DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The mother of a 16-year-old Iranian woman has disputed official claims that her daughter died from a tall building and said the teenager was killed by blows to the head as part of a crackdown on government protests. shaking the country. Nasreen Shakarami also said the government kept her daughter Nika’s death secret for nine days and then snatched her morgue frame to bury him in a remote area, against the family’s wishes.
The grieving mother spoke Thursday in a video message to Radio Farda, the Persian-language arm of the U. S. -funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty station. ruling elites in years. Government attempts in recent days to paint the teen’s death as a twist of fate may imply that the incident may fuel anger against the government.
The protests, which will enter their fourth week on Saturday, were triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who is being held by Iran’s vice police. They had arrested Amini for alleged violations of the country’s strict Islamic dress code. Amini’s circle of relatives told CBS News that she was tortured and killed in police custody.
The young women led the protests, tearing themselves off and defiantly waving their headscarves as they called for the overthrow of Iran’s devout Islamic regime.
The protests temporarily spread to communities across Iran and faced severe government repression, adding beatings, arrests and killings of protesters and disruptions. Human rights teams estimate that dozens of protesters have been killed in the past three weeks. On Thursday, London-based Amnesty International published its findings on what appears to be the deadliest incident to date, in the town of Zahedan on 30 September. The report said Iranian security forces killed at least 66 other people, including children, and wounded hundreds, after firing live ammunition at protesters. , passers-by and faithful in a violent repression that day. The Iranian government claimed Zahedan’s violence involved anonymous separatists. More than a dozen people have since been killed in the region, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Nika Shakarami’s mother has opposed attempts by authorities to consider her daughter’s death an accident. In his video message, he said the coroner’s report showed Nika died from repeated blows to the head. Nika’s body was intact, but some of her teeth, facial bones and part of the back of her skull were broken, he said. “The pain was in the head,” he said. His body was intact, arms and legs. “Earlier this week, Iran’s police chief, Gen. Hossein Ashtari, claimed the teenager went to a construction site “and fell off the demonstrations on top. “He said “falling from that height resulted in his death. “Nasreen Shakarami said her daughter left her home in Tehran on the afternoon of September 19 to sign up for the hijab protests. He said he was in phone contact with Nika several times over the next few hours, begging her to come home. They spoke for the last time before midnight.
“Then Nika’s mobile phone went off, after she and her friends shouted force names as they fled,” he said. days. Despite everything, the authorities passed over the frame on the 10th and the circle of relatives went to the city of Khoramabad to bury him, he said. The government continually demanded ownership of the mark, which in the meantime had been stored in the Khoramabad morgue. On the day of the planned funeral, the circle of relatives learned that the frame had been torn from the morgue and taken to a remote village for burial under tight security, Nasreen Shakarami said.
Since the confirmation of his death, Nika has established himself as another icon of the protests, along with Amini. A photo of Nika, wearing a black T-shirt and sporting a sublime two-tone bob haircut and eyeliner, circulated widely on social media. Authorities arrested Nasreen Shakarami’s brother and sister. The sister, Atash, later told Iranian television that her niece had fallen from a tall building. Nika’s mother said she believed her siblings had been stressed to echo the official version. Iran has a long history of spreading forced confessions.
Also on Friday, the official IRNA news firm quoted the coroner as saying tests had revealed Mahsa Amini had died of cerebral hypoxia, in which the source of oxygen to the brain decreases. He said he suffered from multi-organ failure, but still “His death was not caused by blunt trauma to the head, organs and important parts of the body. “He said Amini suffered from cardiac arrhythmia, hypotension and loss of consciousness before being taken to the hospital. Amini’s circle of relatives has already questioned official accounts of his daughter’s death and cause while in police custody. Family members said Mahsa Amini’s body showed apparent symptoms of bruising and beatings.