that left around 500 dead.
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A new execution
In addition to the hundreds of deaths, Iran continues to execute those arrested during the social unrest. The latest execution took place last Tuesday in Dizel Abad prison, located in the province of Kermanshah, in the west of the country. Reza Rasaei was sentenced to death on October 7, accused of murdering a Revolutionary Guard intelligence agent, who died “from multiple stab wounds.”
Amnesty International denounced his execution as “arbitrary” and “secret”, as Rasaei’s defence said neither his family nor his lawyer were informed in advance. “The Iranian authorities have carried out the abhorrent, arbitrary execution in secret of a young man who was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment during his detention, including sexual violence, and later sentenced to death in a sham trial,” it claimed. According to the organisation, the trial was “manifestly unfair”, as it was based on confessions “forced under torture and other ill-treatment”.
“This execution once again exposes how deeply corrupt Iran’s criminal justice system is and underscores the Iranian authorities’ determination to use the death penalty as a tool of political repression to instill fear in the population,” Amnesty said.
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